Harvest season possible for eelpout, a fish on the rise Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune Pity the eelpout no more. There was a time when this unsightly fish — prone to wrapping itself around an angler's arm — would likely be beaten and tossed on lake ice as fodder for ravens. For 40 years, Minnesota winters were accented by the spirited Eelpout Festival on Leech Lake. The mottled yellow and brown fish would be frozen into "bowling balls" or hung from ropes for contestants to shoot at with hockey pucks. Nicknamed in various parts of North America as ling, lawyer, cusk or mud shark — the once-lowly burbot is being elevated in Minnesota from unprotected rough fish to game fish. The new designation arrived in March of 2020 as approved by the state Legislature.