Fishing

fishing The Mysterious Burbot

IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENCOUNTER MANY SPECIES OF FISH IN OUR REGION OF FRANCE, SOME OF WHICH ARE UNWANTED INTRUDERS.

By Clive Kenyon

In June I was having an idle shady lunch at the side of a small lake owned by one of my customers. I threw some bread crust out into the water and a couple of perche-solei, or pumpkinseed fish as the Americans call them came out of the depths to nibble the floating crust. I have caught these in the Charente and Vienne rivers, but how they came to be in a small lake separated from any means of migration is beyond me. Another mystery is the disappearance of the burbot from British and almost all French river systems as well as most of Western Europe. Burbot are the only freshwater species of the cod family and are most easily identifiable by the single barbule sported on their lower lip. They are also and one of only two species of freshwater fish that have a circumpolar range yet they are increasingly absent in many of the areas where they once thrived. Burbot are solitary fish and prefer to spend daylight hours in dark places such as undercut banks emerging to feed in darkness. They can reach weights of 30lb or more in the right conditions. Leonard Maskell wrote in the 16th century about a fish in the Holland area of Lincolnshire he called the ‘poult' (possibly a derivation of pout or eel-pout as the burbot was sometimes called) “They have such a plentie in the fenne brookes, they feed their hogges with them.” They must have had some sleek hogges in Lincolnshire at that time as the burbot's liver contains large amounts of vitamins A and D. This was discovered in the 1920s when owners of a fur farm in the United States fed their foxes burbot and discovered they developed a softer, more luxurious coat. In the early part of the 20th century burbot featured regularly in the catch reports of the ‘Fishing Gazette’and the same journal carried adverts from fish farmers able to supply burbot. The eastern counties and the Trent basin were one of the last places where burbot were reported to have been caught. By the 1960s they had all but become extinct. Records suggest the burbot also held on gamely in the Yorkshire river system of the Esk, Seven and Rye. There was a population in the Yorkshire Derwent between the Ouse confluence and Sutton-on-Derwent until the tidal barrier was erected in the mid-1970s. The last authenticated capture is thought to have come from the River Trent in the 1960s and more recently in the 1990s Dr. Jim Reader, a lecturer in Nottingham University's Department of Life Science, imported some burbot from Czechoslovakia with the intentions to re-stock the Trent with these fish. In the event his plans were thwarted when permission to release the fish was refused by the authorities. Alwyn Wheeler, formerly of the Natural History Museum and the foremost authority on fish in Britain, was quoted as saying: "It's a half-baked scheme and a total waste of time and money. British burbot became extinct because our climate got warmer. You might as well bring back beavers, wolves and reindeer too."

spot to another as the sun moves across the sky. There are videos on YouTube showing scuba divers swimming along the undercut banks of the Loire surrounded by huge catfish. This incredible density of stock will be replicated in our large rivers and the place to find them in sunny weather is shaded, deep places. There are also a lot of smaller, 20lb - 40lb size fish that provide good sport on spinning tackle in the last few hours of fishing time. The silure tend to react to the splash of the lure and often the take is immediately after the lure lands. Again, under shade is the place to cast for them or around the large rocks found in the Vienne. In France, burbot were found in the The mouth of a silure is formed by eastern part of the country and are hard plates covered in thousands of still present in reduced numbers in small teeth like Velcro. This makes some of the Rhone tributaries. hook holds problematic and strong, Strangely they are not present in the well sharpened hooks are advised. rivers of the northern part of France Tackle for these fish also needs to be or in the Thames that would have been connected to the Trent system and also to the Rhone in the time of the Ice Age. Just as strange is that burbot survived global warming on the Middle Ages but not the 20th strong, but for spinning a medium rod and multiplier or fixed spool reel as used for bass or salmon will be ideal. Fishing dead baits will involve a heavier rod purely to facilitate casting century’s version. the heavier baits. A 3lb test curve should be considered as a minimum, Silure preferably a 5.5lb spod rod or 8oz One fish that does seem to be thriving Uptide rod and a large reel to balance is the Wels catfish, or silure as they the rod. Catfish can be landed by are known in gripping the France. This species, similar in many ways to the France is rapidly becoming the number one destination lower jaw of the fish and pulling it ashore. Gloves burbot, is creating the opposite problems to for catfish anglers and the south-west of the country is are advisable but not totally necessary if you fishery management in that they are thriving too much probably the best place to catch a record fish don’t mind a few grazes on your fingers. for some people. August is France is rapidly becoming the number one destination for catfish anglers and the south-west of the probably the best time of year to catch silure and we are well placed to take advantage of this country is probably the best place to powerful species. Spinning in the catch a record fish. Silure are at their faster, deep reaches of rivers or most active at this time of year and jigging with a vertical line close to will react aggressively to lures and undercut banks is an exciting way to fish baits. They also take an interest in fish for silure. Tree roots and sunken sound and some catfish anglers use a trunks are also places where the method known as ‘clonking’ to attract catfish may be found. In lakes silure the catfish. Clonking involves striking will sometimes lay up through the day the water with a spoon type in shallow water where overhanging instrument, but you can also attract branches reach to or almost to the catfish using small plastic balls or water surface. Casting large surface tubes filled with lead shot so it rattles plugs close to these locations may on the retrieve or when jigged. prove effective. The idea is to create as Silure prefer to lay up in shady areas much disturbance as possible to during the day when not feeding and I annoy the silure enough to wake it have seen them swim from one shady from its slumber and attack the lure.