Ling fishing - help !

[tommy a]

Chaps,

Hoping to get out on our own boat tomorrow and try a few inshore wrecks - well about 10 - 15 miles out - I would love to catch a nice ling and as the tides are decreasing I was going to give them a go.

Can someone advise the best tactics - am I right in thinking its a slow drift over the wreck with bait on - makeral flapper or squid - with a 7/0 hook or is that a bit too big ? Surely if we are drifitng the wreck slowly then theres a chance of catching the gear in it so how close to the bottom should we be going ?

Any help would be much appreciated thanks.

[KKK]

You can drift or anchor a wreck, with drifting you tend either to hook a fish or lose the lot unless drifting down the side of the wreck. Hook size I would go 8/0 and snood length about 200lb+ nylon. The reason I would pick nylon is if you are using wire and you get a kink in it you may not be able to use it again. Don't forget ling will bite through anything less than about 150lb. As for baits any form of mackerel tends to work,better tends to be mackerel flapper or fillet hooked just once to help prevent spinning in the water, squid will also work. If you anchor the wreck you may also pick up conger, I am sure other people will have their own oppinion on baits.

[wildcard]

I would go along with the above advice. We tend to use 8/0 or bigger for ling with the best period usually around slack water and an hour either side. I use tubi booms and try to keep the bait static for as long as possible. With tubi booms the fish can pick up the bait without feeling the lead weight. When you feel the fish pick the bait up resist the urge to strike and give it some slack. Big squid baits are outfishing mackeral for some reason where we are at the moment. Lovely little tide for this type of fishing tomorrow.

Here's one (22lb) we caught 10 days ago;



Tight lines
Alan