Dale, you should have come!, It is poor mans lobster. Ling=great.

I think us northern boys should plan a little get together one day on Jo or rosseau. Have a little fun, share some laughs and tell some tales. Oh, and catch some fish of course. Pretty soon she will all be melted!

FF.

Meet and greet on Dunlop!! Lol

Thanks for posting the follow up photos of the prepped fish and plateful.

Ling looks like cleaned in one piece? What technique do you use to clean?

Nice catch and pics. I never caught a ling yet. In comparison to a lake trout. Pound for pound which one fights harder?

F4d. A trout the same size fights more I'd say. The ling felt more like weight with a few shakes. Now we've only got 2 so by no means an expert.

FF.

Congrats on your day and we target ling at times here and catching them till your arms ache happens . Bigger ones will give you a good tussle . Good eating they are and folks are catching on to the fact so you never see them left for seagulls and foxes anymore like I used too .

Blue note. As for cleaning I watched a you tube video. But I didn't clean this one, my friend did. He said it was actually easy so I'm confident when it's my turn. Some very helpful videos on there.

Thanks TD. We are actually going to try to get some more this season if we get the chance. Any tips to improve our odds? I heard they start to congregate shallow this time of year to spawn. So far a minnow on bottom has been the ticket for us. And I do imagine the big ones could fight good, they are like one huge muscle the way they curl up on themselves, they must have pretty good power under the water.

FF.

I have never caught any but someone on here said they tend to 'come out' around dusk.

Yes they are a night feeder as a rule and usually spawn in mid february on . They like rocky shoals or shale beds . I have one in particular that I fish that tops out at 13 ft and another at 30 ft but alot of our lakes have them here in good numbers . When getting ready and in the spawn ling move into these areas and clean them hitting and gobbling down anything that is there . We like to use glow jig heads and tails with a piece of minnow attached but they will hit just a minnow laying on bottom . I usually drill a bunch of holes in a circle and bait them salties, busted up minnows or even ground up fish guts . Then we start fishing and hang on tight to the rods or down the hole they go . Lol 5 of us have caught 150 plus in a few hours at times . If timing is right you can really get into them even during daylight but timing is the key and they are aggressive to say the least . They also will come in real shallow at last ice or as the ice just leaves . We have caught them up to 13 pounds with plenty in the 6-8 pound range although most will be 3-5 pounds and are males . They are a very common and so far mostly un utilized species . You can pretty well guarantee they exist in the lake if it holds laketrout or whities although up here the pickerel lakes have them too . They are not that hard to find or to catch but sure are fun fun fun . As far as cleaning them that is easy to . Cut a circle just through the skin behind the head . Nail head on a board on a tree. Needle nose pliers and grab the skin a pull down on skin . Then just trim meat down to the rib cage on each side ..Take those two strips off . Now your at the real meat of the fish . The rest of fish from rib cage /dorsal are to tip of tail is all meat and easy to remove . Enjoy your dinners and sorry that this all looks like one paragraph but damn cells are hard to post on Lol Any other questions I can help with please ask but no hotspots or the like will I share via the open board Lol

Thanks for the help trapperdirk.

FF.

Great results there FF !! I know I'm not the Dale you are referring to , but hey , I love to fish too !!

Enjoyed the post and pics. I had my first taste of ling from an Ottawa area lake just 2 weeks ago and I was impressed. Hope to get on some again soon.

An old friend of mine showed me how to clean ling. He would cut the skin right around the fish's body just behind the gills then hang the fish on a nail by the lower jaw. With the fish secured and held in place by the nail, he used pliers to pull the skin down over the tail to skin the fish. Finally, he would filet the fish (and, boy, could he cook them too!)

Nice catch guys I love those cold mornings when the fish are biting.Great story behind the pics.

That's alright shag, there's enough fish for two Dales! Lol. M K, that seems to be the most popular way to clean those fish. The nail and pliers method really does a number on that tough skin these guys have and gets u to that beautiful meat underneath. I really have to get back up there and see if I can get another. Just a taste of that is worth sitting out in the bitter cold, not to mention those beauty northern lakers.

FF

It's certainly good to hear that many more people are now trying the Ling.....aka Burbot.lota lota.

In my opnion no fish is ugly, just a perception, well ok lampreys are ugly

For too many years they were caught and simply tossed onto the ice. What a waste as they do make excellent table fare as has been described/discussed.

I agree with TD, there are spots where you can virtually tire yourself out catching these guys.

This is the tim of year till ice out to go after them.

Some specialized burbot fishers will prebait an area for a few days and then go target them

A good post and lots of good info