....But struck out cold. I went down to "prefish" for the Ling Ding at Mountain Palace the other night (Jan 1, before the snow...) with a bunch of fresh cut sucker meat. I got there about 5pm, and tried pieces of sucker fillet. I cought 1 brown trout before the wind drove me out of there about 9pm. I had several other take-downs, but no fish. Temp was about 40 degrees. I must be doing something wrong, D!!!

Tell me: Do you fish current or in the eddy where the current is slack for them? Are they in the deepest holes or up on the sand/gravel bars to feed?


OOOPS!! Put in the wrong forum --should have been under fishing, not hunting!

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Hi Freebird, I was there last year at the ling ding and we did pretty well with fresh cut sucker meat. The water was moving pretty good and we had to use a lot of weight. We used a 3/4 or 1 ounce sliding sinker setup with a number 2 single bait hook. Here is the important part, put your split shot about six inches above the hook and make sure your line is not drifting downstream after you cast out. You need that bait to be directly on the bottom so if it takes a 1 ounce weight to make that happen then use a 1 ounce weight. Gauge the amount of weight you need based on the amount of river flow. I hope this helps. We were spread out along that whole bank there and it didn't seem to matter if we were in faster moving water or not. I think we all caught some but make sure that bait is on dead bottom.

fish4ever

fish4ever You hit it right on the head!!!
We were out there be for the freeze up and did ok.Freebird where did you get the Sucker ?? I'm out !! Was the Moon down when you where out there? The Moon will stop the Ling cold !! The wind sucks at night. One more thing How was the ice ?? If there is too much shore Ice we will have to go to the Campground under Holter dam, It never freezes there. Thanks for the report!

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What is sucker?
Why is so difficult to get hold of?
Don't they eat anything else?
Just curious.
Cheers
Richard

I wish you guys a lot of luck at this years ling ding and thanks D for the opportunity last year and putting that together. We had a blast and that ling sure was great eating. I dipped it in egg and cracker crumbs, seasoned it with my favorite seasoning, fried it in olive oil, and it was as good eating as the best halibut I caught and ate in Alaska! I filleted the meat off the ling then filleted the meat off the skin. I sure wished I could be there this winter for it again!

Fish4ever

Richard, the suckers are hard to find and catch in the river sometimes and to make matters worse now the two baitshops in Great Falls are closed where you could purchase suckers before in case you couldn't catch any. The ling are bottom dwellers and mostly feed on small fish on the bottom and suckers are in the river already so are probably a regular diet of ling already.

Fish4ever

http://fwp.mt.gov/fieldguide/detail_AFCJC02060.aspx

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Thanks for the information, i am now an educated sucker!
I imagine you must lose a lot of tackle when ledgering for the ling.
When we ledger bait in our rivers we use the paper clip method to attach the weight to the swivel, that way if the weight becomes stuck you only lose the weight and not the complete terminal tackle.
It might help.
Cheers
Richard

I use a Rubber band it will snap off too. A paper clip would work great I never thought of that Cool Thanks.

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Cool idea!

__________________
The USAF -- a move to yet another fishing and hunting spot every 2-3 years!
SSHHHH!! Be Vewwy, Vewwy qwuiet, We're hunting Tewowists!!