Prepping for the new style Burbot Bash

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

With a new format and earlier start for the Burbot Bash, fisheries officials are busy tagging fish for the contest from recent netting. Here's a report from Ryan Mosley, Flaming Gorge Project Leader for the Utah DWR.

We just completed our annual burbot netting on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, in collaboration with Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD). Using fish captured in the trammel nets, we also tagged and released burbot for Daggett County's "2013-14 Burbot Bash" which kicks-off on November 15th. As in previous years, burbot were tagged with Passive Integrated Transponder tags (PIT). PIT tags are internal tags, about the size of a grain of rice, and are only identified with specialized electronic readers. See a pic taken by Lucy Diggins (WGFD) of UDWR Technician, Ben Carswell, implanting a PIT tag into a burbot. We netted a lake wide total of 157 burbot, down slightly from last year's total of 170. The largest burbot we netted (also the largest I've observed to date) was a 36.2 inch, 11.3 lb female from a net set in the Green River Arm, WY. See pic of UDWR Native Aquatics Technician, Ian Harding holding this massive predator that swims no more.

The new format for the Burbot Bash has the fishng tournament running from Nov. 15 to Jan. 26. Organizers say they are providing more than $100,000 in prizes with one specific fish worth $25,000, two worth $10,000 and one $5,000 fish.