What does a ling look like?

I did it guys.  Swam out from Stillwater wall to the Pescadero Rocks and dove all around that area this morning.  About 2 hours in the water.  Wow.  What a great day.  Only thing was, I never saw a ling and only one small sculpin like fish that could have been a cabezon.  Lots of blue rockfish, Senoritas, a large kelp bass, and some other fish in the water column.

So, any tips on how to recognize what is before me?

Wow, starfish are really big!

That's a nice dive.  Lots to see


As far as lings, they look pretty much as they do topside.

Sometimes they'll be camoflauged... blending in with the kelp.



Sometimes the smaller ones will be out in the open with no real structure around.



Most lings will be hidden in cracks.  Use a small flashlight & take a peek... you never know what you'll see lurking in the shadows!



The big bruisers like to lounge under ledges & horizontal cracks



Don't let the lings bite you...



When you shoot them, they'll pose with you for pics!

Wow...awesome pics, and youre so good a "training" them.

Terrific pictures!  They told me a lot......about lings and diving humor..........

Seeing these, I have some ideas of how to approach that area in the future.

And I'm shopping for a camera!

wow nice pics, OK whats the story right after your hand gets taken in by the ling....

Generally I only see their head stickout out of a hole or crack waiting to ambush something, so you don't go looking for a lingcod, but rather just their head.  That means looking closely at every rock thats about the size of a football to see if it has eyes.  Bringing a flashlight also helps to see them because they tend to sit in the shade where the other fish can't see them well.

wow nice pics, OK whats the story right after your hand gets taken in by the ling....

Fuzz likes to bring his lunch with him underwater.  He had a Big Mac in a zip lock bag but that big ling grabbed it while Fuzz wasn't paying attention.  When he realized that his Big Mac was gone Fuzz chased down the ling, shoved his hand down it's gullet and retrieved his lunch. 

One needs a special diving flashlight I will assume?  "waterproof" flashlights probably aren't sufficient?

Go buy a dive light. I use a UK eLed C8. Very bright and lasts a long time. It's probably an overkill for norcal. But that's what I used while lobster diving in Socal. A smaller dive light will work equally well (or better) for norcal I'm sure.

Yup, they're available at dive shops or online for $30 and up.  For freediving you want a decent compromise between aerodynamics and brightness.  It's also good that they have an easy to use on/off switch.  I only turn mine on while I'm submerged and the batteries go a long way that way.

It's cumbersome to dive with a flashlight and another piece of gear (camera, ab iron, speargun...) because both hands are full.  It takes some practice to juggle that stuff without costing bottomtime, especially clearing your ears. 

So I discovered today.  I kept forgetting to clear when I had the borrowed flashlight in my hand!  Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll go shopping in a day or so.

Super pics, Fuzz!

Remember that, as with abalone diving, you need to be right on the bottom - cruising even as close as a foot or two above the structure will cause you to miss so much - you need to slither between the rocks like you ARE a ling!  The biggest lings I've ever seen while diving were actually laying on the bottom in between big boulders - they were too big for most holes!  I didn't bring either of them home, but I tried - one of them was at Franklin Point in 1993.   

Fuzz, those are some amazing pics. It makes me want to get out there too.
Jason

This weekend was tough - the swell that picked up and dirty viz made diving difficult.   

In times when the surge picks up, the lings either find deep cracks to hide in or return to deeper waters to escape the surge.  Saturday, I looked around with my flashlight & found about half a dozen legal lings, but none that were huge.  The last 2 I found were the biggest, so took those.  Both were tucked into deep holes, one facing away from the swell & the other facing perpendicular to the swell, but sheltered by an outcropping.

No underwater photos this time... too murky.

Nice catch.................