A prize specimen or a group of two or more fishies will command a premium as will a rare piscine such as that which appeared at Cheffin Grain & Comins on February 23.
It is not nature’s most beautiful creature but the burbot has a special place in British angling circles as a fish once common in the streams and slow-moving waters of East Anglia but now thought to be extinct in the United Kingdom.
According to my new friends at Classic Angling – a worthwhile new publication for enthusiasts of antique fishing tackle – the burbot is still found in brackish parts of the Baltic and in the States but a specimen has not been caught in British waters since 1969, and that catch went unverified.
Accordingly there was understandable interest in this example offered in an unlabelled flat front case 2ft 3in x 11in (68 x 28cm) and one of 25 fishing trophies offered for sale on behalf of a Cambridgeshire Angling Society, all but one taken between 1878 and 1929 from Cambridgeshire waters and on the Great Ouse. It sold for £1600 (plus 15 per cent premium).
The case of the disappearing fish
UK: The factors which make for a desirable cased fish are four-fold: the case (bowfronts are most popular), the label of a good taxidermist such as Cooper, condition and (as the joker in the pack) the beast itself.
