What to look for when fishing for Ling

[yorketransport]

What do you guys look for when picking a spot to fish for lings? I've always been a flounder fisher and never really been out for ling. I'm going to make it out at least once this season (I've said that every year  ) and I'm curious what I should look for in a good spot.  Do you tend to fish shallow or deep, high tide or low tide, special structure on the bottom, that sort of thing.

Also, if anybody has a good resource (books, videos, magazine articles) which helped you out feel free to share. I like to read everything I can to try and shorten the learning curve on this sort of thing since I don't have very many opportunities to get the boat out.

Andrew

[RadSav]

I look for rocks that make me think I will loose half my gear on the bottom

[fishngamereaper]

Depends on where you plan to fish. Ocean, sound, straights.....Watch your depth, 120ft is the max outside of hali season. You need structure of some sort in the sound and straights. On the coast they are pretty much everywhere. Try Salmon university, they have some good info, how to articles and some general maps.

[Hilltop123]

http://lingcodfishing.net/

Just type in lingcod fishing and hit search. As already mentioned Salmon U has some good articles.

[trophyhunt]

I look for rocks that make me think I will loose half my gear on the bottom

and like was said, get them off the bottom.  Ling is my favorite to catch and eat, they will on occasion grab the sea bass that you catch, have the net ready when this happens, they usually let go when they see you.  Great eating and fight like crazy. 

[lokidog]

Depends on where you plan to fish. Ocean, sound, straights.....Watch your depth, 120ft is the max outside of hali season. You need structure of some sort in the sound and straights. On the coast they are pretty much everywhere. Try Salmon university, they have some good info, how to articles and some general maps.

 

I've caught them on flat bottom out of Westport, but in the Sound they seem to prefer structure.  I've always done best on a tide that is moving into the rise of the bottom (usually incoming for my locations).  It seems that the harder it is to fish (keep your lure on the bottom, stay on your spot) the better the bite is.  It is much easier to drift downhill and you lose less gear, but the fishing is better on the uphill drift.  Use as light of a lure as you can get to the bottom since it will have more natural action.  A vertical jigging action loses less lures but a more horizontal drag/jigging action seems to produce more fish (that make it act like a real baitfish thing).

Good luck and good eating.