Winter Ling Fishery

[hammer4reel]

What has happened to our winter ling fishery ????????

Used to do a bunch of trips through the winter on a few party boats that had good fishing once the water got cold.

seems the last few years that fishery is totally non existant.

was a good time getting out, filling the cooler pretty quick to fill the smoker wit some good eats

[porgylber]

It’s like they have just disappeared. Ling used to be a winter staple. Pick a decent day in January or February, and all things being equal, you could put a decent number of fat fish in the cooler.
2 years ago, I noticed that the ling that I caught were smaller. Then last year and this, even the small ones have left.
One theory that I will float out there. Years ago ling was almost exclusively a winter fishery. Roughly 10 years ago, party boats started to target them year round. Could over fishing play a role? Possibly.
I’d love to see some numbers on the ling stock.

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

What has happened to our winter ling fishery ????????

Used to do a bunch of trips through the winter on a few party boats that had good fishing once the water got cold.

seems the last few years that fishery is totally non existant.

was a good time getting out, filling the cooler pretty quick to fill the smoker wit some good eats

Probably the same thing that happened to whiting, cod, winter flounder, mackerel, weakfish, black fish, stripers for the longest time until regulated and just about every fishery in our back yard. Check out Capt Joe's post about the porgies, 36 hours of fishing and 50,000 lbs of shad porgies. How long will that fishery sustain itself after all the years it took to rebuild.

[tautog]

Over the last twenty years that I have been bottom fishing, winter ling was variable at best. Remember my earlier years on the J 2 12 hr trips often getting a dozen with my one or two keeper cod. Remember the Paramount and D not getting 20 fish total for most of the 2000s. We had that one warm winter about 5 years ago when you could catch a 100 in a day per man if you worked at it. Ling do not like ice cold water in general so you need a warm January to catch some. Size is generally down however even when the bite is good. They are one of the last things without closed seasons, so they get hammered. Open up sea bass again year round and they will get some breathing room.

[AndyS]

Rod and reel guys wiped them out.

[tautog]

Start of the wipe out were the draggers. You would see mile long slicks of dead ling all summer in the 1990s. Back then we would anchor on one spot all day and catch. It has never been nearly as good since then other than one winter. Then the 15% of the biomass that was left from that has been knocked down by a mixture of recreational pressure and continued dragging and scalloping. If we had sensible sea bass limits, the recreational pressure would drop and the population would comeback a bit.

[ALS Mako]

what about the abundance of dog fish. seems like they're in our waters year round. i'm sure their presence don't help.

[frugalfisherman]

Go ling fishing on the Paramount late summer. All the ling you want and some big flounder.

[Billfish715]

Everything about the where's and why's is theoretical. My theory can be summed up in a few words.........no sand eels! The stories of " frost fish" that were told by my family are a distant memory and most fishermen today would have to google the term "frost fish" to know what they are. The reason they were close to shore is because that's where the sand eels were. The MudHole yellowfin fishing in the 80's had everything to do with the sand eels. Recently, the bluefins at the Princess were hanging around feasting on sand eels. Do you see a pattern here?

The Long Branch Pier would thrive throughout the cold months with elbow-to- elbow fishermen catching ling and whiting. The twilight party boat fleet's lights would illuminate the sky over the Annex, Augies, the Klondike, and lots of other inshore high spots. It was great fishing. Again, my theory is .......the bait was there.

Find the food........find the fish. I'm convinced there's a connection.

[Blackfish Doug]

Find the food........find the fish. I'm convinced there's a connection.[/QUOTE]

Right answer but lets see what's been finding the food. More Whale's,Seals,Dolphins,Sand Sharks. Does anybody have any idea how many pounds a day a Whale or Seal eats alone? I have seen more Whales,Seals,Dolphins & Dogfish then I ever saw in my lifetime. Remember back when those fish were plentiful the population of Whales,Seals & Dogfish were a lot smaller then what they are today. Ask any commercial bait fisherman this & they will agree with me 100%. It doesn't matter how much we cut back on what we take were only feeding the predators more by drastic catch reductions. Open up the Whale & Seal industry they now have more humane ways to harvest these predators.