Whiting on poppers by Brett Geddes

Surface fishing is such an exciting and visual sport that appeals to me more than any other form of angling.

For over 20 years now I've had too much fun with bream, perch, trevally, flathead, tailor, salmon and even trout on surface flies or lures. One of the last 'must do' species for me to tick off the list in terms of surface action, was whiting on poppers. Two trips to East Gippsland enabled me to get a real handle on catching these little feisty brutes and now I'm totally addicted!

I never thought that yellowfin whiting would be so aggressive and I'm also astounded by the abundance of these fish in Victorian waters. I'm not at all surprised though, at how delectable they are when I'm armed with a knife and fork.

WHERE THEY LIVE

As we all know yellowfin whiting are heavily targeted right down the NSW coast and have been caught on surface lures for a long time now. Places just over the border like Merimbula and Wonboyn are well respected for having large populations of fish to 40cm and more. About seven years ago Bushy organised a day out while I was holidaying in that area, to show me his whiting on poppers but we went and chased bream instead.

Ever since I have regretted missing out on surface whiting with him that day. But I know that these whiting are found in good numbers between Bemm River and Mallacoota estuaries because I've caught them there before on sub-surface blades. It was time to get serious with some Victorian whiting and catch these tasty fish on surface lures. With my camper packed I headed off towards Mallacoota.

SETTLING IN

My first cast for the trip was with a blade and I was basically just stretching my arms out and put a lure into the shallows. I was checking my line and getting comfy in my seat and then gave the lure a few lifts. Clunk! I'm on and in just 20cm of water my line arcs across the water sideways signalling a fast and fairly heavy fish.

Must be a bream I thought but no, in comes a 35cm yellowfin whiting as first fish of the day. Right species wrong method. On goes my home made popper and I make my second cast a long searching one across slightly deeper water. Half way back to my yak a large boil appears behind my lure. Seconds later a huge splash tells me something really big has smashed my popper and it's no whiting. Not a bream or a flathead either. After a trying tussle and many swipes with my net a 68cm tailor at around 2kg is eventually resting on my lap.

At least my 8lb leader proved its worth and I got my lure back! I directed my next cast back into the real shallows where I hoped toothy tailor were absent. It took a few more casts to get fish up behind my popper and that's when the fun started.

SIP, SLOP SLAP!

I could hear and certainly see fish darting around behind my popper and attempting to eat it. They were very active and I knew they were whiting but some looked fairly small and couldn't get the lure into their mouths. Nearly every cast saw fish attack but miss my popper with a sip-slop-slap! Then I finally tightened up into a much better fish and in came my very first yellowfin whiting on a popper.

I love it when a plan comes together and at 34cm I was keen to get some photos of this milestone capture. Over the next two days I went on to land 17 fat whiting between 26-35cms and I got so obsessed in working them out, that I ignored other fish like my very favourite bream. This happens I suppose when you find a new plaything but I had some work to do though, as I was only hooking about a quarter of the fish hitting my lure?

LURES

When choosing what sort of lures to use, well this is the easy part. Anything that floats, is about 30-50cm long and has a set of super-sharp sticky hooks will work. Smaller trebles or W-hooks will suit the little mouth whiting have and I can't stress how sharp you must have those hooks so always check and replace them.

As usual I have to tinker around with my own lures and I customise ordinary hardbodied lures. First I grind off their bibs then I add foam to their heads and a bit of lead to the rear so they cast a mile and will pop and splash along like a sick fish or prawn. It's taken much trial and error to modify my surface hardbodied lures but I now have them spot on.

And boy are my lures ugly! Just the way I like it because as with all surface fishing, no matter what species, they only ever see a small part of any floating lure. They only get a look at the belly and the general outline so the main appeal to the fish is how you make the lure swim, not how it looks.

HOW TO TRICK THEM

I have spent a total of six days, over two trips, chasing the whiting with my home made poppers and I have caught about 70 of them now. When it comes to what method to employ on whiting, after much experimentation here's what I've discovered. The best way to trick them with a surface lure can be described with one