Reminiscing About Monster Dawson Burbot (from Doug)

February 03, 2008 at 7:26 pm

I was admiring the Burbot caught in Dawson City you recently featured on FishonYukon.  There certainly are some big out there - nice catch Cathrine. This catch brought back some memories from about 1990. Around that time we embarked on a contaminated fish tissue survey of the Yukon using burbot as one of the target fish (i.e. top of the food web type fish).  At work we started to receive fish from various places and on one occasion the YTG folks sent us their catch from Dawson.  Among the several Burbot there was one that stood out.  According to my notes it was 8.55kg (almost 19Lbs), length was 105cm (see attached picture).  One also has to keep in mind this fish had been frozen for a few days so I am certain it lost a few grams of weight by the time we measure it up in our lab.  I remember the liver was in the range of about 1200grams.  It was caught on an over-night set through the ice in the Yukon River near Dawson.  The person who I understood set the lines and retrieved it was Kevin Johnstone (I think he still works with YTG) so he should get all the credit on this catch.  Maybe it could be a record
for the Yukon, I don’t know?? 

I recall reading about some of the much bigger burbot caught in the Lower Yukon River (in Alaska) back in the late 1800s make these ones look like puppies but I am sure there are many more Big Burbot stories out there. Hopefully people will send them in.

Have a great day

Cheers,
Doug Davidge

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