Where are all the ling!

[fishunt]

USED TO LOVE TO GO OUT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR TO FILL UP ON LING! IS ANYBODY CATCHING ANY LING AT ALL THIS WINTER! I AM JUST NOT SEEING ANY LING REPORTS ANYMORE. SO SAD!:mad:

[frugalfisherman]

Dogfish ate them.

[bulletbob]

Many members here will call me a doom and gloomer, and get all pissed off, but IMHO we will be seeing bag limits and seasons on Ling soon... They get hit hard all year by recs with the restrictions on all the other species, and the draggers don't give them much of a break either. i see them on ice all year up here in ny state, 250 miles from the ocean. at big prices.. they are marketed here as whiting at times, and hake at others

The fall and winter seasons that used to be hot for Ling are just a shadow of years past.. Now they are more of a welcome bycatch during the spring/ summer Blackfish/seabass/early season fluke seasons... Ling were caught for decades on fairly shallow open bottom, clam beds, along channels, in mud, sand, rocks, wherever there was food for them.. Today, fishermen think of them as a "deep water" wreck/ reef/rock fish.. Thats only because the numbers are so far down historically.. We always caught them right on sand/mud bottom from the shorline to maybe 50-70 FOW from Jan until early June and then again starting in Nov.. It was an 8 month season inshore, right to the shoreline jetties at times,and then in summer, the deep water wrecks would yield big numbers of BIG Ling.. Times have changed drastically for the Squirrel/Red Hake, and I fear the impending imposition of pretty severe catch restrictions one day before very long.. The numbers are simply no longer there... I think they still get a lot of them in New England, not sure, but in the NY Bight, I am not very optimistic... bob

[dakota560]

Again no one wants to hear it but until you remove the commercial pressure from every &^%^$%# species in the ocean, they are all subject to over harvest and being depleted. The Russians and small mesh netters DESTROYED the ling and whiting fishery along with the cod and mackerel many years ago and it's never rebounded and never will without addressing the continuous beating they take from commercial pressure. Every fishery with today's technologies are in danger.

[bulletbob]

Again no one wants to hear it but until you remove the commercial pressure from every &^%^$%# species in the ocean, they are all subject to over harvest and being depleted. The Russians and small mesh netters DESTROYED the ling and whiting fishery along with the cod and mackerel many years ago and it's never rebounded and never will without addressing the continuous beating they take from commercial pressure. Every fishery with today's technologies are in danger.

I agree to a point dakota... We still had nice fishing in deep water in the Mud Hole and on wrecks for many years even after the 80's and 90's.. I started noticing the decline even in deep water maybe 5-6 years ago... I think they started getting hit too hard year round even in rocky areas and on deep water wrecks by head boats and charters because they were the "only game in town" at times.. They just don't get any breaks these days... same thing with Blackfish.. Tog were not fished for all winter years ago the way they are today.. Now the ones that stay active are the only fish available from Dec through the winter.. It seems when one species goes down others follow because of added pressure.. I don't know what the answer is.. There;s just too much pressure on too few fish.. bob

[Ling Slinger]

Dogs and to a lesser extent pout, scallopers and habitat shifting due to warmer water temps.

Draggers took their hit but that was in the 70s/80s/early 90s and ling had a chance to recover, which they did in the 2000s. Now it's these other factors in my opinion

[Reelron]

Let me throw my two sense in the hat! While I do believe that fishing pressure does play a big part in some species getting fished out i also believe that every species has cycles. Cycles of abundance and cycles of scarcity. In some case a species gets scarce and boom here comes all the doom & gloomers! Then up jumps NMF and we all take up golf!

[dakota560]

I agree to a point dakota... We still had nice fishing in deep water in the Mud Hole and on wrecks for many years even after the 80's and 90's.. I started noticing the decline even in deep water maybe 5-6 years ago... I think they started getting hit too hard year round even in rocky areas and on deep water wrecks by head boats and charters because they were the "only game in town" at times.. They just don't get any breaks these days... same thing with Blackfish.. Tog were not fished for all winter years ago the way they are today.. Now the ones that stay active are the only fish available from Dec through the winter.. It seems when one species goes down others follow because of added pressure.. I don't know what the answer is.. There;s just too much pressure on too few fish.. bob

Back in the 60's and 70's there were more party boats and recreational boats targeting whiting and ling than there are today. It's not even close. Every port Highlands, Belmar, Point Pleasant had bottom fishing boats targeting them in the spring and fall during the day as well as a number of boats which ran the long gone "Magic Hour" trips from 3-9 during the fall. Who remebers the fishery every year at the cedars with flounder and ling when they came in to spawn. Every party boat in the highlands was in on that fishery to start the spring season. It NEVER effected the biomass! And until the Russians cleaned the bottom of them they were as abundant as any fish I've ever seen. For anyone who isn't old enough to have experienced those days, you have no idea how tremendous a fishery it was year in year out. The numbers were staggering. Both ling and whiting were both wiped out in a few years by commercial pressure. And while the commercial pressure has been reduced because the fishery was destroyed, it hasn't stopped. I've seen on at least a half dozen occasions in the last five years heading to the canyons acres of small whiting and ling floating on the surface from continued dragging. These are 5-6 inch fish which aren't marketable, dead discard by commercial vessels. The biomass was destroyed and we still allow unlimited netting! In my opinion, this has nothing to do with climate change, habitat change or anything else. These fish have very predictable habits and are an easy target for today's technology and are being wiped out one species after another.

[dakota560]

Let me throw my two sense in the hat! While I do believe that fishing pressure does play a big part in some species getting fished out i also believe that every species has cycles. Cycles of abundance and cycles of scarcity. In some case a species gets scarce and boom here comes all the doom & gloomers! Then up jumps NMF and we all take up golf!

If your theory holds water then we must be in a 40 year cycle for ling and whiting because that's about how long it's been since it crashed.

[Inishmore3]

The Ling are gone. The Fluke and Sea Bass regulations ended Ling fishing as we used to know it.

It's very sad. If this industry was a stock, your broker would urge you to sell.

[bulletbob]

Back in the 60's and 70's there were more party boats and recreational boats targeting whiting and ling than there are today. It's not even close. Every port Highlands, Belmar, Point Pleasant had bottom fishing boats targeting them in the spring and fall during the day as well as a number of boats which ran the long gone "Magic Hour" trips from 3-9 during the fall. Who remebers the fishery every year at the cedars with flounder and ling when they came in to spawn. Every party boat in the highlands was in on that fishery to start the spring season. It NEVER effected the biomass! And until the Russians cleaned the bottom of them they were as abundant as any fish I've ever seen. For anyone who isn't old enough to have experienced those days, you have no idea how tremendous a fishery it was year in year out. The numbers were staggering. Both ling and whiting were both wiped out in a few years by commercial pressure. And while the commercial pressure has been reduced because the fishery was destroyed, it hasn't stopped. I've seen on at least a half dozen occasions in the last five years heading to the canyons acres of small whiting and ling floating on the surface from continued dragging. These are 5-6 inch fish which aren't marketable, dead discard by commercial vessels. The biomass was destroyed and we still allow unlimited netting! In my opinion, this has nothing to do with climate change, habitat change or anything else. These fish have very predictable habits and are an easy target for today's technology and are being wiped out one species after another.

Yes I remember it well.. Never thought I'd see the day when 6 or 8 ling would be a decent days catch.. We caught 6 or 8 ling/whiting within 3 minutes on a decent day years ago... I agree the fishing is still being impacted by the commercial netting, and wish there was an answer.. Here in NY state Wegmans has those tiny whiting on ice all the time, about $6-7 a pound in the round last I remember.. 6-8 inches long.. The same size as the Peruvian Smelt some of us use for fluke bait. I guess some people just pan fry or bake them whole.. Heads, fins-ass-gills etc..... Its actually heartbreaking for me to see.. The few fish that ARE left being netted are just a click above the friggin' larval stage, and people buy and eat them like that... Spearing/rainfish next??.. Why not?.. Just as much meat on the damn bones...bob

[bulletbob]

The Ling are gone. The Fluke and Sea Bass regulations ended Ling fishing as we used to know it.

It's very sad. If this industry was a stock, your broker would urge you to sell.

Please elaborate.. You think its because of the restrictions imposed, and then boats targeted ling all summer??/.. Just wondering.. Thats kind of the way I am thinking... bob

[Blind Archer]

I' ve enjoyed the era of the LB pier, magic hour boats and right off the jettys. Like Dakota said, I've witnessed miles and miles of juvenile fish floating behind our trawlers, not the russians. Multiply that by the # of boats x the number of trawls x the # of days and you have wiped out a fishery. THe number of floaters is difficult to even describe.

[Ryelof]

I agree with most people here, however I have had some very good ling/flounder trips this past summer. On the Mimi and a ns boat out of Leonardo. It is a shame that this part of the season has been so poor, however I am not into doom and gloom yet.

[tautog]

Ever since the heavy trawling, the population of ling has been very cyclical. You get a few bad years and then a few good ones. Right now this is the second bad one so we will see if it bounces back again. We actually had one stretch in the late 90s when I went a year without catching one even though I was on a NS bottom boat 1 to 2 times per week and then it bounced back so who knows.

[dakota560]

Yes I remember it well.. Never thought I'd see the day when 6 or 8 ling would be a decent days catch.. We caught 6 or 8 ling/whiting within 3 minutes on a decent day years ago... I agree the fishing is still being impacted by the commercial netting, and wish there was an answer.. Here in NY state Wegmans has those tiny whiting on ice all the time, about $6-7 a pound in the round last I remember.. 6-8 inches long.. The same size as the Peruvian Smelt some of us use for fluke bait. I guess some people just pan fry or bake them whole.. Heads, fins-ass-gills etc..... Its actually heartbreaking for me to see.. The few fish that ARE left being netted are just a click above the friggin' larval stage, and people buy and eat them like that... Spearing/rainfish next??.. Why not?.. Just as much meat on the damn bones...bob

Bob,

Couldn't agree with you more. I've seen the same size whiting at King's, Wegman's, Whole Foods and Shop Rite and in some cases their not as big as smelts. It boggles my mind how a fishery has collapsed so much and the powers to be allow these fish to be brought to market. Almost everyone in the 60's and 70's would fish with a hook running off the sinker and two or three dropper hooks. How may times did you come up with two or three whiting on the higher droppers and a huge ling of the bottom hook. On the Long Branch pier, when the tide came in and it got dark thousands if not tens of thousands of fish flooded in under the lights every night attracted by the bait. It was like clock work in the fall / early winter until the water got too cold. You'd catch 6-7 fish within five minutes!

There's no doubt restrictions on one species effects the pressure on other species. Years ago you never saw fish markets like you do today. There wasn't a demand. Most people ate chicken or meat period. You didn't have the health crazed world we live in today with the high demand for fish....it was unheard off. There weren't specialty stores like Wegman's, Whole Foods, Costco, King's and how many other. When markets were developed for fish one by one populations started to decline. Prices for fresh fish and or Sashimi have gone through the roof. And while I agree for every fishery destroyed it puts more pressure on the remaining fisheries, the common denominator of all these is commercial over harvest....period.

I wish everyone on the board like Blind Archer just mentioned had just one chance to experience what the whiting and ling fishery was like in the 60's and 70's. There were fish everywhere and there was a significant recreational/ party boat presence but it didn't put a dent in the biomass. You could catch as many ling and whiting as you wnated from the end of many Monmouth County jetties in the fall or from the jetties at Shark River and Manasquan Inlets. Once the foreign fleets arrived and with the build up of the domestic commercial harvest it was wiped out. You can't suck the bottom clean, destroy habitat in the process, kill off the young of the year and expect any fishery to survive. These fisheries have succumb to complete disregard for the resource and decisions made to supply a growing world wide demand for fish and complete disregard for the health of the stocks.

I don't know what the answer is but you can't pound these fish the way they're being pounded today and expect any other result than the collapse of one fishery after another. I'm amazed there's so many bunker around if you ever look at the amount that are harvested by the reduction boats. One day in May or June visit the Co-op's on Channel Drive in Point Pleasant and witness how many bunker are off loaded from these boats. It's shocking! If bunker weren't such prolific breeders that's another fishery that would be on the balls of it's ass.

It's a scary time for our fisheries and it seems like every year another fishery is being threatened and pushed the brink of collapse.

[bulletbob]

Ever since the heavy trawling, the population of ling has been very cyclical. You get a few bad years and then a few good ones. Right now this is the second bad one so we will see if it bounces back again. We actually had one stretch in the late 90s when I went a year without catching one even though I was on a NS bottom boat 1 to 2 times per week and then it bounced back so who knows.

I hope you're right about that.. I do know Ling grow fast.. A 2 year old female is a 14 inch fish with males about a foot.. 3 year old female is 18 inches or so - it won't take long if we get a good year class, and the netters don't continue to wipe out the shellfish beds where Ling grow up,,,
I hate to think of what will happen to the bottom fishery if Ling get scarcer than they already are... bob

[jmurr711]

I've read juvenile ling live inside scallops,perhaps the increase in demand for scallops has hurt them. Perhaps climate change is effecting them. Perhaps it's the increase in dogfish. Perhaps it's cyclical. I know in the summer we average 200-600 ling a trip & Jumbo flounder. So they're out there in the summer but not winter, perhaps they've decided to become warm water fish

[bulletbob]

I've read juvenile ling live inside scallops,perhaps the increase in demand for scallops has hurt them. Perhaps climate change is effecting them. Perhaps it's the increase in dogfish. Perhaps it's cyclical. I know in the summer we average 200-600 ling a trip & Jumbo flounder. So they're out there in the summer but not winter, perhaps they've decided to become warm water fish

600 ling on a single trip???.. Please forgive my incredulity , but WHERE and when are you getting numbers like that?? Please sign me up!.... bob

[Meat Hunter]

600 on a party boat not uncommon. Happened all last summer. Some trips better than others.

Meat Hunter

[duranautic al]

lets not overthink this...every living thing feeds on another,much like the winter flounder population in our rivers and bays have been hurt by conmorants and striped bass.The ling population along w/many other species,is being decimated by DOGFISH.

[Reelron]

I Thought this was a post questioning the disappearance of Ling? I'm not sure where or how Whiting got into the discussion? I still blame the Russians for decimating our Whiting to the point of virtual extinction. Never fished the LB Pier, but I do recall fishing headboats with my Dad and putting 6-7 hook rigs on then realing in 6-7 whiting at a time! So maybe it is my fault?

But I have had the same experience as JMURR. Maybe not the same boat, but I would say up until this past summer it was not uncommon, on a 6 man charter, to have the mate cutting Ling all the way back to the dock and them have to wait for him to finish! This summer & fall it wasn't quite that good. So the cycle must be beginning?

[fishingbuddy]

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dgifs/Dogfishanat.GIF

[Capt. Lou]

Ling were always a better spring , summer fall fishery species as I remember ,50's, 60's & 70's this ground fishery was strong, but U had other species that took precedent over ling . Mackerel , Cod , whiting were readily available . In fact most PB's in those days would seek out whiting, cod & mackerel not target ling, hell even tog took a back seat to these species.
Foreign fleets started this demise but since the 200 mile limit was enacted our own commercial fleet was given carte Blanche & finished the job .
One ?, where were all the regs needed then , &'how the hell did R n R anglers get any blame for this debacle at all !
We did not fish out anything not even close , that's why fisheries management is such a joke, when they could have slowed this down they chose to do nothing except cave into commercials demands at our expense .
As mentioned this dog fishery again grossly mismanaged , so now these voracious feeders are in huge supply & eating everything in site . There in bays & anywhere in between whether ur 50 miles or 5 miles off the beach , stretching hundreds of miles up N down the coast ! How did this happen one guess??

[dakota560]

I Thought this was a post questioning the disappearance of Ling? I'm not sure where or how Whiting got into the discussion? I still blame the Russians for decimating our Whiting to the point of virtual extinction. Never fished the LB Pier, but I do recall fishing headboats with my Dad and putting 6-7 hook rigs on then realing in 6-7 whiting at a time! So maybe it is my fault?

But I have had the same experience as JMURR. Maybe not the same boat, but I would say up until this past summer it was not uncommon, on a 6 man charter, to have the mate cutting Ling all the way back to the dock and them have to wait for him to finish! This summer & fall it wasn't quite that good. So the cycle must be beginning?

Ling and whiting years ago were almost always found together. Catch one and you'd catch the other. That's why party boats advertised them as "Ling and Whiting" trips. They were both effectively wiped out at the same time by foreign and domestic draggers. The only reason the original poster mentioned ling and not whiting is that whiting completely disappeared from local waters and never rebounded after the onslaught by commercials.

Interesting mention about juvenile ling living in scallops, I never heard or knew of that if it is indeed a fact. If so though, what has happened to the ocean scallop industry? Look at the below statistics concerning domestic scallop harvest.

Catch: Annual landings increased from about 8,000 mt meats in the mid-1980s to over 17,000 mt meats in 1990-1991, and then fell to between 5,000 and 8,000 mt meats during 1993-1998 (Figure B6). Landings increased considerably from 1998-2003, remained high and relatively stable during
2003-2012, and then declined in 2013. US landings during 2004-2013 averaged 25,566 mt meats, about twice the long-term mean.
Discarding occurs due to catch of undersized scallops and high-grading; the latter mainly occurs in 59th SAW Assessment Summary Report 26 B. Sea scallop rotational access areas that are managed under a form of individual allocations. Discards averaged about 969 mt during 1992–2013. Discards were the highest during 2000-2004, peaking at 2,603 mt meats, but have declined since, likely due to changes in gear regulations. Discards are implicitly included in the CASA assessment model as part of the incidental mortality term.

If ling depend on scallops for survival, the harvest increased from on average 8,000 metric tons in the mid 80's to almost 26.000 metric tons average from '04 thru '13! That's more than a 200% increase in harvest. Also look at the reported discard and high-grading, average between '00 and '04, 2,603 metric tons of smaller non marketable scallops thrown back. I love how they use the term high-grading then calling it what it really is which is culling so to be less offensive! 2,603 metric tons equates to almost 6,000,000 pounds of scallops tossed back because of size or culling! 6,000,000 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at it from a different perspective. I assume these reported numbers are the weigh of scallops after they've been shucked and not still in the shell. A pound approximates about a dozen and a half scallops. If the equivalent of 6,000,000 lbs of meat was discarded at 18 scallops per lb, that translates to 108,000,000 scallops discarded back because of size or culling. Assume just 50% of them had a juvenile ling inside, that's 54,000,000 ling potentially killed as part of just the discard number associated with the annual harvest of ocean scallops! And that's JUST the discard number. Factor in the 26,000 metric tons harvested for the same reason which would have a 100% mortality rate on any ling contained within these shell fish. Conceivably that could be why the fishery has never remotely rebounded from the commercial devastation inflicted in the 70's.

From what someone pointed out, it sounds like scallops are the breeding mechanism of juvenile ling. If so how many juvenile fish are killed each year in that process and how many ling not inside the scallop come up in the nets as by catch. God only knows if the undersized or culled scallops survive when thrown back, I'm assuming not since it's being reported as part of harvest numbers but if there are juvenile ling inside I'm sure a majority if not all end up dead. If commercials are reporting 2,603 metric tons of discard and high-grading, I'd bet that number in actuality is considerably higher.

As long as I've been fishing there's been dogfish. Definitely more today when they protected them but in the 60's and 70's when fishing wrecks there were always dog fish around. And there were massive amounts of ling and whiting as well. Dogfish alone for that reason I don't believe are the culprit but could be contributing to the overall problem since their numbers have increased. The sea scallop theory might also be a more contributing factor when you consider the above data. It doesn't explain whiting never rebounding since to my knowledge juvenile whiting don't use scallops in a similar manner. I still maintain the constant commercial pressure, whether it be in the form of the scallop harvest or ling harvest, is preventing these stocks from rebounding. If everyone witnessed the acres of dead juvenile fish floating behind trawlers in the Mud Hole area every year you'd wonder how there was a single fish left on the bottom. It's an absolute waste of a valuable resource and the primary reason another fishery has been destroyed.

Maybe as mentioned certain party and or charter parts have less pressured spots which hold a better amount of fish but years ago you didn't need spots, fish were EVERYWHERE. I wouldn't for a second interpret that to imply a healthy or rebounding fishery, it's more likely a case of certain areas where commercials can't drop their nets which have a presence of fish. Three or four guys on the Long Branch pier back in the day would catch 600 fish in a night without breaking a sweat, the fishery was that amazing.

[stevelikes2fish]

Ling were always a better spring , summer fall fishery species as I remember ,50's, 60's & 70's this ground fishery was strong, but U had other species that took precedent over ling . Mackerel , Cod , whiting were readily available . In fact most PB's in those days would seek out whiting, cod & mackerel not target ling, hell even tog took a back seat to these species.
Foreign fleets started this demise but since the 200 mile limit was enacted our own commercial fleet was given carte Blanche & finished the job .
One ?, where were all the regs needed then , &'how the hell did R n R anglers get any blame for this debacle at all !
We did not fish out anything not even close , that's why fisheries management is such a joke, when they could have slowed this down they chose to do nothing except cave into commercials demands at our expense .
As mentioned this dog fishery again grossly mismanaged , so now these voracious feeders are in huge supply & eating everything in site . There in bays & anywhere in between whether ur 50 miles or 5 miles off the beach , stretching hundreds of miles up N down the coast ! How did this happen one guess??

Hit the nail right on the head.....100% Done a number of trips past several year. 300-400 plus for 6 guys very easy. Left them biting at noon time......

[fishark531]

All the Ling you want in NH but the problem is NO ONE WANTS THEM

We have had very good to excellent Summer Whiting fishing the last 5 years but lots of drops are loaded and I mean LOADED with Ling and most guys don't want them

Took me years to get guys to accept Whiting but Ling still frowned upon

[Duffman]

If I remember correctly, I thought it has been mentioned that ling do not freeze well?

If that's the case, a 6 pack catches 400 ling, what do you do with 800 fillets?

[Walleyed]

I've found they get a little mushy when froze. I vacuum pack them, that helps. They make great fish cakes and chowders.

[bulletbob]

http://www.gma.org/fogm/Urophycis_chuss.htm

Everything you could possibly want to know about Ling.....bob

[jmurr711]

Vacuum packed correctly I ate some 2 weeks ago I caught in july & they were delicious. Key is to toss in freezer for a few hours to firm them up & then vacuum them & the reports were right on this site all summer I even got hate mail about it. We only had 500 & 24 flounder on my ling trip this past kuly

[dakota560]

Ling are delicious when fresh but do not freeze well at all. Vacuum packing helps, but they don't last long in the freezer. I've never in my life seen ling sold in the market so I'm not even sure where the commercially caught fish end up. Years ago they were almost viewed as trash fish, think they were called smelly belly's or something along those lines. For whatever reason I think they were frowned on because of their soft meat. If you didn't eat them soon after catching them and keep them on ice their meat would get mushy. If handled properly, they are very good to eat but again don't have a long shelf life.

[SaltLife1980]

Sh!t Baggers!

[jmurr711]

Ling are delicious when fresh but do not freeze well at all. Vacuum packing helps, but they don't last long in the freezer. I've never in my life seen ling sold in the market so I'm not even sure where the commercially caught fish end up. Years ago they were almost viewed as trash fish, think they were called smelly belly's or something along those lines. For whatever reason I think they were frowned on because of their soft meat. If you didn't eat them soon after catching them and keep them on ice their meat would get mushy. If handled properly, they are very good to eat but again don't have a long shelf life.

Every seafood market in Philadelphia has ling for sale.marketed as mountain trout, red hake, or ling. Try what I said above makes em freeze much better

[Reel Class]

Ling fishing was decent last June-early september in the deep stuff. We did probably 8 or 10 trips out there to the hole and even deeper and caught ling cod and flounder every trip. We averaged probably 150 ling for 6 guys with at least 5-10 flounder and a few cod every trip. Some trips were better.

It's funny last summer I fished mostly the North end of the hole, and we did the same the summer before as I never ventured off to the real deep stuff to our east (because every time we had a trip scheduled some wacky weather prevented us from going to the east) and we caught them everywhere. But with a few party boats, and some charter boats hitting the bigger pieces in the hole, they got picked over pretty fast, but we still caught them - only had to make a few extra moves per trip to really get it together.

I've heard of ling being caught on the headboats recently - that's a good thing because last year they were completely absent (if memory serves me right) all winter long.

And I am in the camp of seeing ling as being extremely cyclical - some years are feast, followed by a couple years of "famine" type fishing.

Finally, in regards to the "on the beach" ling and whiting fishing - we haven't had that since the early 90's and that fishery was wiped out by draggers and our burgeoning spiny dogfish population - however the ling population on the inshore reefs (Axel/sea Girt specifically) in the spring is always pretty good as we catch plenty of them while seabass fishing there in the spring whenever seabass opens.

[frugalfisherman]

Best way to freeze ling is to cook them first. Deep fry then freeze separated by wax or parchment paper. You can reheat in a very hot oven or refry but DON'T USE THE MICROWAVE!

[jmurr711]

Best way to freeze ling is to cook them first. Deep fry then freeze separated by wax or parchment paper. You can reheat in a very hot oven or refry but DON'T USE THE MICROWAVE!

very true as well!

[courbeco]

Individually "sock" the ling fillets and place in freezer for about an hour so, then remove and quickly dip into clean cold water, vacuum seal and freeze. This method provides a glaze to the fillet and the flesh is as near perfect as when first filleted. Not mushy at all.

[Reelron]

Before the days of Vacuum sealers my dad would cut the top 1/4 off a halfgallon milk carton put some fillets in it the fill it with water. Then move the containers around so that there were no air pockets before freezing. I guess the water helped keep the fish better?

I don't freeze any fish as I have friends and family that are very appreciative of getting fresh fish!