Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Damien on February 18, 2020, 11:23:59 AM
-
(https://i.imgur.com/dS6Dc2H.jpg)
Can anyone help me identify this fish?
Fished this lake a 100 times, never caught one of these.
-
Sculpin
-
Looks like a long skinny Sculpin.
It also looks like a juvenile Burbot. Not sure which lake that is. Looks like Alouette.
-
Yeah yesterday on Alouette, was quickly unhooked and sent away.
Just didn't seem sculpin-y at the quick glance while my friend quickly snapped a pick as I flipped the hook out and sent him on his way.
It's funny, as we were pulling up to the launch, I said to my friend, 'are there burbot in here, I never checked and never caught one'.
-
Pretty sure that's a Prickly sculpin. I wonder about burbot in Alouette Lake ... I have seen them in the Fraser River at Yale so I suppose it is possible.
-
Weird. I can't see a picture.
[EDIT] Even weirder. Chrome shows no picture. IE shows an X. Safari shows the picture.
-
I have seen them in the Fraser River at Yale
Cool! I’ve always associated them with big lakes in the interior
-
Coastrange sculpin.
-
Thanks Rod.
Has anyone heard anything definitive about burbot in Aloutte?
-
Coastrange sculpin.
Hey Rod, You have younger eyes than I so I'm guessing your'e sure that's a Coastrange, lol! Here is an interesting link regarding these 2 sculpin species, and how their habitats, at least in rivers, is distinct.
https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/white/White99.pdf
-
Thanks Rod.
Has anyone heard anything definitive about burbot in Aloutte?
Personally, no. But interestingly, their distribution does not include a narrow band of land along the west coast http://www.llss.sd73.bc.ca/clark/flyfishing/burbot.pdf
-
Personally, no. But interestingly, their distribution does not include a narrow band of land along the west coast http://www.llss.sd73.bc.ca/clark/flyfishing/burbot.pdf
Fascinating link. I the lack of ice explains why they aren't found along the coast:
"The burbot is one of the few
Canadian freshwater fish that
spawns in mid-winter under
the ice. January through March
is their spawning period. They
spawn at night, in shallow
water up to 1.25 metres deep,
over sand or gravel. Spawning
is usually in lakes but they
occasionally move into rivers to
spawn. They are weaker
swimmers than trout or char
and need slower water to make
their spawning migrations"
-
Fwiw, I electro shocked a small, app. 18" burbot in the Fraser River near Stoner, just south of Prince George. That was in the early spring as there was still ice in the river, roughly the early 90's
-
I the lack of ice explains why they aren't found along the coast
Good catch. I bet that's it.
My initial thinking was that most of the larger lakes in the LM are impoundments and it's rare to find a large deep lake in the Coastal Mountain range along the coast.
But I think you nailed it. The temperate marine climate keeps lakes ice free.
-
Coastrange sculpin.
The Fish ID Booklet comes in handy, right Rod? ;)
-
Burbot can spawn under ice but do not require ice over for reproduction. As a kid, I caught burbot off the Bear Creek logbooks on Okanagan lake.....which rarely freezes over
-
Perhaps the answer is that Alouette is a relative young lake and burbot simply were never here, obviously, before the damn created the lake.