Belaya River - In search of the Burbot

[m3dic]

Introduction
This guide was written with the intent to show players how to catch Burbot in Belaya and to share some bottom fishing techniques used in the game. Please remember that in our game fish might change spots and lures/baits over time. The spots that I will show you might not work in the future and the same goes for the lures or baits I used. From my own experience as a player, I knew that Burbot likes to bite on fish pieces and nightcrawler so I decided to focus mostly on these two baits to target them.

Species Overview
The Burbot is the only cod-like (Lotidae family) freshwater fish. With an appearance like a cross between a catfish and an eel, the burbot has a serpent-like body, but is easily distinguished by a single barbel on the chin. The body is elongated and laterally compressed, with a flattened head and single tube-like projection for each nostril. The mouth is wide, with both upper and lower jaws consisting of many small teeth. Burbot have two soft dorsal fins; the first being low and short, and the second being much longer. The anal fin is low and almost as long as the dorsal fin. The caudal fin is rounded, the pectoral fins are fan-shaped, and pelvic fins are narrow with an elongated second fin ray. Having such small fins relative to body size indicates a benthic lifestyle with low swimming endurance, unable to withstand strong currents. The burbot prefers cold temperatures and like all other cod-like fish species occurs only in the northern hemisphere. For some time of the year, the burbot lives under ice, and they require frigid temperatures to breed. It lives in lakes in Europe, Asia and America, it is also common in most Siberian rivers. The average size is between 40-50cm and around 3kg, but they can grow up to 100cm and exceed 10kg.

Fish Activity Habitat and Diet
The burbot is a fish species that really likes cold weather. They feel most comfortable with temperatures under 10°C and stop feeding on temperature over 15°C. Their habitat is mostly in the deepest and slowest moving parts of the waterbody. The diet of this fish species mostly consists out of other fish but at times they are also known to eat insects, frogs and even birds or snakes. This wide died is also correlated to its tendency to bite lures. When it comes to their activity time it’s often thought that they are nocturnal but they actually aren’t, Burbots are crepuscular animals, which are animals that are active primarily during Twilight, however they also may be active on moonlit nights or overcast days.

Gear

Setup 1:

Spoiler

 

Setup 2:

Spoiler

 

Setup 3:

Spoiler

 

Spots

 

Spoiler

 

Spot 1:

Spoiler

 

Spot 2:

Spoiler

 

Spot 3:

Spoiler

 

Baits

Spoiler

 

Results
Day 1:

Spoiler

 

  Day 2:

Spoiler

 

Day 3:

Spoiler

 

Conclusion

After knowing how burbot live I took a look at the Belaya map where they could be. Since they live in the deeper water I looked for spots that may have less current than others, like rocks or deeper holes in the cliff. After trying a few spots I found out that the upper part (Spot 1) works the best and after that the lower part (Spot 2) of the river.

The most active bite times where definitely between 01:00-04:00am and 19:00-22:00 but some also bit in the middle of the day and in the middle of the night. My biggest burbots came mostly on fish pieces, but in the past most came on baitfish. While gathering data I had no thunderstorms or rainy days, but at those time they usually get more active.

I used my carp rods to get the distance easier since it is quite a far cast, but you can also get it done with feeder rods I just don’t have any points in there personally and I mostly used hooks around the size 2/0 since they gave me the best results, smaller hooks gave me less bites more fish get away and smaller fish while bigger hooks decreased the bite rate as well, but got me bigger fish.
 

[Kauris84]

Spot 1

 

 

Spoiler