Burbot Sighted On The Ribble?

[Peter Sharpe]

Perhaps it was an eel pout that I used - a mate of mine caught it and it certainly looked burbot-like. I am intrigued as to how somebody would see one in the water anyway. It's not as if they roll on the surface or leap after flies.

[Isaac]

I heard a radio programme a few years ago re the Burbot. there was a famous stuffed specimin in the Yorkshire Museum supposedly the last burbot caught in the UK from the Yorkshire Derwent.

It was thrown out by mistake and lost. There is reputedly a local angler who has devoted his fishing to proving they still exist in the Drewent.

 

I'm still looking for the last mammoth, recently spotted in Salford I beleive.

[Jim Gibbinson]

Don't know about mammoths, but Neanderthals still exist; I've seen them shuffling along Chatham High Street.....

[Tony U]

Don't know about mammoths, but Neanderthals still exist; I've seen them shuffling along Chatham High Street.....

 

Jim,

So you've seen me doing the shopping on a Saturday.

Tony

[Colin Brett]

Then there was the angling personality and author, back in the 1970s, who was relatively (and briefly, as it turned out) famous for catching big (stillwater) trout. No content with this, he then appeared in the Dangling Times one week, brandishing that creature of myth and legend, a double-figure Thames Trout. Only problem was, though, the thing turned out to be a salmon with something of a post-mortal paintjob. The man sank without trace after that.

 

Not quite without trace Paul, I believe he is at the Pontoon Bridge Hotel on Lough Conn in Co Mayo??

 

Many years ago he was a guest of the Cambridge Invicta Fly Fishing club, we put him up for the night in a local hotel. The mini bar bill was more than the room fee! [Allegedly!!]

 

Colin

 

 

 

I thought the last Burbot was taken from the Cottenham Lode near to Cambridge?

 

The greatest authority on Burbot is John I'anson who made it his latter lifes ambition to catch one. Sadly so far he hasn't and since his health is not good I doubt that he will now succeed.

I tried to get Chris Yates to meet with him but I never got a reply to my email.

 

Colin

[Paul Boote]

Not quite without trace Paul, I believe he is at the Pontoon Bridge Hotel on Lough Conn in Co Mayo??

 

 

Interesting, Colin. Just goes to show the truth in the cliche: "You can run but you cannot hide."

[Newt]

Eel Pout - makes me wonder since common names for Lota lota (Burbot) in the US include lawyer, American burbot, ling, eelpout, loche, freshwater cod so maybe we are dealing with a legit name confusion.

 

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/burbot.html

[Peter Sharpe]

You are correct Newt. I now remember that the eel pout and the burbot are one and the same. The ugly specimen my mate caught from the coast was probably a three bearded rockling or a pouting.

[Jim Gibbinson]

The eel pout to which I referred is a marine species - it's a local (east coast) name for the Viviparous blenny (Zoarces viviparus). Superficially, it's very burbot-like in appearance. It tends to grow up to about 30cm in length, but can reach 50cm.

 

Another burbot-like marine fish found round our coasts is the Butterfish (Pholis gunnellus), which grows up to about 25cm in length. Yarrell's blenny (Chirolophis ascanii) qualifies as a burbot lookalike, too.

 

None of the foregoing, so far as I am aware, move further upriver than estuarine waters - indeed, they are primarily found on open coastline.

[tony jolley]

Paul, I remember the salmon-with-spots-painted-on-it story. The guy who claimed to have caught it - someone named Pearson, I believe - said he'd done it for a joke after the deception had been revealed by AT. Mmmmmmm, could be....

 

Burbot in the Ribble (or anywhere else in the UK for that matter)? Not a chance. It's one of those stories that gets resurrected from time to time (the Bedfordshire Ouse was a regular source of such stories back in the sixties and seventies). Being charitable, I suppose incorrect identification is a possible explanation (like the ruffe that are periodically identified as baby zander, and loach that are baby barbel). Hard to imagine what might be mistaken for a burbot, though. Catfish? Possible, I suppose. In tidal water, eel-pout would be likely candidates, but I can't imagine them getting up into freshwater proper.

 

 

Theres deffp Cats in the Ribble. Well one anyway.

I landed and weighed one in 1985 (ish) it went just over 13 lb's for a gent who thought he had hooked a salmon. I don't think anyone would have believed him but I saw it as I have said.

Well done that man.