How to catch more ling on a party boat.

[frugalfisherman]

Biggest mistake I see people make is they get stuck, loose a rig and then they are 10-15 minutes rumaging through their tackle box trying to put a new one together while everyone else is catching fish. If you ling fish you will loose rigs so be ready. 1.0 hooks with small baits don't cut it. Are you looking to to catch 6 inch ling and bergals? What if a 15 pound cod decides to bite. 4.0 - 5.0 with the bait woven on tight. Make it tough for the bergals to steal bait before a ling grabs it.

[JMM727]

Another good choice for bait is ling belly cut into strips. Stays on the hook and at times will out fish any other bait day or night.

Cut off the belly of one or two of your first caught ling and cut into approximately 1/2 inch by 2 or 3 inch strips or ask a mate to show you how. You'll have enough bait forthe rest of your trip. Hook the strip through the tough skin once or twice. Give it a try!

[Ryan W]

I've never tried that one before- I might give it a go next time! Usually, i only go to another bait when bergalls are around, and then it's usually bergall strips. I think that clams are more than fine for most of the time. It does sound good if you need a tougher bait though- something harder for the bergalls to take off!

Thanks for the tip!

Frugal- 2/0's have always worked fine for me, but I have used 3/0's on occasion. I think that a 4/0 or 5/0 might be a bit big for ling (but I have had them inhale my 7/0 cod hook during the wintertime), but to each his own. I've never had problems with cod with my 2/0, but have also never tried pulling in a 15 lber.

[Leif]

Thanks to everyone for all the additional tips and information. Good comments and observations.

With regard to hook choice.....I have found you will catch more fish with 1/0 to 2/0 hooks overall. I think this is especially true when the ling are not that big, and when they are not as agressive in the winter.

I am not opposed to larger hooks and only used 4/0 hooks on our last trip on the Paramount. The ling were large and there were several cod caught, so in this case larger hooks were better.

I think the important thing is....as in any type of fishing is to be willing and able to adapt to the current situation be prepared to do so.

Not having the correct rigs, hooks, weight and equipment does not bode well for any type of fishing. Fumbling around for a rig during a hot bite as mentioned in one of the replys can only limit your catch.

Be prepared, adapt and most of all have fun!

Leif

[tropics]

Originally Posted by JMM727

Another good choice for bait is ling belly cut into strips. Stays on the hook and at times will out fish any other bait day or night.

Cut off the belly of one or two of your first caught ling and cut into approximately 1/2 inch by 2 or 3 inch strips or ask a mate to show you how. You'll have enough bait forthe rest of your trip. Hook the strip through the tough skin once or twice. Give it a try!

This is my bait of choice get a small ling an strip the belly.

[Ryan W]

I agree that the best thing to do is be ready to adapt. I have almost all of my rigs pre-tied, but if I run out, I can tie a new one right onto my topshot very quickly with just the supplies I keep in my pockets. Just tie up a surgeon's loop and two droppers, and you'll be good to go pretty fast .

Last trip I was on, we had more of the "fun size" models, so 2/0's were better. If you had a 4/0, you wouldn't have had such a nice catch by the end of the day. Even the cod there were fine of the 2/0's (at least mine was- I had a 21 incher). I think that the 2/0 is a nice size for almost all bottom fish, even porgies. They have always been fine with me for almost all of my fishing.

Have those rigs ready!

Ryan

[Leif]

Proof is in da puddin. Let's see those ling pictures.

Leif

[Ryan W]

Here's one of mine. First one, fish are for my dad and I. My last trip I only had my cell phone and the guy i got to take the photos missed the whole pile of fish . There's also an old pic from the Jamaica II (I can post because he's a sponsor now ). The last pic is of a cod (yes, It's not a ling) that the old man caught on the Jamaica on a seabass trip (yes, not a ling trip per se, but we did get ling). It won the pool, so I deemed it worthy of posting. Enjoy!

[Ling Slinger]

A lot of great advice on here already. I always fish with a Belmar rig with an added dropper loop up high when fishing for ling and cod. I find it crucial to have a leadered hook below the sinker (Belmar rig--just like a single hook tog rig) for ling. About 10-12 inches long on 50# leader material and secured by a double overhand knot with the sinker. I then tie a dropper about 18" above the sinker primarily for cod and pollack (mostly in winter), but ling do come up that high to grab a bait. Cod also hit the bottom hooks a lot.

I like to use 4/0 and 5/0 gami baitholder hooks for several reasons. The biggest reason is if there are cod around. You need a sharp hook that will stay buttoned up in the rubber lips of a cod. You will roll a 10-15 lb. cod or pollack on an improper hook and it is not a good feeling, believe me. Also, the barbs on the shank keep the clam woven onto the hook much easier than a non-baitholder. Also these hooks are extremely sharp and definitely help in getting a good hookset. Another tip--Stay away from the 1/0-3/0 gami baitholders. They are very fragile and the points bend and break pretty easily on a good sized fish or on structure. Use at least a 4/0--these are good.
Me and my dad have fished for ling and cod a lot on his boat and we've been having a very good year. One trip at the end of June we had 8 keeper cod to 10# and a bunch of ling, short cod, and seabass just at the SR reef.

One of my favorite baits other than clam is small pieces of pout. The trick is to fillet the pout AND skin it too. The meat is tough enough to stay on the hook w/o the skin. This bait works extremely well when there are a lot of trash fish around (mostly in winter). Sometimes the ling don't even have a chance to hit a clam before a dog, pout, silver eel, or sea raven is on it already. You can avoid these fish by using a small strip of pout--maybe 2 inches long. Bergall strips also work too.

Hopefully these tips can help you put some more ling in the box.

Erik

[Ryan W]

Great tips there erik- I like the idea of a pout strip when the trash fish are thick. This weekend we had so many bergall strips that we didn't need the pout strips, but they look like they might work.

I did have a couple of 3/0 gami baitholders break on me over the weekend when using pliers to get them out of the pout (I even broke one with my bare hands). I do have some 4/0's that I'll try when larger ling are around, but if they are just smaller models, then I'll stick with my 2/0's to try to grab them too. I do think that the hooks on droppers work OK for me, but I'd love to try your rig. Can you explain further how to do the overhand knot with the sinker loop? I'm a little confused about that one.

As far as the higher dropper, I do find that ling do hit it. Sometimes wrecks have contour, and so the ling swim along the top shelf and then see the bait on the top hook as the sinker rests on the bottom, so they grab the top hook. I have also heard of where the ling were swimming like 5 feet off the bottom in schools and if you were on the bottom you weren't catching.


Great tips there to help put more ling in the box!