Incredible Burbot Video
Our caretaker Chris shot this amazing video at the lodge this Fall. Ganglers experienced a late freeze up and no snow in late October. We then had freezing temperatures with zero precipitation for a few days. This ended up freezing large areas of the lake including our back bay. With no snow on top of it, the ice was crystal clear, something we had never encountered before. One day, Chris came down to the back bay with perfect sunny conditions. He then noticed the back bay was full of burbot- normally a deep water fish- swimming in the extreme shallows of the bay. The setting was perfect and Chris captured several snippets of rare video with burbot swimming along the sandy bottom under the crystal clear ice. We are sure you will enjoy this rare footage!
What the Heck is a Burbot?
The burbot (Lota lota) is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. It is also known as bubbot, mariah, maria, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, and eelpout. The species is closely related to the marine common ling and the cusk. It is the only member of the genus Lota. For some time of the year, the burbot lives under ice, and it requires frigid temperatures to breed. It generally prefers deep water habitat and is sometimes caught while jigging for lake trout . Burbot are considered a delicacy and many call it ‘Poorman’s lobster’ when boiled and served with drawn butter. Some Canadian towns actually host winter burbot tournaments. The IGFA recognizes the world-record burbot as caught on Lake Diefenbaker, Saskatchewan, Canada, by Sean Konrad on 27 March 2010. The fish weighed 25 lb 2 oz (11.4 kg).
The burbot is a tenacious predator, which sometimes attacks other fish of almost the same size, and as such, can be a nuisance fish in waters where it is not native. Recent discoveries of burbot in the Green River at Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah have concerned wildlife biologists, who fear the burbot could decimate the sport-fish population in what is recognized as one of the world’s top brown trout fisheries, because it often feeds on the eggs of other fish in the lake, such as sockeye salmon. The Utah Division of Fish and Game has instituted a “no release” “catch and kill” regulation for the burbot in Utah waterways. However, the regulations have been found to be largely unenforceable.
Maria Lake, home to Gangler’s Maria Lake mini-lodge, is actually named after this fish, not a person. Funny story- Burbot have the ability to wrap their bodies like a snake around an unsuspecting angler’s arm or leg. We know of not one but TWO of our guests who ended up in a screaming fit when the burbot suddenly wrapped around their arms while taking a photo.
Information provided by: Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, December 13). Burbot. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbot
