Burbot spawning time

Burbot is the only representative of cod among all species of freshwater fish. It lives throughout almost the entire territory of Russia, with the exception of the reservoirs of the Caucasus and Kamchatka. The appearance of burbot and the lifestyle it leads are proof that this fish is a relict fish. She inherited cold-loving habits from her ancestors who lived back in the Ice Age.

Most often, burbot is found in reservoirs in the northern hemisphere. This fish is especially common in Siberian rivers. Burbot is considered a valuable commercial species. Burbot liver is a real delicacy, rich in fats and vitamin A.

Description

In appearance, this representative of cod fish is somewhat similar to catfish. He has a very wide, strongly flattened head, almost like a frog. The burbot's eyes are small and there is a small antennae on the chin. The fish's mouth is wide, with a large number of small teeth.

The color of burbot primarily depends on the quality of the water. Usually the back and fins are grayish or olive green, covered with black-brown stripes and spots. The belly and ventral fins are almost always whitish.

In the reservoirs of our country there are two varieties of this fish: marbled and black. Ichthyologists believe that the younger the burbot, the darker it is, and only over the years does the fish become lighter.

To successfully catch burbot, one interesting feature of this individual should be taken into account: we are talking about the prey’s susceptibility to various sounds. Burbot not only is not afraid of noise or human voices, but also goes towards them.

Catching burbot in February with a spoon

Spinner is a common bait for most winter anglers. It will be the best choice for those who have never caught burbot before, but know how to use this gear.

Lures for catching burbot using a spinner

For fishing, a fairly heavy oval spoon is traditionally used, which is a simple body without any bends. The hook is soldered, with a long reach. It is customary to attach a ruff head or tail, a worm, or a strip of meat from the same burbot to the hook. Tees and hanging hooks are rarely used, since it is impossible to fish with them “by knocking”, they will scratch along the bottom, burbot does not really like this. You can make such a lure only from a hook with a long shank, separate from the eye.

In the current, it gives a stable, almost nail-like game, deviating slightly due to the current and then returning, slightly playing along. Some spoons, despite the lack of bends and symmetry of the body, have much greater catchability than others. This is due to the shape of their body.

The body of the spinner is made of tin. This metal, even under water, has a dull white color, which will be attractive to burbot. You should not solder it onto the nickelselbur, especially if you plan to leave it smooth. Bright metal plates will scare away fish; it is important to keep the color matte, even and light. In addition, tin has a more suitable density and promotes good play than lead or lead heavy solder.

In my opinion, a bottom spinner should be catchy. This bait was described by Dmitry Shcherbakov in one of his videos. Often, lure fishing is accompanied by a characteristic knocking sound that attracts burbot. You can also try fishing with so-called “phantomas”, other baits that are a type of bottom spinners, but easier to manufacture. The bait should have a whitish matte color.

Tackle for catching burbot with a spinner

For fishing, any rod with a length of 50-60 cm can be used. When playing with a spinner, it happens that the fish takes only by knocking on the bottom, or by knocking on the ice from below, or by tossing from the bottom, or by playing with the rod lowered down, or on a standing horizontally, or standing at a certain angle downward, or for trembling. All this needs to be calculated and your style of play determined. As a rule, one rod is suitable for one spinner, since usually its action will be unique and it is made independently. Therefore, it is important to have a choice of at least five rods.

The fishing line used is medium, 0.2-0.25 mm. Burbot has a stubborn resistance and you need to be able to withstand it well. For the current and proper play, the spinners select the fishing line individually; as a rule, the stronger the current, the thinner the fishing line. Also, the thickness of the fishing line depends on the additive on the hook; the larger it is, the thinner the fishing line is taken. And also on the depth of fishing - the deeper, the greater the chance of a bite with a thin line and the less with a thick one.

Braided cord is not taken so often; it is usually fished in the dark, where the cord often gets tangled, since it is softer than fishing line. But choosing a black fishing line is a great idea. Usually this is produced for feeder or carp fishing. The black line will be clearly visible on white snow and ice, and there is less chance that it will get tangled.

Of course, all fishing rods should have a comfortable handle and be equipped with a reel. It is best to use a good winter multiplier, with which you can easily both pull out the fish and quickly reel in and reel in the fishing line.

Techniques for catching burbot using a spoon in February

Typically, fishing comes down to actively searching for fish and constantly fishing for already drilled holes. Burbot is not a particularly schooling fish, and catching two dozen from one hole is rare. However, taking off three or four pieces is common. The fact is that there is such a thing as fish release, as when fishing for pike. It happens that in approximately one place the burbot begins a hunt, which lasts about 15 minutes. Therefore, if there were bites, it’s worth drilling out this place and then returning to it after some time. You should not sit on a hole where there is no bite with a spoon for more than five minutes. For those who do not like to walk from place to place, there is another tackle - a snitch.

Reproduction

In the population, the number of males of this cod representative is significantly greater than the number of females, usually two or three times. Burbot reaches sexual maturity in the third year of life. The males begin something like estrus, they mate in pairs with the female and fertilize the eggs. Mature eggs can be found even in fairly small individuals.

Almost all reservoirs are inhabited simultaneously by two species - large and small, the latter being almost black in color. The lake variety of this fish grows faster than the river variety. They spawn only after reaching a length of 30-35 cm and a weight of about 1.5 kg. Juvenile burbot grows very quickly, almost the same as the juveniles of another predator – pike. In places where there are favorable conditions for normal life, by June the fry, hatched from eggs in winter, reach a size of 7 to 9 cm in length. Until the age of one year, small burbots hide in stones and only by the summer of next year they go to greater depths in muddy places. This fish becomes predatory only after reaching sexual maturity.

Fishing for burbot in winter

Burbot is caught well in the first half of winter. Moreover, if good and calm weather is necessary to catch other fish, then in the case of burbot the situation is the opposite. Its active biting often occurs in frosty and windy weather. This fish is especially good for catching at night. Incredibly, such a concept as “night winter fishing” has the right to life thanks to burbot.

Burbot is active during the longest nights in severe frost. The most active biting period begins at approximately 9 pm and lasts until midnight. The bite resumes at about 4 a.m. and lasts up to 5 hours.

Peculiarities of catching burbot in December, January and February

In December, the burbot experiences a real feeding frenzy. December has the shortest days and longest nights. This month falls under the criteria described above. The periods of its activity increase by several hours. At this time, he takes bait well in the form of fish fry. The most popular of them are balancers, spinners, and jigs.

Animal baits are always in demand among trophy burbots. Fishing for burbot with live bait brings the best results. The role of live bait is assigned to ruffe, gudgeon, and roach. The main thing is that the fish are alive and active. Dead and sleepy specimens are not suitable for this role.

Silence must be maintained while lure fishing. The bait is fed at a distance of approximately 15 cm from the bottom. The spoon is thrown, then slowly rises, then there is a pause, and then rise again. The spoon should be light; during the pull-ups, it seems to float, luring prey. When pulling, we make sure that the pauses between dropping the spoon and raising it range from 7 to 15 seconds. The interval is selected experimentally.

If this method is not convincing for burbot, then you can try a jig, on the hook of which the fry or tail is caught. They play with a jig in different ways: they evenly raise and lower it to the bottom, or simply twitch it above the bottom. In two cases, pauses are made for 10 and 20 seconds. When fishing vertically, a heavy jig weighing from 10 to 15 grams is used. A fry must be put on it. In winter, burbot is caught at depths of 3 to 5 meters.

If burbot fishing occurs at above-zero temperatures, then an ordinary float fishing rod is used. A minnow or ruff is used as a bait. The fishing rod is equipped in the same way as the fishing rod.

When fishing with a zherlitsa, they fish sections of a reservoir up to 500 meters long. The tactics here are as follows: in the evening they set up several dozen girders, and in the morning some of them catch burbot. The fisherman notes for himself the holes in which the burbot was caught, and on the next fishing trip the emphasis is placed on these catch points.

The burbot, caught on the hook, puts up fierce resistance. To extract it onto the ice, a hook is often required. This is a very slippery fish, so it is better to wear mittens with a rough surface when fishing. With their help, it is easy to deter dodgy individuals.

As we can see in the graph, a decline in the burbot bite is observed from January to February. From the beginning of February to April there is a second peak of its activity.

Read the article: catching burbot in winter

for detailed information on this topic.
In the sections: ice fishing
and
winter fishing
you will find a lot of useful information about fishing during the period of cold weather and frosts.

Pre-spawning period

River burbot loves to attack small perches, gobies, ruffes and minnows, which, with the onset of the first cold weather, descend to the channel part of the reservoir, occupying the upper boundaries of the edges and slopes. With the beginning of winter, the pre-spawning migration of burbot begins. The fish, emerging from their holes and snags, gradually rise upstream. It moves to medium and shallow depths, to areas where the pebble, stone or hard sandy structure of the bottom soil predominates.

Where to look for burbot

During the day, burbot sleeps under snags and in deep holes. The fish goes to feed under the shore, where there are a lot of small fish - minnows, ruffes, etc. Moreover, the burbot does not walk alone, wherever necessary, but in small groups along a specific route that is convenient for it. If you find such a path, consider yourself very lucky.

Experience shows that finding burbot is not difficult. You need to find the hole using a depth gauge or echo sounder, the order is as follows:

Visually divide the width of the reservoir into three parts
We are looking for a hole on the coastal parts, do not touch the center
From the hole we make several holes towards the shore, at a distance of about 3 meters, depending on the width of the reservoir

In order not to waste time searching for a hole, you can notice it in the summer.

Anyone who has caught burbot at least once knows that it likes to curl up into a ring, which makes it very difficult to land, especially in front of the hole. In order not to miss the trophy, I advise you to drill several holes nearby and break the partitions.

This way we will get a wide hole into which the “loop” burbot will fit. By the way, this fish has good hearing and excessive curiosity, so sometimes it swims to the sound of an ice drill just to see what’s making the noise.

And if you treat it with fresh meat, fish, or a bunch of fatty worms, it will certainly bite. Don’t be lazy to make a bigger hole - the burbot has a wide muzzle - if it weighs more than 2 kg, it won’t fit into a simple hole.

The time when burbot goes to spawn

The largest populations of this freshwater representative of cod are found in the northern latitudes of our country. Here this fish lives in almost all reservoirs. Large individuals thrive in fast, cold rivers. Burbot spawning time occurs around mid-winter, usually in January. For example, burbot spawning in the Urals takes place in the dead of winter. It must be said that in this region it is during this period that fishermen catch valuable commercial fish by drilling holes in the middle of the river.

Spawning of burbot in Siberia, for example, can begin in the second half of December. Often in reservoirs in the central part of our country it shifts to February. The timing of burbot spawning depends primarily on the region where the fish lives, on a specific lake or river.

When is the best time to catch burbot?

Understanding what time of year is best to catch burbot will allow you to fish with maximum efficiency and pleasure. Without proper knowledge, the catch will depend on luck.

From the last ten days of September the fish begin to become more active

Features of choosing the time of year:

autumn is the time of stable burbot bites. The fish begin to become active in the last ten days of September, after the water begins to cool steadily. Mostly caught in the fall with a donk: a bait or a feeder. What time of day to catch burbot? Definitely at night, now it is most active and can be caught well with live bait and large worms. The pre-spawning feast begins in late autumn. November promises to be successful fishing;
In winter, active feeding of fish continues, sometimes the activity of the predator only intensifies. In December, you have to fish from the ice, and girders become popular. Live baits, baits made from pieces of meat and vertical spoons do their job quite well. Burbot spawning begins in January; this is a quiet period for fishermen; prey is caught on a hook relatively rarely. Since catching burbot after spawning is problematic, and the bite is unstable, it is better to use baits;
in the spring the bite continues to deteriorate as the water warms up. The higher the ambient temperature, the greater the passivity of the fish. Catching a predator is still possible, but the results depend on the right location and gear. In spring, the chances of catching a large specimen are high, especially in March from the ice. As April approaches, the bite subsides;
Summer is the most difficult period for a fisherman interested in hunting burbot. Only the most successful summer bait is capable of luring prey out of the hole. Typically, anglers avoid hunting cod fish in the summer. More often, burbot is caught only as bycatch in catfish fishing. In the summer, it makes sense to use a donk with a rubber shock absorber, a throw and a net.

We do not recommend going fishing in January and early February, as this is the period when you cannot catch burbot due to spawning.

In inclement weather the predator bites better

Another important point concerns what weather is best to catch burbot. The cod predator bites better in inclement weather. The reason is not known for certain, but as the weather worsens, by human standards, the performance of burbot fishing improves. Prey is often hooked in the fall on cold nights with wind and rain.

How does burbot spawn

The spawning of this representative of cod is accompanied by active feeding. The first to go to the spawning sites are mature large individuals, gathering in small groups, usually no more than twenty fish.

Then the burbot, which is of medium size, begins to spawn. The very last to go to the spawning ground are young fish, which flock into schools of up to a hundred specimens. Experts believe that they always move along the same route. Upstream the river, burbots move slowly, mainly at night. Their paths to the spawning grounds pass through rocky areas or a gristly bottom at a relatively shallow depth. Shallow places with hard bottom soil are the most optimal conditions for spawning. During the spawning period, burbot can often be found in areas with a rocky bottom strewn with pebbles or shells, on sandy, hard, gristly terrain.

How to catch February burbot

The most important thing in winter fishing for burbot is to find its feeding areas. The question of gear is a matter of taste. Each fisherman has his own preferences and capabilities. In February, burbot can be caught using both an expensive bait and a homemade bait.

This will not affect the size of the catch in any way. He is not a timid comrade - burbot cannot be frightened by rough equipment. Homemade jigs and spinners give excellent results. And yet, from a rich variety of winter gear, it’s up to you to choose.

Bottom gear

Donks and zakidushki are a simple and convenient design for ice fishing. Five meters of fishing line (d 0.5 mm or more), wound on a reel, a sinker with a diameter of 1.5 cm (look along the current), and a hook. Experienced fishermen say that they caught two burbot per donk at once - and with different baits.

On one leash of the donkey there was a live bait, on the other - a bunch of worms. A simplified version of the donkey is a poke. Instead of a line and sinker, there is a thin but strong pole, on the lower end of which a leash with bait is attached.

Zherlitsy

Convenient tackle for passive fishing. You can leave the trenches for a while and move to another hole; it itself signals a bite with a red flag. They even leave the baits overnight - but this is not always effective - after trying the bait and not swallowing the hook deeply, the burbot will spit it out.

A type of zherlitsa is under-ice zherlitsa or postavushki. Cheaper and more convenient to use. There is only a spacer above the ice; the entire main part of the tackle is in the water, which eliminates the possibility of the fishing line freezing into the ice.

By the way, lubricating the fishing line with Vaseline is a useful tip that will come in handy in severe frosts if you still have to drag it through the thickness of the ice.

For the spinner

An effective way of fishing in February is vertical trolling. Take an ordinary winter fishing rod, small but strong. The spinners are light but wide. You can try different game tactics - in different regions the character of the fish is different.

Don't forget about pauses. Burbot often likes to watch the play of the spinner, but grabs it in a calm state. Use sound effects - when two spoons touch, they ring and attract burbot.

On the jig

You can also try playing with sound with a jig - heavy homemade jigs are raised low above the bottom and lowered. The sound of knocking on the bottom attracts a curious predator, and he will definitely try it. They also use the tactic of measured rocking without lifting off the bottom. If the bite is sluggish, add worms or small fish.

For live bait

The predator always goes for live bait willingly. You need to try to secure the bait in such a way that it remains alive as long as possible. To do this, a loop of fishing line is threaded under its gills, and the hook is attached to the tail. As live bait, small things that are familiar to your region, no more than 10 cm long - roach, ruffs, gudgeons - are suitable. St. Petersburg burbots respect smelt.

You can’t catch burbot lazily; you need to put in some effort, which will then be more than rewarded with an excellent catch. Don't be afraid to experiment, explore your fish's personality, try different tactics, and ice fishing in February will be a lot of fun!

Conditions for spawning

The flow in the spawning area should be slow so that the fish do not have to expend a lot of energy fighting the water flow. Large specimens go first to spawn, followed by smaller specimens.

The females of this representative of predatory cod are very fertile. One fish can produce about half a million eggs. Naturally, not all of them hatch into fry, and not all of the young survive. Many of the offspring are destined to become food for underwater inhabitants, for example, perch, ruffe, goby, silver bream, etc. Since burbot spawns in the winter, in some regions of Russia, where its limited populations are observed, there is a fishing ban at this time.

Features of reproduction

Burbot eggs are yellowish in color. They are relatively small - from 0.8 to 1 mm in diameter, but very numerous. Therefore, burbot, which spawns in winter, is considered one of the most prolific fish. Despite the fact that small individuals throw up to two hundred thousand, and large ones - up to half a million or even more eggs, the populations of this representative of cod are very small. This is explained by the fact that only a small part of the offspring develops into juveniles. The overwhelming majority of fish hatched from eggs either become prey for other fish, or even die due to unfavorable conditions for life.

After spawning

Burbot spawn in the river, almost always in shallow sandy or gristly areas with a fairly moderate current. Females literally “pour” liquid mass into the space between stones or into holes. In this case, a significant part of the eggs is carried away by the water even before they have time to stick to the bottom soil. A considerable part of them become prey for other underwater inhabitants. Both young and adult females, who have already laid eggs or are even just about to spawn, eat their own future offspring, which lie in large quantities on the bottom and constitute easily obtained food material. In addition, during the period when burbot spawns, minnows, perches and ruffs leave their places of rest and, having eaten enough eggs, go back again.

Conditions and characteristics of spawning in trout

Trout reaches sexual maturity at the age of three years, then it goes to the place where eggs are laid. Age may vary depending on the subspecies of the family and living conditions. Some species are capable of spawning at the age of two years, but there are also those that mature only at 5-6 years of age. The common brook trout begins to spawn at the age of three.

At the age of three years, trout reaches a sexually mature state.

Features of spawning in trout:

fish tend to travel enormous distances to reach the place where they spawn annually;
The spawning period for ordinary fish usually begins in spring or early summer, when the greenery begins to grow wildly. In warm conditions, it is easier for fry to survive and find food, but trout behave differently. Trout spawning time occurs in the second half of autumn. Sometimes trout prefer the winter season for spawning, but not later than December;
the beginning and timing of trout spawning directly depend on climatic conditions in the region. In cold conditions, fish begin to spawn somewhat earlier, and in relatively warm regions - later;
the earliest time of spawning is September, later – December;
Certain breeds of fish tend to spawn all year, and therefore become extremely unpredictable. The largest number of species still go to spawn in October or November.

How to choose a lure for asp?

After reaching the desired breeding site, the trout begins to actively throw the game in large numbers. It preferentially lays eggs in the early morning or after sunset, when the sun has already set below the horizon. In the morning the activity is not too high, but in the dark, especially before midnight, trout tend to actively lay eggs. Females lay eggs in 2-4 approaches, leaving time for rest between them. To determine the period of spawning individuals, after arriving at the spawning ground, the fish are given at least 1 week.

Now trout fishing is strictly prohibited. For many fishermen, the pressing question of what to catch trout with is temporarily removed from the agenda until the fish return to their landing sites.

The second half of autumn is the time for trout spawning