Burbot

Burbot fishing peaks in winter, from December through March, when fish move out of deep water into shallow bays and river mouths to spawn. The actual spawn happens at night under the ice, typically in January and February, over sand or gravel in a metre or less of water, which is also when catch rates are highest. Outside that window burbot retreat to deep, cool water and get much harder to target on purpose, though they are still caught incidentally by bottom-fishing anglers in fall and early winter as water temperatures drop.

Fish after dark. Burbot are almost entirely nocturnal, feeding heavily from dusk through the night and going quiet again around sunrise, so a daytime trip on the same water can be dead while the same spot lights up after the sun goes down.

The simplest and most productive method is still-fishing a baited hook or jig on or within a few centimetres of the bottom, since burbot feed almost exclusively down there. Through the ice, this means drilling holes in shallow bays over sand or gravel, dropping a glow jig or baited spoon to bottom, and giving it an occasional lift-and-drop rather than aggressive jigging. Where tip-ups or set-lines are legal for the water, baiting several holes and checking them through the evening covers more ground than working one hole. In open water, a simple bottom rig cast from shore near a river mouth or shallow flat after dark works the same way. Burbot hit hard for a bottom feeder, so keep the rod tip low and set on a solid pull rather than a light tap.

Look for burbot in the deep, cool basins of lakes and slow river pools for most of the year, then follow them into shallow, sand- or gravel-bottomed bays, river mouths, and flats in winter when they stage and spawn. Juveniles often turn up around rocky shorelines and weed edges, while adults hug bottom structure almost exclusively and rarely suspend in the water column.