Tips for catching whiting.

[truman]

Hello Ausfish gurus,
This is my first post here.
Ive lived and played in the greatest town in the North West "Broome" for the past 16 years and over that time have caught everything from sailfish to Barra to Spanish macks.

However now my young children are at the age where they want to go fishing so I was hoping to maybe have a go at catching some whiting which is something Ive never caught.
Im going camping next weekend to a spot North of Broome and would like to get the kids fishing for whiting from the shore.
Can some of you whiting gurus give me some tips on the best setup to use, baits, etc etc.

Thanks heaps.

BTW Hows this for a nice bluebone? (File size is 3.14mb)

http://www.trumanlive.com/images/blue.mpg

[truman]

What did I say something wrong?
Did I breach forum ettiquette or something??

29 views and not one reply. I at least expected a "Hello and welcome to the Ausfish forum."

Please someone must be into catching whiting.

[land_based]

G'day pal,


Welcome to Ausfish, youre in the right spot if youre after fishing info, a lot of people have taught me a lot of stuff on here and im sure you'll learn the same.
When I'm fishing for whiting as a general rule i fish as light as possible, 2-3 kg main line and generally use the same line for the leader. Small longshank hook, fresh beach or bloodworms and a litttle bit of red tubing above your hook.
Good luck mate, i hope the kids have fun!

[Craigus]

Welcome to Ausfish truman,
I am sure you will find the site great in all aspects and find it very informative.

And for the advise on whiting I cannot add much to what ROb has stated, I would do exactly what he has said. What #can add is that soldier crabs make good bait for whiting down here in SEQ, but do not know if you get them in your neck of the woods.

Hope this helps and Best of luck

Craig

[Freeeedom]

Hi truman -welcome to the site. I think the small number of replies is due to the fact that most Ausfish members would have little knowledge of the fishing around Broome. What species of whiting do you get around there? Does the king george whiting extend that far north? Here in SE Qld the two main whiting species are sand whiting (aka summer whiting, blue-nose whiting) and the winter whiting (aka diver whiting). These are caught at different times, places and using different techniques. Whether any of this has application in Broome I have no real idea
Cheers Freeeedom

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

on the east coast the surest way to catch a whiting if you do not have a worm or a small crustacean (prawn, yabby, crab) is to take a squid & stomp on it once with sand either side ....

then cut it into fine strips the width of a worm & wrap it 2inch strips onto number 6 chemical sharpened hooks and the smallest sinker possible with a metre of light trace.

The sand helps handling & burleys for you. Hope this helps.

In Broome though I have pearls attract the sweetest things #.

BTW one day I'd love to fish the surf & watch the sunset rather than rise. #
chris

[StevenM]

Gday trueman and welcome.

have heard few good reports of people using berley gulp sand worms and getting good results.

Come in 6 inch, cut them in half and use as per a normal worm on a normal size 4 hook, leader, swivel and rinning sinker to match the run.

Keep us informed how ya go.

Cheers

Steven

[fishn-ads]

G'day Truman welcome overboard,

Like said don't know if it will work in W.A. Worms, Yabbies, Pippies, Squid all work well. Fish light 4lb line, smallest sinker you can use (could be as small as 000 - 2 ball). Use a size 8,6 or 4 long shank hook. Trace needs to be as long as you can handle (depends on rod length or hand line) between 1-4 ft, the longer the trace the more the bait will move around. You can use two hooks on the trace either buy tying a loop in top 1/3 of trace or just put one hook loose on trace use 4 inchs of red tube and tie on hook this allows 2nd hook to move up and down trace. Although keep it simple for the kids with just one hook.

Hope it helps

Ads

[truman]

Thanks for the replies, (At least I didnt say something wrong)
Did anyone happen to look at the video clip of that bluey my mate caught??

According to my species identification guide for the Kimberley region the type of whiting we get here are known as Golden-lined whiting. Do you get them in QLD?

We dont get solider crabs here but I will certainly give the squid idea a try. What is Berley gulp sandworms? Do you buy them or catch them in the sand?

Once again thanks for the advice I will let you know how I go.

[Feral]

At this time of year,
Hide behind tree,
quietly put bait on hook
very quitely sneak out from behind tree
try and chuck in ya bait before the mongrels come out of the water to get it
once youve got one hooked
dash back behind tree, helps to have small cudgel to beat the others following off
stick fish in creel
move to new spot coz they'll be waiting for you once they know where you are
repeat exercise.

[truman]

I was just looking up soldier crabs and think that maybe we do get them here. Are they the crabs that make little balls of sand all over the beach? If so then there are hundreds on Cable Beach, I just didnt know that is what they were called. So these are good for Whiting bait then?
My next question though is how would I catch them?

[shayned]

I'll back what Ads said with a small addition if you fish the two hook rig it allows you to put 2 alternative baits out until you work out which bait is working. If no soldier crabs I'd suggest worms and yabbies before squid take a look at clip on nugget's area of whiting burrowing for a meal to see why. Are you land based or boat?

[shayned]

Soldier crabs grow to about the size of a marble when smaller they are a grey black colour and lighten to gray blue as they get larger. At low tide you will see them moving in groups in the hundreds when frightened they roll on their side and sort of spin down in to the sand. As for collecting them the kids will love it, run them down, collect as many as you can then chase the next bunch.
Use the pea size ones by threading 4 or 5 on your long shank hook, I normally find them in the same area I collect yabbies. Usually hard to find when windy for some reason.

[fishflogger92]

hey big fella
# yer i would use a little hook with a bit of red tubeing you can buy in nearly all fishing stores and peel the prawn and throw it into the water and hope the bigger fish dont take it but be near a sandy bank or something close to that and dont forget to throw it in the shoalower water # [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] [smiley=rifle.gif]

[rando]

Hi , welcome to this great fishing site.
If your kids are fishing off the beach , look for a gutter , preferably one that has an opening to sea.
Expolre the length and width of the gutter with your casts to see where fish are holding
The fish sometimes feed just behind the shore dump where the waves stir the sand and exposes all the goodies they like to eat, so dont try and cast to the horizon as the fish are right at your feet. With this in mind ,it sometimes pays to start off standing back from the water's edge so as not to spook em.

If there are seagrass beds casting your bait into sand patches between areas of seagrass sometime produces fish.

Fish light ,they like movement, slooow retrieve makes em bite.

Good luck