I have a friend has a favorite shallow water ling spot where he has C&R'd many small to medium size lings over the years on jigs and herring, but never any large ones. Last spring, I tried large live flounder for bait there and on the first drop landed a ling that I guess would have pushed 60 "! This thing was scary..;I swear you could have fit a basketball in her mouth!

This experience leads me to believe that many local spots may have very large lings, you may just need big baits to interest them.