Wily Whiting Defy Me

[monch]

Went pumping for nippers yesterday for 2hrs on the arvo low tide, only managed 20 nippers, 1 small crab and 1 small white worm with red legs. Back-breaking work -_-.

Woke up bright and early at 4am to fish the low tide at gunnamatta flats for whiting. At 5am, tide just started to run in. Water was still very cold because the sun was only just rising so didn't want to wade in just yet. Casted poppers and pencils to prospect the area, had 1 or 2 enquiries but no hookups. Abit later i waded in knee deep and cast the nippers gently in close.

Ended up with about 6 undersize whiting for 20+ baits, the largest going a mere 20cm . Those nippers are too fragile for the hordes of undersized whiting, need a bigger fish to come along and just swallow it whole. The small crab worked a treat, didn't die when i baited it up, got large hits as soon as i casted it out and most importantly, didn't get picked off the hook...must get some more of those.

Any tips to find the larger whiting, or do i just have to work through the smaller ones by sacrificing baits?

Any tips to get whiting to hit lures? I tried a 5cm pencil walking the dog fast and slow, 3.5cm popper walking/popping fast but in very small movements, plain constant popping, flat out retrieves, tried a 3.5cm strike pro blade as well which seemed to get the most attention out of the lures. I was using the back-most tow point to get the lure to face down and vibrate horizontally across the bottom rather than hopping vertically. Constant medium pace retrieve seemed to get alot of attention but only 1 hook up.

[GregL]

Pumping nippers

Are you pumping into a siv or onto sand?

If you use a siv inserted into a tyre tube to keep it afloat and use a short rope tied around you leg to stop it floating away, you will find it's so much easier in the water about knee deep.

Try doing 3 pumps down each hole going deeper each time, first one could be 20cm deep, 50cm then last the length of your pump. you will get a shed load more nippers! Was easy to get a couple of hundred an hour for a full weekends fish.

Poppers, whitting go for poppers or than pencils most of the time. Clear or light natural colours seem better.

fast blop blop retrieve using the rod tip to create the blop, wrist flick up down whilst winding will create it.

G

[Hodgey]

Try Bushy's Stiffy popper in Prowler or Redbelly, mate. Work them briskly and make sure you displace a fair bit of water when you bloop them. Here is a 43cm trevally that fell to a prowler coloured popper today

Cheers

Hodgey

[robust]

G'Day Monch,

I can relate to ya as far as the back breaking work goes into pumping nippers . I'm pretty much down on mainbar flats every weekend pumping myself.

Greg L has hit the nail right on the head cause i've just learned in the last few weeks that it is easier to pump when there's water over the sand as opposed to an exposed sand flat. i've been using a bucket with holes in it as a strainer and it works well but Greg's idea sounds easier.

With water over the sand bar the nippers stay closer to the top and i find that most of the time i can get 3 nippers with one pump.

Another thing i've learned over the last few weeks as well is when i'm pumping and the sediment is stirred up around my feet and a lot of small whiting move in close to where i'm pumping looking for a free feed. i've identified with my polarized sunnies that the larger whiting are hanging not too far in front of where i am, so i tend to cast out toward them and that's been working well as i manage to land whiting ranging from 35-45cm.

Hope this helps.

Robert

[monch]

Great ideas from all which i have read about on fishraider previously but have not yet brought on board. I did bring a plastic sieve with me, but with no bicycle tube attached around it yet. Pumped at dead low tide on sand flats and hadn't gotten used to the pumping action yet, did not have good posture that's for sure.

Would have wanted to pump where i was fishing but its not allowed in Gunnamatta bay so didn't do it. Have read that stirred up stand itself is burley for whiting.

Looks like i'll have to get down to maianbar and slog it out with more nippers.

Btw robust, i finally got down to hungry point and checked out the area. Threw some poppers around as well but didn't see any fish activity. Plenty of crabs in the rock crevices though. Tide was very low and weed lined the sand flats. I think it will fish better from a boat where you can get past the wall of weed.

Hodgey - i've read your posts and it seems like you are endorsing bushy's products haha, i will have a look at the bushy poppers next time. Your post about continuous spray coming from the popper for whiting had me thrashing my little popper through the water like i was going for GTs... only on a smaller scale.

Edited December 19, 2009 by monch

[funnierthanu]

Use worms mate , got 8 in the bay tonite , biggest was 44cm , will do a post and pic in the morning

[The Iceman]

One of my best surface lures for whiting is a smak skywalker gold with orange back

I work it fairly quickly

This one and several others was caught in St Georges Basin on the sand flats on the eastern side of the islands