IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Eelpout => Topic started by: Mtwolfer on Jan 02, 2015, 01:14 PM
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what is a good bait for Ling?
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I have always found fresh bait to be superior to smelly.
Salmon strips, herring, whitefish, and sucker strips.
I have fished them in a couple different States and never notice anything different.
WS
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large live minnows work good if you can use them , or smelt work good too
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I use smelt 90 percent of the time the rest I use sucker meat
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We've caught a bunch this week using nightcrawlers on a jig. Caught a few last night on a jig with dead minnows. I split the belly open on the minnow so the guts hang out, don't know if it makes a difference or not. A lot of guys here catch them on sucker meat or smelt too.
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I have had luck on smelt, shiners minnows, anchovies, salt water hearing and fish parts / fish belly etc.
If it's legal in your area, ciscos / tullibees / Lake herring are really good bait. They can be good whole if smaller or if large, cut up in chunks or strips as bait.
Hotdogs, bacon and other processed meats may also work in a pinch if out of your regular fish baits.
Any scented soft plastics or adding scent gels, like pro cure, are OK options also.
To sum it up, burbot are not that picky on what they eat just as long as it fits in their mouth and has some smell to it. :woot:
WW
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I have caught them on everything from beef liver to squid...long as its fresh and isn't rotten they will eat it..Big live minnow on bottom, or hunk of smelt. fresh herring or sucker works best...for jigging nothing beats a pounding the bottom with a big buckshot spoon tipped with gulp alive..ive caught more on that then on tip=ups with live bait,,,think its all the noise and silt that stirs up that brings em in
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I went a few evenings ago in northern VT. I had 7 tip ups and a jig 4 live minnows and 4 dead bait (frozen fresh). I caught burbot on the live minnows only. Slow bite that night... Usually I only use dead bait and catch them as fast as I can reset the tip ups.
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They've hit my overnight lines well with live, jumbo shiners. That's in NH. If I can't get particularly large shiners, I'll double up and put 2 on per hook. We have to have a one ounce weight no more than 6 inches in front of the bait, so it's not like the shiners can 'run away'. I think the live action and panic helps draw the cusk in as much as any scent would off a cut bait.
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Pike skin that has been removed from fillets is the best I have ever used.
Cut into long diamond shaped pieces, and hooked on one end of the diamond, it flutters and undulates with the slightest twitch. They can't leave it alone, and they can't steal it off the hook either.
Ted
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OK Ted. I have some diamond shaped Pike skin from a recent catch. Do you salt it or just keep them frozen until needed?
Darryl
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Hi Darryl. Welcome to the Shanty!
I separate them into small baggies of ten or twelve strips each, and just freeze them. Thaw a bag out when I need them. One pike skin makes a lot of strips, so I change them often to keep as much fresh scent in the water as possible. Have caught lots of pike and lake trout using them, too.
The pike fins get frozen as well, but they restrict the action of the jigs or spoons too much, so get used on set lines and traps. Have had some huge pike take them off the bottom.
(https://s2.postimg.cc/xafcykan9/IMGP5000.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/xafcykan9/)
Let us know how you make out with the strips, and please say "Hi" to Cory for me.
Best,
Ted