Angler reels in ‘rare,’ record-breaking fish at Indiana lake. Then he caught another

A fisherman in Indiana reeled in a “rare,” record-breaking catch but didn’t think much about the fish — until he caught another one.

Scott Skafar set out on Lake Michigan from a marina in Portage, Indiana, on New Year’s Eve, he told McClatchy News on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

After fishing for a while, he reeled in a burbot. Burbot are a type of freshwater cod fish that look like “a cross between a catfish and an eel,” according to the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.

“The first one, I really didn’t think nothing of it,” Skafar said of the first burbot, “just kind of caught the fish and we put it in the live well for a while.”

Then he snagged another burbot. Looking at the second fish, he thought, “Wow, these are really, really big burbot!” He looked up the state record, “you know, for the heck of it,” then weighed his catch on a handheld scale.

“Holy cow,” Skafar said. “This is above the record.”

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the record-holding burbot was 7 pounds, 11 ounces, caught on Lake Michigan by Larry Malicki in 1990.

Skafar’s first burbot weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces, he said. His second fish weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces, photos show.

“How did I get two of them bigger than the current record?” Skafar asked. Initially, he thought the official weighing and submission process was too much trouble for a holiday weekend when he wanted to “just keep fishing,” but a friend convinced him otherwise.

With help from a friend, Skafar took the fish to a grocery store and weighed them on a certified scale with a designated number of witnesses, photographed the process, froze them and officially submitted his catch to the DNR.

The Indiana DNR did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment. However, Skafar said the department told him it had everything necessary to certify his state record, “congratulations!”

For Skafar, setting a new state record “definitely is rewarding,” he said. “I’ve been fishing all my life and it never dawned on me that I would catch a state record burbot ‘cause it’s kind of a rare fish.”

Burbot stay in cold, deep waters and only come near the shore of Lake Michigan during the winter, Skafar explained.

“Being an avid fisherman my entire life – and I fish for every species – it’s exciting to me,” he said, “but it seems like the people around me, family and friends, they’re almost more excited than I am.

“Now that I know that there’s several of (burbot) out there, I’m kind of eager to see if I can break my own record,” Skafar said. “I feel that now that the ball is rolling … (the record) is gonna be broken a lot quicker now.”

Portage is about 155 miles northwest of Indianapolis and about 40 miles southeast of Chicago, Illinois, across the state border.

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