You can’t call a beautiful burbot, on the contrary. From ancient times, its extremely unpresentable appearance frightened the people, and if the fish were accidentally caught, they were fed to dogs. Then people figured out that under the slippery greenish skin was delicious dietary meat and healthy liver.
We will tell you what this valuable commercial fish looks like, where and when the largest burbot was caught, where to go to break the record. And to start with a couple of fishing tales, where without them?
Ural legends about burbot
Our people do not like everything slippery, lumpy and clumsy, to take the same catfish, which they called the "devil horse". Burbot did not receive a personal nickname, but legends go about his vitality in the Urals. They say that the filling from whole gutted burbot crawls out of the pie in the Russian oven itself, lies down at about 30 centimeters and is quietly baked there. In fairness, we note that the largest burbot does not fit in the stove, and young fish are great for pie.
Another story gives the burbot an amazing ability to crawl from a river into a field on an early foggy morning and stick to the udder of grazing cows. And if you have to crawl past a dead animal, burbot will not miss the opportunity to enjoy carrion.
Each bike has a grain of truth. Nalim are really extremely gluttonous, especially in the autumn before spawning, and can eat water carrion, and when caught in a common net, they continue to hunt small fish there. Previously, burbots were squeamishly thrown out of the nets, and today every fisherman knows this fish and considers it a desirable prey.
What does burbot look like
Despite the fact that this fish belongs to the cod family, burbot is not particularly similar to its closest relatives. It can be distinguished by a number of characteristic features:
- strongly elongated, slippery body with small scales, rounded in front and compressed from the sides closer to the tail;
- a wide, flattened head with a large mouth and small eyes;
- paired mustache on the upper jaw and one long mustache on the chin;
- brownish, olive or dark gray color of the back, light belly, the whole body is covered with a spotty pattern.
Like all codfish, burbot is not particularly large in size. The average length of adult fish is about 40 cm with a mass of 2 kg. The largest burbot caught, the dimensions of which are officially confirmed, had a length of 120 cm. The weight of the record holder was 29 kg 970 g.
Where is burbot found?
This fish lives in the cold rivers of Eurasia and North America, as well as in lakes of northern latitudes.
Previously, the range of burbot was extremely extensive, but today they are extremely rare in Germany, Austria and France, completely disappeared from the reservoirs of Great Britain, Ireland and Belgium. In the countries of Scandinavia, burbot is quite common, although its numbers are decreasing in places. But the fishermen of Russia get burbot in all reservoirs of the temperate and arctic zones, and the inhabitants of Siberia can boast the largest catch.
The largest burbot in the world was caught just in the Norilka river basin in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The fisherman V. Kopylov turned out to be the owner of the rare trophy, and since 1967 it was not possible to repeat the Siberian record.
Habitat and burbot sizes
The only cod fish found in fresh waters is burbot. Representatives of sedentary populations, constantly living in stagnant water bodies, are the smallest and slowly growing, and large burbots of a semi-aisle form are found in rivers, for example, in the Lena and Ob. The size of the burbot depends on the temperature of the water: the colder the river, the higher the chances of catching large fish.
Although the largest weight of burbot is almost 30 kg, Siberian old-timers claim that they caught fish weighing 34 kg and a length of 180 cm. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of the truth of this data, so when going fishing, do not forget the scales, tape measure and camera.
Where to look for burbot
These fish are extremely demanding on the quality of water and soil, so pollution of rivers and lakes has caused the species to disappear in many areas of the range.
Burbot lives best in clean slow-flowing rivers with water t from 0 to +10 ° . They avoid shallow water, like depths of 3 m, clay or rocky bottom with various shelters. By the way, the biggest burbot fish was caught in ideal conditions. The Norilka River is covered with ice already in late September, and the movement of water transport resumes only in mid-June.
At t of water from +14 ° C, burbot become sluggish, lose their appetite and hide in bottom shelters, so in the summer it does not make sense to rely on a rich catch. Another thing is off-season and especially winter. The best time to catch burbot is autumn during feeding season or from December, when these fish spawn.
Experienced fishermen recommend using the following as bait:
- ruff or crucian carp;
- large worms: live or silicone;
- strips of lard;
- frozen shrimp;
- pieces of foam, slightly soaked in fir oil;
- albumin based bait.
The best places for burbot biting are steep river banks and rocky embankments. The optimal time is from dusk to dawn, because burbot does not like daylight. And according to the observations of the famous Russian zoologist L.P. Sabaneev, it will not hurt to make bonfires on the shore: for some reason, the light in the night attracts burbots very much. And of course, the rod should be tough and durable, suddenly you will come across the biggest burbot in the history of fishing! The main thing - do not forget to document the trophy before the fish goes to the table.
The benefits and calories of burbot meat
If you can catch burbot for the future, you will provide the family with a valuable dietary product, useful for young and old, pregnant women and everyone who cares about their health and figure.
100 g of burbot meat contains only 90 kcal, and there are no carbohydrates at all. Even in the composition of meat, a high content of vitamin B1 was found, and of the useful trace elements, iron and 7 amino acids essential for the body. To taste, burbot meat resembles lobster.
But the liver of this fish is very fat and satisfying. Its calorie content is 613 kcal / 100g, and among the useful components it is worth noting vitamins D, A, PP, C, E, B9 and a whole complex of minerals that improve cerebral circulation, vision and immunity.
Under favorable conditions, these fish live up to 24 years, and it is likely that somewhere in the depths of the Siberian rivers the biggest burbot, which can become exactly your record trophy, is walking around.