Ling Food

I know a lot of people say sand dabs are the best bait for lings.
 Have any studies been done to determine the staple in a lings diet? I need to know before Sat.

There was a big ling caugt on a sanddab at last years event.

I hear they really go crazy for frogs on the top 

I hear they really go crazy for frogs on the top 

Are there Lily pads out there?

The 2 bigger lings I've seen this year were hitchhikers on underlings that took the jig first.  Something about a small ling shaking, you know the feeling, you can tell when you hook an underling because of the way the rod dances.  I don't get that same active feeling with other "ling bait" fish including greenling and you know how much I like greenling as ling bait.  Hmmm ... if it feels like an underling, let it dance down there for a while and see what happens!  All that shaking and dancing is the dinner bell to big ol' momma ling.

-Allen

Proof that lings like dabs...



Ling eating a flounder video. Pretty schweet!

THAT is a very cool video!!!

Love the way the ling shakes the flounder around till it's pointing in the correct direction.  Hope I can remember to let my bait sit for a while after the first tug!

Allen

Damn! The Ling is a serious predator! And them sand dabs look to be good bait.. if there's a big Ling lurkin' close by

Randy will be soooooooooooooo jealous as he has yet to catch a starry flounder!  I've always had the impression that lings hit fast.  Shows how much more I have to learn.  On the other hand, my best success with cabazon is to let them get that hook well swallowed............

hey Pat:

Maybe they hit fast, but chew slowly?

I wonder how big each of those fish were, relatively?

Allen

That's a sweet video of a ling and a starry.

At the lab here, they made the mistake of putting a small monkey faced eel (actually it's a prickleback but that's another story) in with two small lings (among other fish)...
Anyway, I walked by the tank at one point and it looked like a scene from "lady and the tramp".... there was a ling on each end of the eel.  Every now and then they would do what looked like the "death rolls" crocodiles do.  The next day, they were still both on the eel but they each had gotten a much closer to the middle. By the end of the second day they manged to break the thing in half.

looked like a scene from "lady and the tramp"

that's too funny - shoulda taken a pic 

Actually, I took a couple photos with my cell phone.  I'll see if I can't dig those up and transfer them some how.

Brian

Flounders are very popular ling bait up here in WA.  There are fewer greenling the further south you go in Puget Sound so the next live bait of choice is flounders or shiner perch.

-Allen