Anyone ever see burbot right under the ice?

[AlbertanGP]

Last Saturday morning while everyone else was at Cold Lake, I was sitting on a suspected burbot spawning area I've been monitoring the past couple of weeks. I haven't seen any rolling balls of spawners yet, but I have caught fish every time out...so it's coming. :)

I was fishing in 11' with the transducer about 8" below the bottom of the ice. I had a friend with me who I recently introduced to LiveScope. Around 10am, we saw a large "sunburst" on the LiveScope. Those of you with experience will know that this is a fish right under the transducer. Just as I noticed it, my friend asked "what was that?". I told him to look down his 10" hole and he would see a big white. I did the same while quickly reeling up from the bottom and saw a big, round snout a foot under the hole. Fortunately my lead spoon arrived right on scene as I stood in disbelief while a burbot ate my lure right under the ice. After a relatively short struggle, out came the fish tail first (glad we had 10" holes). My friend was absolutely astounded that the LiveScope enabled us to catch that fish. I can't think of any other electronics that would allowed us to know that fish was there. And I'm still scratching my head what it was doing right under the ice. Has anyone else ever caught one cruising just under the ice like that?

[Reeves1]

I've had a few swim right up the hole.

[EZM]

Burbs are strange fish. As Reeves mentions I've had a few come up for a look - freaked me out .........lol

Had one in open water drift along with my boat, about 10 feet away and maybe a foot or two below the surface. Was just mulling around the area for 10 minutes for no good reason.

At first thought he was disoriented or hurt, but after watching him, he was fine, just hanging out.

[SNAPFisher]

Agreed. Burbs can act differently. I've netted one in open water that apparently sunning itself. Swam away just fine after coming to life after netting it.

Also had a buddy experience what others are seeing there. Burb swam right up the hole to and sat there. Scared the crap out of him as he was not expecting that. The burb left and came back again. He dangled his lure and it took it.

Seems that strange things like this and burb are not so rare after all.

P.S. Livescope kicks butt regardless!!

[hookset]

Handful of times I have had them swim right up the hole over the years. Recall once being able to grab it with my hands and pull it on the ice. Burbs and muskrats are the two creatures Ive had come for visits in the shack.

[pikeman06]

Oh yes, back in the day on buffalo with the big holes in the spearing shacks you could lure the burbots off the bottom with a yellow jig and feed them a smelt by hand they would stick their heads right outta the water. Not b.s ing at all. About 8 ft of water.

[EZM]

Had a muskrat come up the hole in the ice fishing tent, a forum member here who will remain nameless screeched like a girl and was climbing up on the chairs frantically trying to get away from an equally freaked out muskrat who did 3 quick laps around the tent before heading back down another hole.

I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants.

The nameless guy's name and handle is Rod. He is a big tough Law Enforcement Guy too - makes it that much more special.

I hope he reads this.:)

[SamSteele]

One of the recent Clayton Shick videos showed his Humminbird ice transducer moving. He reeled up and caught a burbot that was messing with his transducer right below the ice. Pretty cool video.

I wonder if they are more sensitive to the sonar coming out of the transducer and hone in on it for some reason?

SS

[AlbertanGP]

Maybe this guy was thinking of coming up the hole. He was just sitting there pondering his options when I first looked down the hole. It would have caused a commotion inside the flip shelter for sure as it wasn't a small fish.

I've caught hundreds of burbot, mostly back before they were listed as a game fish and there were no limits on them. Who knows how many have been lurking around high in the water column, as I never had the electronics to identify them previously. I've seen some really big (24"+) fishing cruising around solo from just under the transducer into the top half of the water column on burbot spots this season. I always assumed they were whitefish since I was either too lazy to bend over and have a look or didn't have a camera dropped. I wouldn't have bothered to look at this fish either except I had a friend with me.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-pqwPxGV/0/X3/i-pqwPxGV-X3.jpg

[buckbrushoutdoors]

caught a giant 13# burb 2 feet under the ice in 26fow. Wouldn't have caught it without my Helix!

[WayneChristie]

First burb I ever saw was in Calgary when I was a kid. I pretty much lived at the river and one day buddy and I saw a very strange looking fish on the shore, front half was up on the shore completely out of the water so I figured it was dead. Went to poke it with a stick and the frikkin thing flopped back into the river and I'm not sure which of us yelled louder! Caught one in Buffalo Pound lake in Sask that was swimming along the dam on the surface mid day. Just cast a minnow in front of it and it ate it. Strangest thing was it had no eyes.

[AlbertanGP]

I'm glad I posted this. Lots of interesting stories. I've heard of muskrats coming up the hole. I'm not sure how I'd handle that in a dark, confined tent tbh. :confused0068:

[AlbertanGP]

caught a giant 13# burb 2 feet under the ice in 26fow. Wouldn't have caught it without my Helix!

This one never passed under the transducer, but rather beside it. Something right under the transducer on a LiveScope will light up the whole shelter briefly. A Helix may or may not have caught it, depending on what angle it approached from. I've pondered what it would have looked like on the flasher, if I'd seen it at all.

[walking buffalo]

Fishing Okanogan lake, we would occasionally stop at a burbot hole in 300 feet of water. Typically we would catch all we want off the bottom.
Some days the best bite was suspended at 200 or 100 feet.

Caught many burbot while trolling for trout, lures 30-50 down in 100-300 fow.

[WayneChristie]

I'd forgotten about my strangest bait for catching a burb. My stringer of Rockies I had in the river. Heard the chain rattling and saw a burb swallowing one of my white fish I grabbed my net and it took a couple tries but I got an 8 pounder in my net. I know it happened to another guy I used to fish with in Calgary

[fish99]

my biggest burb came from cold lake we were trolling with down riggers at 50 feet and caught a 10 lb burb

[AlbertanGP]

Well I'll definitely have to expand where I look for these fish. I've always considered them to be right on the bottom, and that's where I've always caught them. It's odd because I've read research papers on tagged fish and sometimes they don't move at all for days. Then you see one just cruising around inches under the ice. I know they definitely become more active and move more during pre-spawn and spawn.

[Bushleague]

Well I'll definitely have to expand where I look for these fish. I've always considered them to be right on the bottom, and that's where I've always caught them. It's odd because I've read research papers on tagged fish and sometimes they don't move at all for days. Then you see one just cruising around inches under the ice. I know they definitely become more active and move more during pre-spawn and spawn.

And then there's river burbot, given the current I've caught them in they cant be near as lazy as the Bio's say that lake Burbot are. They also dont seem to go very deep in the summer either.

[I’d rather be outdoors]

Lake X, 4 years ago. Had a massive burb come & actually nudge my transducer just under the ice in 90 fow. Was the darnedest thing. Kinda freaked me out actually. I’ve seen pike and rainbows take lures right under the ice before. I put a jig down hole to see if it would bite but was just too late. Fishing lures just under the ice can be very fun. I find it depends on the lake though.

[Freedom55]

Only once. On a 4 1/2" Williams Wobbler, at a giant prize derby with 3 minutes 'til the horn. Thing would not enter the hole. I thought it was a big pike. 7.92 lbs. Got to the scale with seconds to spare. Took 9th place; won a crappy prize. That was the final year that you could drive on the ice. The following year was sleds/quads only then they were gone

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