Burbot (Lota lota)

The burbot lives in cold waters of deep lakes and rivers, it can be found in many hungarian waters. This fish is the only member of the Gadidae family that lives in sweetwater. Few people know them, and even fewer try to catch them.
This is probably because these fish do not like warm waters and can mostly be caught during the winter, when the water temperature drops below 10 celsius. And catching these fish is not easy even then, hooking them is a tough job, not made any easier by the cold weather.

The burbot mostly grows to 30-60 cm in size, the hungarian record weight caught was 3.56 kg, but in other places with more suiting circumstances they can grow up to 120 cm and 20-30 kg’s. Its body is elongated, barrel shaped at the start, slightly flattened near the tail, the head is flat and broad.

The burbot has a large mouth with small tiny sharp teeth. Long feelers sprouts from its jaw and short ones from its nosehole. The scales are round and small. Its back is mostly dark, while the sides are of a lighter color, the belly is nearly white. The burbot lives on the bottom and is active during night hours. Its menu is made up of small animals and the eggs and younglings of other fish species, which make them a real danger to every other fish in the area. The spawning season is from november to march
One fish can lay up to 5 million eggs, which thanks to the lack of predators in winter, can mostly hatch in 6-10 weeks. The larvae float in the water, the small fish will hide beneath rocks. If you want to hunt these elusive animals, use live bait, liver, lungs, earthworms, fish meat or even live fish. It doesn’t like to release what it got its teeth into and will try to carry its food to a safe place, so give him time before you try to drag him out. This fish can provide some nice entertainment during winter days.