Fish made by devil
Old Finnish legend states that burbot is made by the devil. During the creation god had been making beautiful silver-sided fishes the whole day and devil wanted to do one too from materials that were left from god's work. Because satan has black sooty hands, fish he was making smeared with black marks. Devil then spitted on fish and tried to clean it up, but it won't succeed. That will do he thought and put fish to water. Since then burbot has been ashamed of it's slimy, stained ugliness and has been lurking in bottoms. That's why it continues its species during the worst winter storms.
Mysterious bottom-crawler
Except it's first couple of years which it spends on shores, burbot absolutely demand cold water. That's why well being population is possible only in lakes that have layered water, so at the bottom water stay cold also in summer. Acidity also destroys burbot populations, reproduction fails under pH 5.
Adult burbot is a full-term bottom-fish. It moves along bottom or slightly above it. Burbot is dark and night active. It is considered to be bad spawn eater and it eats even it's own spawn. Besides that burbot eat fish, larvae and crustaceans. It takes food strongly in late autumn, in the end of winter and in spring.
Old people talk about "paths of burbot", visible routes that fishes use. Visible routes or not, burbot have an excellent sense of smell, so it is likely that they follow each others' tracks, especially in spawning time.
Spawning
Time of spawning is ordinary, in the middle of winter (February). General idea is that it takes place at the worst weather and snowstorms, although it is only matter of season. There is hard bottom and 1-3 metres water in spawning areas. In big lakes they also spawn in deeper water. Some burbots also ascend the rivers to spawn.
There is one interesting thing in burbot's spawning behaviour that might be associated to old belief of burbot fishermen that white colour allures fishes. It is known that female burbot signals males to start copulation by flashing it's pale stomach. So there's reason to put white fabric or plastic to trap fences to lead fishes.
Catches, records and special ways to fish
Catch of professionals is quite low in 2006, only 80 tonnes. Season (spawning time) is rather short. Same year recreational fishermen took 1100 tonnes of burbot in Finland.
In new books official burbot record is 8,04 kg, but in old records top fish weighted 15,5 kg.
Flesh of burbot is white and tasty. Many consider burbot-soap to the best possible fish meal. Also spawn and liver are valuable delicacies. People often think that burbot is useless in summer, but it is total nonsense. It can be caught most easily in summer with line with fish-baits put into bottom.
The most extraordinary way to fish burbot is ice fishing at night in winter with special equipment.
Sources:- Koli, Lauri, Suomen kalat
- FGFRI's stats (In Finnish)
- Fish records (In Finnish)