As soon as he set the hook, Nickolas Borash knew he had a big burbot on his line.

“It didn’t hit that hard but when I set the hook the pole just bent,” Borash said. “I thought, ‘It’s going to be a big one.’”

And it was. Borash pulled a 41 1/2-inch burbot out of the Tanana River on Oct. 9 that weighed in at 15.55 pounds. He brought it to the Fairbanks ADF&G office to have it officially weighed for a trophy certificate in ADF&G’s Trophy Fish Program. It nearly doubled the minimum weight for a trophy burbot, which is 8 pounds.

“It’s the biggest one I’ve ever caught,” said Borash, a 29-year-old heavy equipment operator at Fort Knox gold mine north of Fairbanks.

Borash is an avid burbot fisherman and his passion for the ugly freshwater cod is simple.

“They’re delicious,” said Borash, who l

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