Burbot fish

Burbot fish

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Burbot it's a secret of the deep. Roger Phillips, Fish and game communication expert sent out some information about a burbot research and conservation efforts and somewhere in the back of my pea brain I had remembered something about burbots, but not much. I don't mind telling you this because I have asked several of my Friends who are fishing nuts and they aren't too sure about what they are either. So I called Roger to ask a little bit more about this elusive Fish.

Tell me about the burbot itself. I understand it's the closest thing to a saltwater ling cod.

: Yeah. It's a really interesting and unique fish because it's the only freshwater member of the cod family. So there is some direct lineage there and they call it a freshwater ling. It's just kind of this odd dock of a fish where kind of like in some ways like a catfish. This but they tend to be in pretty cold water and trying to hang out where nobody can really find them. But then in winter which is their spawning season so they get pretty active under the ice and they start kind of congregating like fish do and then they present a pretty good fishing opportunity. They can be in a little bit shallower water. From what I understand they're extremely tasty too. And they also fish for these things up in Alaska.

They are nocturnal fish. Yeah. That's when they're most active at those low light conditions.

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