The bite is on for freshwater cod in the Kootenai River

Spring burbot fishing is on the radar of North Idaho anglers.

Plunking for the freshwater cod — indigenous to the Kootenai River — was once a mainstay, but it has recently been introduced to a new generation of anglers after having gone missing from the system’s fishing menu for decades.

Newcomers to the fishery are getting hooked.

“We always have guys come in with burbot fishing stories,” Glenn Lefebvre of Sandpoint’s North 40 Outfitters in Ponderay said.

The fishery — best in spring during the ling cod’s spawning season — is in danger of becoming well known.

For years however, it wasn’t like this.

By the early 2000s, the river’s ling cod population was in danger of going away.

Although Kootenai River burbot had been a staple winter and spring fishery for Boundary County residents for much of the 20th century, overfishing and habitat issues eventually bottomed out the fish’s population.

By the early 2000s, an estimated 50 fish remained in the entire Kootenai River system, according to Idaho Fish and Game.

The population has since grown to 40,000-50,000 fish.

“With the help of state, tribal, international, and federal partners and a state-of-the-art hatchery run by the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, the return of the burbot fishery signaled a major conservation milestone,” Kiira Siitari of Fish and Game said. “There is a growing number of anglers hitting the Kootenai and trying to figure out this unique and rewarding fishery.”

Burbot usually hang out in deep pools and slow-moving, cold water, hugging the bottom as they feed on other fish, sculpin, fish eggs, clams and crayfish.

“Once February arrives, burbot rapidly begin transitioning to spawning mode and start moving to shallower water in the river and its tributaries,” Siitari said.

In February and March the river leopards are accessible to bank anglers.

Siitari said that burbot — unlike many fish species — do not build nests to mate and lay eggs. Instead they congregate into a writhing ball of fish whose eggs are fertilized before lodging on the river bottom.

Since sampling began in 1992, biologists have located and counted the most adult burbot between mid-February and mid-March in the main channel of the river as well as in tributaries such as Deep, Smith and Boundary creeks, Siitari said.

To find burbot, check places where tributaries meet the main river.

“These areas have the types of substrates burbot prefer to spawn over and are potentially burbot hotspots,” Fisheries biologist T.J. Ross said. “We see a lot of folks using cut bait, worms or shrimp, with many folks reporting that native peamouth chub is the best bait around.”

The fish have a barbel, or chin whisker that they use to probe the river bottom, so bottom fishing with bait is a good bet, Ross said.

Burbot are the only freshwater cod species in North America and the Kootenai River is the only place in Idaho with a native burbot population. After years of low numbers, Idaho Fish and Game reopened the fishery last year and anglers caught an estimated 500 to 700 burbot.

Kootenai River anglers last year hooked fish up to 35 inches and 13 1/2 pounds, according to Fish and Game. Average fish run around 18 to 24 inches and weigh between 2 and 4 pounds.