GIANT ALASKAN LINGCOD EATS FISH ON CAMERA
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 сер 2021
- We went waaaaaay off the beaten path out of Kodiak Alaska, and found a small ridgeline that's probably never been fished before. Ever. Hooked up to some HUGE Lingcod, then decided to drop down some cameras to see what the deal was, and gathered this incredible footage.
The smallest fish we caught here was 25lbs, and the average size was around 40lbs. We kept one that was at least 50lbs, and released at least twenty huge fish, with the biggest one being easily 70 POUNDS!!!
Why they were all piled up on this ridge in a school like that, I don't know for sure, but I do have a theory: The area these fish are in gets some pretty extreme tidal currents, that regularly blow through at least twice a day. Now, Lingcod don't typically like to swim in currents; they prefer to tuck under rock ledges, hide in reefs, and let the water flow over the top of them until the tide shifts and slows down.
But here, as you can see in the beginning part of the video, there's a lot of very fine silt that comes up when the camera hits the bottom. That sort of silt should have blown away into the current a long time ago, but it's still there.... I'm taking that as evidence that, for whatever reason, there's some sort of eddy/protection/shelter from the current in this small spot, that's unique in the area, and that these Lingcod are here to exploit it.
I hope to someday make it back out there again, and get some more footage of these giants!!
Wow this video was like a flounder version of watching a “Saw” movie. If I was that flounder, I might’ve had a heart attack before getting eaten
Jurassic park. Any one of those fish would be legendary where I’m from. Good job with the footage
Got my first one last weekend. San Juan Islands in WA. We can only keep 26in-36in here. Came in at 34.5. We got a 46 in but obviously threw it back. Love lingcod
Those fish are SEA MONSTERS!!! They looked decent sized but I had no idea they were THAT BIG after seeing you holding one!
They were huge. Once we knew what we had, we quit keeping fish off of it. It was just too easy, and we didn't want to fish it out, so we only did catch and release there for the rest of the summer.
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours incredible. I’m glad they are still out there!
When he took that bait, was like whoa, swallowed everything but the tail!
Did I mention that I'm about 6'2"? Yeah, they were big fish.
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours wow! I’d love to fish for those!
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I need to get up there and do some fishing.
You should!
Awesome footage! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
You can tell they are kind of smart. Could tell it was suspicious that the free food was moving strangely lol.
The light was probably throwing them off too.
Awesome video! Love it!
Thanks so much!
Amazing footage! Thanks for sharing! What a spot! They're lively!
They are!
They bare a striking resemblance to Mayor Lightfoot. LOL
Damn that was huge Great video y’all
Thank you!
Great footage, amazing big gulp on the small flatfish. . What was the depth ?
Thanks! About 165 feet.
Great video thanks for sharing it
as a technical question, how deep are you filiming?
is there artifical light from the camera?
About 165 feet, and there was a separate light attachment from the camera.
nice video that you posted 👍🍺
Thank you!
What camera were you using for that depth?
How were the worms in those guys? Great footage. I can’t believe the flounder lasted as long as it did
Not as bad, it varied from fish to fish. We didn't keep many of the big ones though; need them to make baby lingers!
My grandfather was halibut fishing and hooked a solid 40 pounder, except there was a 60+ pound lingcod latched on. He was way happier thinking it was a 100+ halibut lol
I dunno, which one is more awesome, a trophy Lingcod or a big halibut? I wouldn't have been disappointed in either of them, lol!
They both are really sought-after fish in Alaska. Which would you keep if you could keep only one of them?
@@marleynightingale4312 hands down the lingcod, the meat they have is something else and it’s a lot harder to come by large ones since overfishing and new mandates.
What did you use for extra lighting?
I had the camera attached to a triangle, with the light on another point. It was just a $20 LED dive light from Amazon.
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours Thank you, I have been looking for a way to get more light in the deeper water.
Been there, done that. Frontier Charters, Sitka, AK. RIP Stoney. The greatest mountain man I've known. Taken too soon.
Amazing!
Thank you!
Wow that is amazing underwater footage. Do you guys have a charter?
Thank you! I used to run charters in Kodiak for fishing, now I own a boat in Hoonah for whale watching with drone footage! alaskawhalesanddrones.com/
How deep were you when videoing the lings?
About 175 feet.
Ling cod very tasty eating. The meat can be white, green, or bluish all delicious.
Yes they are!
That's how I imagine my fishing - giants all around my bait, and none of them are interested.
Only way to find out is to put down a camera!
uh wow!
HOLY JESUS!!!
interesting to see how how the fish mostly ignored the bait before finally striking.
It took them a little time to get used to the setup. Or there was only one Lingcod dumb enough... Who knows?
Some units I tell ya eh?
Yep, a whole reef of chonks!
That's definitely a bunch of fish & chips.
They make EXCELLENT fish and chips!
Caught a few myself, very delicious.
Yes, one of my favorites!
Wow, they are all big mamas, I can't believe that sole lasted 5 seconds.
According to my research, (Dropping cameras down to watch the bait,) Lingcod can be more cagey than I ever thought they would be, but also much more abundant. That's why it seems like they bite like crazy; there's usually a lot of them down there. Either that, or my camera setups freak them out and make them very suspicious...
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours My theory is that they must already have an abundant food supply. I dove for octopus for a living for over 35 years around Vancouver Island and fished Lingcod commercially and I've never seen anything like that. In the odd spot, you'd find a bunch of them, usually where there was some decent current and rock structure or on the crown of a pinnacle. That was amazing to see. Cheers. :)
@@allancrow134 That's pretty cool! I hope to find more octopus up here and make some videos of them! There probably was a lot of food here; the area was really exposed to open currents in the Shelikof Strait, so it probably brought tons of food right past them.
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours Yeah it looks to me like you were on the crown of some pretty rocky structure. When the current goes slack(which isn't for very long) they move around, especially toward the crown of the reef where they can ambush prey like herring, pollock, hake, rockfish and even each other. You'll find this interesting.... Lingcod love to eat octopus, they grab them by the legs and do an alligator role and rip the legs off in a second. I once saw a 50 lb octopus devoured in less than 15 secs when a half dozen big Lingcod went into a leg-ripping frenzy. Quite the predator. Still, I got to hand it to you, I've never seen anything like your vid...blew me away. Here's a YT vid of me dispatching and dressing an octo. Might come in handy someday.. :) ua-cam.com/users/shorts7VF61vgvm-w
@@allancrow134 Actually, it was a shipwreck that I found on a later trip, you can see it in this video; ua-cam.com/video/fv0ibqaJj6k/v-deo.html I'll post more videos this summer, I'd appreciate a subscription so you'll be sure to see them!
That's awesome, you definitely know what you're doing when it comes to breaking down an Octopus!
That's A HONEY HOLE.
We called it the Breeder Hole, because those were the big momma Lingers that make all of our baby lingcod!
Flats the Flounder's death (leaked)
Actually, this particular flounder SURVIVED this initial attack! He got off the hook while the Lingcod was coming up and was last seen swimming straight back down.....yeah, he's dead.
@@AlaskaWhaleanddronetours That started me a bit when the lingcod flared his mouth open to grab the flounder.
They don’t like the light. I’ve thought about trying to go infrared. I know how long that flounder would have lasted in the dark.
I would LOVE to learn how to do that! I'm sure that much more natural behavior could be filmed that way!
Using an infrared light is super simple. You just use an infrared light along with an infrared camera. Keep in mind just because we can't see Infrared doesn't mean the lings can't. They absolutely can, it may even appear brighter to them. Really neat footage! Glad to see such a healthy looking spot!
Jurassic park! Good lord, that is lingcod heaven.
You never know what could be down there!
2:46
Yep, that's the best part!
why take the big females? Be a real sporty and keep males under 20 lbs , better eating to!!
We occasionally took big females because there was a LOT of them, it's legal to do, and our clients wanted to keep some. That being said, for every big female we kept we released a dozen. I agree with you, and if it was wholly up to me we wouldn't have kept any, but it's pretty hard to talk the guest into letting the 15th oversized Lingcod go when he really wants to catch it.
I think the fishery in that area can support what we were doing.