If you were to hold a beauty contest for Michigan’s fish species, you’ll get a lot nominees: brook trout, steelhead, yellow perch – especially pre-spawn hens when their fins glow bright orange – or any number of finsters. But if you were to hold an ugly fish contest, as soon as burbot were named, the nominations might just close.
Deep-water denizens that I would guess most anglers have never encountered, burbot are fish that even their mothers would struggle to love. Despite their relative rarity, burbot “have gained a lot traction in the last decade or so,” says Jim Chamberlin, a northern Michigan fishing guide.
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