Where to catch Rock Ling Landbased

[Elly33]

I am trying to find locations where you can catch rock ling landbased and they are edible.  I know you can catch them deep offshore, but I am after landbased like piers.  Please if you can let me know of some in Melbourne.

Thank you

[xerotao]

I have caught them off an infamous rock ledge near wollongong.

[noelm]

They are around almost every location, just fish right on the bottom. Don't confuse them with the deep sea Ling you see in shops.

[Elly33]

23 hours ago, noelm said:

They are around almost every location, just fish right on the bottom. Don't confuse them with the deep sea Ling you see in shops.

Can you give me 5 locations on where they may be  and then I will stick on them

[noelm]

Not too sure where you are, but almost any safe rock platform will be OK, Ling are not exactly fussy or sought after.

[Little_Flatty]

6 hours ago, Elly33 said:

Can you give me 5 locations on where they may be  and then I will stick on them

@Elly33!

We don’t have many members from Victoria, so we may be of limited help to you here.

What I would suggest is to do some research on Rock Ling, the environments they inhabit and how to safely fish them. Then maybe you can put forward a few spots you might have found and the brains trust here might then be able to help you with your game plan.

From the advice given here, it appears ocean rock platforms seem to be the best environment. These areas take a bit of experience and preparation to fish safely, so do your research, have the requisite safety equipment and go with someone experienced in rock fishing if you’re doing it for the first time. If you are not a strong swimmer, I might suggest that this option should be off the cards for you. No fish is worth your life.

The only Ling I have ever seen caught was down at Strahan in Tasmania in Macquarie Harbour when I was on holidays. One was a whopper, another not so huge.

Apart from that, it’d be interesting to read the odd Victorian report. Feel free to share your experiences!

[Elly33]

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

@Elly33!

We don’t have many members from Victoria, so we may be of limited help to you here.

What I would suggest is to do some research on Rock Ling, the environments they inhabit and how to safely fish them. Then maybe you can put forward a few spots you might have found and the brains trust here might then be able to help you with your game plan.

From the advice given here, it appears ocean rock platforms seem to be the best environment. These areas take a bit of experience and preparation to fish safely, so do your research, have the requisite safety equipment and go with someone experienced in rock fishing if you’re doing it for the first time. If you are not a strong swimmer, I might suggest that this option should be off the cards for you. No fish is worth your life.

The only Ling I have ever seen caught was down at Strahan in Tasmania in Macquarie Harbour when I was on holidays. One was a whopper, another not so huge.

Apart from that, it’d be interesting to read the odd Victorian report. Feel free to share your experiences!

I am not sure of locations where they might be, I have discovered they like to hide in tunnels below the water and stay deep.  They come out late at night to feed.  If I can know about a spot where someone has caught them even if it was a while ago, then that would give me some glimmer of hope.

I live in Melbourne and I believe I was hooked onto a large Rock Ling at Princes Pier however the pier closes at 10 pm so I stopped going to that spot as when I got big bites I was kicked out of there…

 

[noelm]

Ling feed anytime day or night, if you fish any rocky locations (make sure it's safe) and just use flesh baits, you will be in with a chance, unfortunately you will probably catch all sorts of odd "vermin"  fishing right on the bottom in rocky locations.

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, Elly33 said:

I am not sure of locations where they might be, I have discovered they like to hide in tunnels below the water and stay deep.  They come out late at night to feed.  If I can know about a spot where someone has caught them even if it was a while ago, then that would give me some glimmer of hope.

I live in Melbourne and I believe I was hooked onto a large Rock Ling at Princes Pier however the pier closes at 10 pm so I stopped going to that spot as when I got big bites I was kicked out of there…

 

I had a bit of a search myself and it doesn't look like there's a lot of fishing done for them. Most catches appear to be in deeper parts of the ocean, though undoubtedly they are caught from land as well. For what it's worth, the ones I saw caught in Strahan were landbased as well. If I recall correctly (it was more than 20 years ago), it was in front of the RSL or something like that. Worth a look if you happen to be there on holidays. They didn't seem to fight very hard, in spite of one being quite a large fish that could have been a bit larger than one metre.

From @noelm's suggestions, it sounds like you don't need to limit yourself to evenings either; you can fish during the day as well.

This is all part of the adventure of fishing. Just get out there and give it a go. Sounds like you have found a good starting point in Princes Pier. It also looks like you've been given some general suggestions on another forum as well. With these general suggestions, google maps (with satellite view) is your friend. You might be able to find similar environments to that of Princes Pier and other suggested spots.

[noelm]

Don't know about other areas, but I have caught them close to the shore plenty of times, they don't fight at all, you just think you have a snag but it comes in, horrible things, they poop something like concrete when caught, slippery as hell and ugly as well!

[Elly33]

5 minutes ago, noelm said:

Don't know about other areas, but I have caught them close to the shore plenty of times, they don't fight at all, you just think you have a snag but it comes in, horrible things, they poop something like concrete when caught, slippery as hell and ugly as well!

They taste delicious though right?

[noelm]

I have only ever eaten one once when I was younger, I speared one and we cooked it on a fire on the rocks, at best it was just OK, but I have never eaten one since. As I said earlier, don't confuse them with the big Ling you see in fish markets, totally different fish.

[leonardgid]

mate ive caught them , its only a bi catch  they do not hang around in an area in great numbers ,  also do not confuse deep sea ling for rock ling  . they are different species ,  and the flesh is different  

 

[Elly33]

12 minutes ago, leonardgid said:

mate ive caught them , its only a bi catch  they do not hang around in an area in great numbers ,  also do not confuse deep sea ling for rock ling  . they are different species ,  and the flesh is different  

 

Do you live in Melbourne?  I understand they are different but I was told they taste good.  What was the location?

[leonardgid]

17 minutes ago, Elly33 said:

Do you live in Melbourne?  I understand they are different but I was told they taste good.  What was the location?

no im in Sydney , and yes they do taste ok ,   because theres so few of them i would be fishing in areas that do not get hammered  all of the time , this way you may  find  the odd one that has escaped getting  caught , it means you have to find hard to reach places  that only dedicated fishos would go to , .... look in reality you are searching for a species that  is not that common , just go do your thing and if you get the odd one  happy days .

 

[Elly33]

41 minutes ago, leonardgid said:

no im in Sydney , and yes they do taste ok ,   because theres so few of them i would be fishing in areas that do not get hammered  all of the time , this way you may  find  the odd one that has escaped getting  caught , it means you have to find hard to reach places  that only dedicated fishos would go to , .... look in reality you are searching for a species that  is not that common , just go do your thing and if you get the odd one  happy days .

 

The thing is it is my target species, so I want to increase my chances.  I will try finding rocky places I guess

[leonardgid]

1 hour ago, Elly33 said:

The thing is it is my target species, so I want to increase my chances.  I will try finding rocky places I guess

good  luck to you , i hope you do  find them and when you do please share the photos , also love to see the catch cooked .

 

 

[noelm]

I personally just can't imagine targeting them, but that's just me I guess! They belong in the same bag as Wirrah Cod (old boot) Red Rock Cod, Green Eels, Pike and those rough scaled, striped little things we call "Footballers" all caught as bycatch and most never kept, except Red Rock Cod, but I don't keep them either, people call them "poor mans lobster" but I just don't see it myself.

[Elly33]

19 minutes ago, noelm said:

I personally just can't imagine targeting them, but that's just me I guess! They belong in the same bag as Wirrah Cod (old boot) Red Rock Cod, Green Eels, Pike and those rough scaled, striped little things we call "Footballers" all caught as bycatch and most never kept, except Red Rock Cod, but I don't keep them either, people call them "poor mans lobster" but I just don't see it myself.

I have a fishing book and used a wheel to determine my next target which turned out to be Rock Ling 

[frankS]

OK ELLEY33. First up welcome to the forum.

I have a mate who lives in Frankston VIC and is a very keen fisherman, was talking to him on the phone last night for about 1 hour and your subject came up, as we talk fishing quiet a lot. He tells me there is a place called Ricketts Point at Beaumaris just north of Frankston where he and others have caught Rock ling, he recommends you use a float and keep the bait just off the bottom as the Ling will rise up to grab the bait, you don't have to be fussy about presentation as they will attack almost anything that is offered to them, also said it's a good spot for elephant fish this time of year.

Don't know if this spot is anywhere near where you can get to but it is where he said you are likely to catch them. good luck and let us know how you go.

Frank

[noelm]

37 minutes ago, Elly33 said:

I have a fishing book and used a wheel to determine my next target which turned out to be Rock Ling 

I think I would spin the wheel again......

[Elly33]

1 hour ago, frankS said:

OK ELLEY33. First up welcome to the forum.

I have a mate who lives in Frankston VIC and is a very keen fisherman, was talking to him on the phone last night for about 1 hour and your subject came up, as we talk fishing quiet a lot. He tells me there is a place called Ricketts Point at Beaumaris just north of Frankston where he and others have caught Rock ling, he recommends you use a float and keep the bait just off the bottom as the Ling will rise up to grab the bait, you don't have to be fussy about presentation as they will attack almost anything that is offered to them, also said it's a good spot for elephant fish this time of year.

Don't know if this spot is anywhere near where you can get to but it is where he said you are likely to catch them. good luck and let us know how you go.

Frank

This is the glimmer I was searching for!!! Thank you so much Frank.  So the float similar to garfish setup right? What bait would you recommend? Can I use pilchard chunks or squid?

[frankS]

ELLY Curiosity got the better of me so I looked the spot up on Google Maps and it tells me it could possibly be a Marine sanctuary zone  so before going there you should look into it so you don't break any local restrictions.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I tried to ring my mate to verify but he is not answering his phone.

Frank

[noelm]

Just did a bit of investigating, it seems in Victoria, the deep sea ling is called "rock ling" when sold in markets and restaurants, however it is NOT the same fish you are expecting to catch from the shore, the true Rock Ling is almost plain brown and has little to no markings, and only grow to about 30cm long.  the deep sea ling is much bigger and usually almost orange in colour with prominent markings.

edit, copy and paste from fish site

Most, if not all, of the product available is Pink Ling, not Rock Ling. However, Pink Ling is often sold in Melbourne restaurants under the name 'Rockling'. There are also significant imports of filleted and frozen product from NZ which are usually marketed simply as 'Ling'.

Edited May 24, 2022 by noelm

[Elly33]

21 minutes ago, frankS said:

ELLY Curiosity got the better of me so I looked the spot up on Google Maps and it tells me it could possibly be a Marine sanctuary zone  so before going there you should look into it so you don't break any local restrictions.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I tried to ring my mate to verify but he is not answering his phone.

Frank

Oh no that is upsetting Frank, I will check that