Adopt-A-Fish update – April 13, 2006
a Yellowstone River burbot.
to be a Yellowstone burbot
By MATT JAEGER
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Spring has sprung on the prairies and recent storms and warm weather have brought high, muddy flows to the Yellowstone River. That’s good news for the native fish species of the Missouri-Yellowstone Adopt-A-Fish Program.
Water temperatures and flows are steadily increasing, which is sure to trigger most fish species to begin migrations to their favorite spawning areas soon. However, for burbot – which are also called ling by fishermen – melting ice and newly emerging green leaves and grass signal the end of their busy season instead of the beginning.
That burbot are a little bit different than most other fish in these rivers doesn’t come as much of a surprise after taking a look at one.
Burbot are anguilliform or eel-shaped. Like eels, which burbot are not related to, this unique body shape helps them to be effective ambush predators even though they are not very strong swimmers compared to other river fish.
Burbot like to hide out in boulders and rock piles, or even burrow into the river bottom, and lunge out at or stalk passing fish when they are hungry. Another factor that makes burbot unique is their love of winter weather and temperatures.
As water temperatures cool in the winter, the metabolism and activity level of most fish species slows, causing them to become almost sluggish and reluctant to move or even eat much. For example, the radio-tagged channel catfish, shovelnose sturgeon, and blue suckers in the Yellowstone River moved very little over the winter months.
But burbot activity levels increased as water temperatures cooled. Burbot are most active when the river is ice-covered and water temperatures are near freezing. In fact, burbot love the cold water so much that Montana is about as far south as they live. Burbot are found all around the world but never too far from the Arctic north.
True to form, our Yellowstone River burbot had a busy winter. Because the river was ice-covered, we had to complete tracking runs by airplane instead of boat, but we learned that our burbot were moving an average of 30 miles up and downstream.
One burbot, our largest, started the autumn above Glendive, moved 40 miles upstream to the Powder River, then dropped about 25 miles back down to near Fallon this spring. It is possible that this fish was moving to spawning areas near the Powder River, as many other species do because of its turbid (muddy) flows.
Determining where potential spawning areas occur is one of the goals of this study but, like many aspects of burbot life history, is currently poorly understood. One thing we do know for certain is that burbot spawning times are different. Burbot spawn under the ice in winter instead of spring or fall like most other species. However, like the other river fish species in this study, burbot move long distances to different habitats throughout the year.
What our burbot will do next is unknown. It’s possible that they’ll seek out cooler temperatures at the bottom of deep holes or even in downstream reservoirs to beat the heat. Or perhaps, just as other fish species get sluggish when the water temperatures get too cold, our burbot may become sluggish and exhibit few movements as water temperatures warm.
Keep posted to see how these unique fish respond to the changing seasons relative to the other species we have tagged and next winter, when the river is ice-covered and the days are at their coldest, think of the burbot happily enjoying their version of perfect Montana weather.
School classrooms, youth fishing clubs and home schoolers can sign up for the program and adopt and name two fish. Just go to the Web site and click on the How To Adopt Button or send us an e-mail at Missouri-Yellowstone Adopt-A-Fish.
Adopt-A-Fish correspondents Dave Fuller, at Fort Peck, and Matt Jaeger, at Glendive, are fisheries biologists with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. They’ll post weekly updates every Thursday throughout April and May on this site and in the Outdoors section of The Billings Gazette.