Ontario Ice Fisherman Lands Behemoth Pending Record Burbot
OutdoorHub Reporters 03.08.16
An 18-year-old angler in Ontario, Canada may have caught a provincial record for burbot after landing a massive 16.8-pound fish from Jessie Lake last week. Landan Brochu was fishing in the lake with his father on March 5 when the young angler hooked the large fish, which he originally mistook for lake trout.
“It came up and I saw it and it opened it’s mouth and I couldn’t believe it,” Brochu told CBC News. “I started dancing around, I even forgot to grab it and pick it up out of the hole.”
A mistake in the heat of the moment that nearly cost Brochu his catch, but the angler managed to hold onto the cod-like fish before it slipped back down the hole. Brochu’s burbot measured 37 inches in length and 22 inches in girth. By weight, it beat the provincial record set in 2003 by just about a pound. Brochu and his father say they are now currently undergoing the process of verification with wildlife officials and the Ontario Record Fish Registry to get the record confirmed.
You can watch an interview with the angler below:
Landan Brochu and his 16.8 pound burbot caught March 5, 201618 year old Landan Brochu of Thunder Bay with giant burbot caught March 5, 2016. It’s a potential new Ontario record.Hear the story at 720 am on Superior Morning.
Posted by CBC Thunder Bay on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Fishing for burbot is not especially popular in Ontario since the slimy fish is not considered great table fare. Generally, burbot has often been maligned due to its “ugly” figure, tendency to be aggressive and compete with more popular fish, as well in the opinion of many anglers, being unpalatable. Despite this, Brochu and many other anglers say they prefer angling for burbot.
According to the International Game Fish Association, the largest burbot ever caught by an angler is a 25-pound, 2-ounce beast from Lake Diefenbaker, Canada. That fish was landed by Sean Konrad on March 27, 2010.
