Whiting on lure

Although most anglers target whiting using conventional baits like yabbies or live worms, the trend of targeting these fish using small lures is ever increasing. Whiting love to follow a moving bait and with increase of soft plastic and small popper fishing there are more being unexpectedly hook with this method.

Using poppers to target summer and golden lined whiting is the latest craze to sweep the east of Australian's recreational fishing scene and with the whiting season under way at present it's a good chance for any one who hasn't tried it yet to have a go.

At this time of the year it's not uncommon to see small prawns skipping across the surface as they are being chased by fish. A lot of the time these fish chasing the prawns are bream, but some may not realize that whiting can act the same way. When small prawns are moving in or out of the river on the tide and work their way over the shallows whiting will ambush them on or below the surface much like a GT would ambush a herring. This is when very small poppers come into their own. Anglers flick the poppers over the shallow sand banks at the right stage of the flood or making tide so that you have at least 30-40cm of water and bloop away. Flick the popper over the bank, retrieve very slowly with the occasional bloop and if the whiting are hungry they should be all over it like a rash. Try varying your retrieval speed between a fast and slow until you find what the whiting like. It is best to target whiting  on days when light wind blowing over banks and there is full sun light rather than over cast conditions.

When it comes to using soft plastics in the rivers, most anglers would be targeting flathead, but it good to know that there is the chance of hooking a quality whiting on the yabby banks in the process.

Exude 2 ½  inch trout worms in strawberry red are similar to a skinny version of the blood worm and have proven very successful on whiting. The storm wild eyed twitching nippers are one of the most realistic soft plastics on the market and are a dead ringer of the saltwater yabby. These can both be rigged on either a small light jig head or onto a standard long shank hook on a running sinker rig. The main aim with worm and yabby imitations is to have them move along the bottom as natural as possible, because whiting aren't as gullible as dusky flathead. They won't just hit anything that move past their nose, you need to work the yabby or worm as slow as possible with the occasional twitch and jerk of the tip. Tidal movement is enough to create life like movement of the small legs and nippers on this lure. Any small jerks and twitches make the twitching nipper look like a yabby that has been startled by something and is fleeing away. Both these soft plastics can be worked throughout the sand banks of coastal river or in the surf gutters for whiting.

If the thought of using live worms to target whiting seems a bit boring or you just love lure fishing, then maybe its time you got your hands on some hard bodied or soft plastic lures to target them.

Offshore:

Cobia and small snapper from North and Sunshine Reefs. The odd spotty mackerel around Little Hauls reef. Rat kingfish and a few school mackerel around Old Women Island. Small grassy sweetlip and snapper up to 4.35kg from the Blinker. Snapper to 3kg and school mackerel from the 12 mile.

Beach and estuary:

Noosa: Tailor up to 5kg and a few whiting along north shore. Quality mangrove jacks in Noosa Waters, Weyba Creek and between the lakes.  Whiting in Woods Bays and along the Noosaville Stretch. Giant trevally on poppers in Woods Bay and on soft plastics around the river mouth. Good numbers of mud crabs along the back of Tewantin, with one customer that came into Davo's potting 11 quality bucks.   

Maroochydore: Quality whiting and a few solid bream in the mornings and a few tailor up to 2.6kg at dusk along the Maroochy North Shore. Mangrove jack to 1.8kg on livies from Bli Bli bridge and in Petrie Creek. School jew, mangrove jack and the odd trevally in the cod hole. Whiting to 38cm from twin waters. Bream and gar from picnic point.

Mooloolaba: Whiting along the surf gutters and trenches between Point Cartwright and Wurtulla. Plenty of smaller bream along La Balsa Park. A few elbow slapper whiting on the banks either side of McKenzie's Bridge and up mountain creek. Flathead on livies in the middle reaches. Silver, big eyed and giant trevally around McKenzies bridge and Minyama Island.

Caloundra: Quality tailor over night between Wurtulla and Currimundi. Flathead from the power boat club and in the deeper holes. Quality whiting throughout the passage with good result on small surface poppers. Small Queenfish on lures in the canals. Giant and big eyed trevally form the boardwalk over night.  

Pete Murray has returned to form after a recent slump in his tailor tally. He fished the northern side of Maroochy River mouth using fresh mullet fillets for this 2.6kg greenback.    

This assortment of surface poppers and stick baits from my tackle box range from 3 to 5cm in length and are all tried and proven whiting slayers. They include River2Sea Bubble pop35 and 45, SureCatch JR40TW, Hawk Splasher and Hawk Jaywalk. Transparent colours and metallic golds and silvers have all worked on whiting.

Zac Walker tempted this thumper 3kg GT at the Munna Point at sparrows fart using a soft plastic as his draw card.

There are still quality snapper on our local reefs at present. Michael Wilkinson from the Maroochy RSL fishing club ventured out to the Blinker on Tuesday this week and fished with pilchards for snapper to 4.35kg and plenty of pan sized reefies.