According to anglers in a local fishing group, catching ling on the Missouri around Great Falls really comes down to timing and location — at least, if you believe that ling are actually there. While some anglers argue the river doesn’t hold many ling at all, others insist the fish are absolutely around, and you just have to chase them the right way. Those believers say to wait for pitch-black darkness and head toward the dams, especially below Holter, where ling slip into those deep, slow whirl-back holes to feed. Some anglers swear by glow hooks or anything green, or chartreuse, dropped right on the bottom, tipped with sucker meat, cut bait, or a dead minnow. Some anglers also claim they’ve iced plenty on nearby lakes using the same setup. So if you’re out there after dark with glowing gear and good, stinky bait, you’re fishing the way the die-hard ling chasers say it should be done and speaking the ling’s love language.

Good luck out there, and if you want to know a little bit more about ling (aka burbot) in Montana, click here.

Photo credit: MPS Images