Greedy McGregor burbot

[AK47]

So I caught couple nice burbot today in McGregor... one was 29 inches and other 26 inches... Both were very fat so I assumed it must be females full of eggs. So I start cleaning them and open smaller one and surprise, it is male with huge stomach full of whitefish eggs - see picture... I think "what a greedy bugger, already has full stomach and still hits jig and smelt like he hasn't eating in days"....open the next one, this time it is female but eggs still are very small and not taking much space in the belly, instead it is again huge stomach, probably twice as size as the first one... I open it up and again lots of whitefish eggs and surprise again - small pike and I counted 10 small perch packed in it...see second picture.
So that made me think - is there such a thing as full burbot? Or anytime it sees jig and smelt it will try its best to eat it no matter how packed they are?

this is bigger one, did not have scale but must be about 6lbs.



first stomach - just whitefish eggs and fresh water shrimp



second stomach - all you can eat.... perch, pike, whitefish eggs, shrimp, etc...

[lone wolf]

Wow .......... can't believe they still hit with all that food in their stomachs !!

[fishsauce]

Great fish! Was the water still murky? Are the whites still around the dam?

[AK47]

Originally Posted by fishsauce

Great fish! Was the water still murky? Are the whites still around the dam?

Yup, water is murky and not many whites around as far as I can tell as two of us only caught 1. Talked to other guy who was fishing more on the west side and he had 2.

[Guitarplayingfish]

Thats a super fat burbot! haha Pretty cool, thanks for sharin.

[ak-71]

There is indeed perch in McGregor... Nice fish

[skiwili]

with means White fish are done with spawning

[WayneChristie]

I think burbs just eat til they cant eat anymore, got one at PCR that had a full burb skin in its gut that someone had dropped down the hole. also caught a pike that had a full grown coot in it, still sticking out of its throat, and still took my lure. they are just eating machines.

[ak-71]

Originally Posted by skiwili

with means White fish are done with spawning

Why? Whitefish had stomachs full of eggs 2 weeks ago and were spawning like creazy, it's not an overnight thing I guess.. May be you're right, all I got so far were males somehow, femails don't seem to bite and I don't snag, don't know if they still have eggs in them

[AK47]

well, whitefish spawn usually lasts there about 2-3 weeks, so if it started two weeks ago you have basically this week left and it will be done. From 9 whites I kept last week there were only two females and only one had decent amount of eggs, other one was half empty. I am more interested to see for how long burbs will stick around the dam to feed on whitefish eggs as catching them is more fun for me then catching whitefish.

[ogre]

Wow. Those are amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Dust1n]

the last picture of what that burbot ate is just awesome

[ryisnky]

Awsome catch!! I caught one @ 40-mile a couple years ago and same thing; stomach was full of little pearch.

[the local angler]

right on man nice catch. its nice to see at least there is perfect evidence there is some decent perch still in there. i am surprized that a burbot would woof back a small pike, i always thought it would be the other way around.[/B]