How to catch more ling on a party boat.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Great post Leif!

[Leif]

Thanks Gerry!!!

Leif

[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!

[Ling Slinger]

Originally Posted by 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!

Once you learn it, this rig is very easy to tie in a pinch. The first thing you need to do is to snell some hooks on 8-12 inch leaders with a perfection loop tied on the other end opposite from the snelled hook. Do this ahead of the trip--make however many you think you will need for the trip.

Once you have your leadered hooks, you are ready to tie the rig. Attach mono leader to braided line via swivel or topshot with uni to uni knot just like you would do with any other rig. This is your choice.
On the other end of the leader, tie a double overhand knot to create a loop for the sinker. Now put the sinker on the loop. Next, make a loop with your fingers in the doubled line just above the sinker. Now put the perfection loop of the snelled hook through the loop in your fingers followed by threading the hook through the perfection loop and pull tight. This will attach the hook to the main line. Now adjust the height of the perfection loop (sliding) and secure it by tying another double overhand knot with the sinker (over the top). This will keep the perfection loop secured to the main line. That's all. This is known as the Belmar rig. Now that your bottom hook is ready, you can now tie a dropper loop about 18" above the sinker and add your top hook. I know this is difficult to put into words, but hopefully this is clear.

Another rig I like to use is a double hook tandem rig. This is when there are 2 hooks on the bottom. I like to use this rig when there are only ling in a spot without any cod or seabass. It gives you a better chance by putting 2 baits in the strike zone. Everything is the same as far as rigging goes, except that you put 2 hooks on your leader material by snelling the first one (like normal) and then tying a dropper loop about 5 inches above the snell. You can now attach another hook onto that and then just tie the perfection loop on the other end and you will be good to go. Attach it to the main line in the same way you do with a Belmar rig.

I'm sure that your rig setup is fine as long as the dropper loop is very close to the sinker. I like the Belmar rig because I can tie it in about 30 seconds and it is strong. This is the rig I use for blackfishing too. You want to make sure that you have a hook that is on or near the bottom because that is where the majority of the ling are found.
Good luck.
Erik

[jmurr711]

using pout and ravens for bait wtf has this world come too

[tautog]

I tend to use 2/0 baitholders on a high-lo until the bite tapers off. Then if the spot isn't ultra-sticky, I use my flounder rig with #2 hooks on light line. I seem to catch some nice fish on this after the main bite has stopped, maybe the fish get spooky. As for hook size and cod, I just haven't seen enough large cod to worry about hook size. Biggest one I've seen since the winter was 8lbs and most are within 3" of the size limit. I have caught a few keepers on my #2 hooks and 15lb line with no problems.