Bring home the burbot

Burbot seem to be having their moment in the world of ice fishing. Each winter, an increasing number of Ontario anglers head out to target these fascinating fish. But what about the open water? You simply don’t hear much about anglers targeting burbot during the spring, summer, or fall. I’ve spent the last several years combing through research, spending nights on Ontario’s inland lakes, and chatting with a select few in an attempt to figure out these strange fish and, although there is still plenty to learn, I’m happy to report that catching burbot during the open water season is very possible indeed. Night moves Burbot are a cold-water species with a preference for water temperatures below 13˚C and an aversion to light. While cool temperatures and ice cover allow them to stay active all day during winter, most burbot activity takes place in darkness. During the day, at least in the open-water season, these fish dwell mostly in the cold, deep, and very often soft-bottomed portions of a given waterbody. For most of Ontario’s inland lakes, this puts them somewhere between 60 and, say, 120 feet during the day. Throughout the Great Lakes, on the other hand, their daytime haunts could be much, much deeper — they’ve been recorded as deep as 980 feet in Lake Superior. As the sun sets, many burbot begin what’s called diel bank migration, a bottom-oriented transition from deep to shallower water. Just how shallow this is depends on light conditions, time of year, forage, and even individual fish behaviour, but the general trend is a transition to warmer, food-abundant waters. In a telemetry study of burbot in Algonquin’s Lake Opeongo, some individual fish were recorded going as shallow as 10 feet during the heat of the summer, spending several hours in waters of 20˚C and hotter. Overall, though, research and personal experience suggests that open water burbot fish spend most of their nights cruising in and around the thermocline. Putting it into practice To find fish, I look for gravel slopes and flats, rocky shoals, and main-lake points in the 40- to 50-foot range, dropping off into deep water. Although it’s not strictly necessary, I aim to be on the water for sunset. During this time of the day, called the crepuscular period, burbot activity picks right up as they begin to ease out of their daytime haunts, often staging just below that