Whiting on Lures!!

This fish was plucked from a school of herring with a Halco Scorpion

Whiting are one of the iconic species that call Australia home. They can be caught just about through the whole of Australia.
I am going to run you through how to catch yourself some whiting for either the table or just for fun!!
Whiting are bottom dwellers and prefer sandy bottoms.
there are a few different types of whiting that can be caught from 30m+ to 15cm deep.
I will be mainly focusing on the Yellowfin Whiting.
These fish love shallow, calm bays with lots of sand and weed.

A solid fish taken on a Surface lure

Its the patches of weed that hold the key to catching consistent numbers of fish. Small crustaceans and worms hide in the weed. The Whiting target these areas and often gather in schools to "patrol" the weed patches. Large flats(areas of very shallow bottom consisting of sand and occasionally weed) are great places to target whiting as they are free from predators and provides a great hunting ground!!
 

My PB Whiting at 33cm taken on a Scum Dog

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I have had good success using surface lures such as the Berkley Scum Dog on these flats. A constant walk flicked over the top of a weed patch should see boils and splashes behind your lure. Just keep "walking" the lure until one of them hooks them self. I usually add another split ring on the back of my surface lure to aid in my hook-up rate. The picture to the left shows that adding an extra split ring aids in hook-ups.
Soft plastics have accounted for Sand and school Whiting in deeper water where they congregate over sandy bottoms.
Numerous Hardbody's have also produced Whiting for me. The Halco Scorpion 35 caught me my first Whiting on a diving Hardbody.
                                                                              GEAR

A Daiwa Regal 2000 spooled with some 6lb Braid

Whiting aren't going to rip 100m of line off in 1 minute so your 1-3kg or 2-4kg setup will suffice and will allow you to cats those lighter lures much further.
For line i opt for 4lb Fireline. Braid around 3-6lb is best because it allows you to cast lures better and have a better hook-up rate because of the no stretch factor. Where i fish for Whiting there is no structure so i use about a 4-3lb Fluorocarbon leader(Fluorocarbon is practically invisible underwater but Monofilament is more likely to be seen underwater.) but have caught fish on heavier leaders. A 1000-2500 size reel is a good size reel to get the best out of these aggressive fish.

These fish are very aggresive despte there size!!

A rod around 6'8"-7'6" and with a 1-3 or 2-4kg rating is good as it allows you to throw lighter lures and allows you to be able to give you a better chance to stay connected as they have fairly soft mouths.








I hope you have learnt a bit about Whiting and how to hook into some of these quality fish!!!

Cheers, Callum....