Whiting On Poppers

[the elk]

Radiers,

I have a couple of weeks holiday coming up at a well known whiting spot on the NSW central coast.

I was wondering if you could suggest the best brand of popper to use to catch whiting? The spot is typified by calm bay conditions, quite a bit of weed and crystal clear water. And would dawn and dusk be the preferred times to entice whiting, or do they feed on tidal movements?

The Elk

[Hodgey]

G'day mate

Try Rebel Pop R in clear/blue, Bushy's Stiffy Popper in 'favourite color' or Sure Catch poppers in either Orange/cream or any transluscent color you can get your hand on, especially yellow.

You should find them over the weedbeds, although you can find them over the sandbars. If the water is as clear as you say, you will need to put in loooong casts. I like chasing them on the run in, when they venture across the weeds, but in reality I have caught them on all tides.

When using the popper, make sure you don't stop the retrieve. They will continually harass a moving popper (until hookup hopefully) but will shy off from a stationary one. Good luck!

Hodgey

[love2fish]

Lucky Craft NW pencil and Bevy popper: dont think so/index.cfm?pr=ca...category_id=180

and River 2 Sea Bubble Pop 35 : http://www.tackleexpress.com.au/view_produ...roduct=bubpop35

Edited July 1, 2008 by Mr Breambo

[the elk]

Thanks for the reply guys. Much appreciated.

Will these poppers work only in calm water, or has anyone had any success fishing in the surf (where the noise and bubbles would be negated by the ponding waves)?

[Hodgey]

The poppers described are only approx 35mm to 50mm ... I would recommend poppers of at least 110mm if you want to throw them around the surf, as salmon and tailor will target them.

Halco, River 2 Sea and Timber Wolf are just some of the manufacturers of poppers 110 - 130mm.

Hodgey

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Elk,

I know next to nothing about catching whiting on poppers but I used to catch a whole lot of salmon, tailor and kings from beaches and rocks... and I still love popper fishing from my boat. There's nothing quite like a surface strike to get your adrenalin flowing.

Salmon & Tailor in particular seem to have no problem at all finding poppers in washy water... on the rocks the main kill zone always seemed to be just as the popper crossed from the clear water into the wash zone.

One thing I'd suggest though is that the calmer the water, the more subtle you want the popper to be. That means that for fish on glassy water I use slim pencil styles like Zara Puppies. When the water gets rougher or conditions less calm, tie on something that pushes a bit more water like a cup faced popper (I use Halco Roosters a lot... they cast beautifully and hang really well onto the water without 'blowing out').

While I've not chased whiting much, I'd probably adopt the same strategy. (Oh... and follow Hodgey around marking his spots on my GPS)

Hodgey's definitely got the runs on the board with this kind of fishing.

Cheers, Slinky

[Kirks]

Hi Elk

Drop into Gofish and find the New Stiffy Poppers. The ones I have got are the green and white ones. Now in the spring when the cicadas hatch they make the annoying sounds, this is when you crack out the green one round trees and over hanging bushes. This is because the bream and whiting hang round these bushes and wait for the cicadas to fall into the water. The green lure mimics the cicada and the bream smash the living day lights out of them.

The white one is the best one for whiting. The whiting go crazy over this one, but i am not shaw why.

Cheers

all the best

steve kirkby

[Matrix]

Not too big, not too small, not too light, not too heavy, decent standard hooks,very nice finish and (this is the clincher) - cheap as chips.

Arguably one of the best poppers ever for bream and whiting

Lost my last original version of this lure abt 3-4 yrs ago and have been waiting for a copy ever since

"Splasher"

Edited July 2, 2008 by Matrix

[Dreamtime]

Just wondering where you can purchase these lure / hook holders as seen in Matrix's photo?

What is its correct name?

Cheers

Mariner

[arpie]

hehe I think a few FR will be asking that question! I have seen them on overseas sites

Check with the sponsors .... or just google "Fuji Sliding EZ Hook Keeper" They should be about $3 plus postage - worth getting a few!!

Gunsmoke colour

Roberta

If you have some strong single strand wire, you could make your own ..... & just bind them on!

Edited July 2, 2008 by Roberta

[Matrix]

Just wondering where you can purchase these lure / hook holders as seen in Matrix's photo?

What is its correct name?

Strangely enough, these arent readily available in most tackle shops.

The one in the pic above was actually from Japan and is made in various colours.

The one available in our neck of the woods (pic below) may or may not be the latest version (the keeper is curved instead of straight) of that but is only available in gunsmoke/black:

Or you could just try the one from Owner

[the elk]

As long as these hook keepers help me catch more whiting on poppers I will be happy.