Pumistone Passage, Caloundra, Whiting on Poppers.
I spent a few days at Caloundra this week on the Sunshine Coast fishing from my new Mantra Palani. The target species for the sessions were Summer Whiting as I had enjoyed chasing them so many other times I just had to give it a go again.
I thought it might be a bit too early to try for them but after seeing so many local boat fishermen anchored up and off the channel close to the sand banks I knew the whiting must be on. Plus that all the local fish shops had ample supplies of them available for sale.
So the gear was prepared, I was in a rush this week after fishing the Wivenhoe Kayak and Canoe Convention last weekend and I virtually arrived home from that to unpack and repack again for the coast. Anyway I had my usual G Loomis IMX8 1- 3 kg 6 foot stick with a 1000 size Shimano Stradic spooled with Fins 4lb Braid and a 6lb Leader. I wish I had packed an anchor but I only had a Surf board Leg rope, the leg rope was still OK as it allowed me to secure the kayak to my body as I walked the flats in search of the whiting.
This past week I fished various stages of the tide, a tide on the rise, a tide on the turn to out and a tide dead flat on the turn to come back in. I must say my favored tide is on the top of the tide as it turns to go out. This was how my first session was, and although the fishingwas good it was much better latter in the week when the tide was dead low. But in saying this the conditions on this later day were almost perfect for poppers, meaning low light overcast conditions and a slight breeze. So the whiting were guessing and taking more of a chance with the popper going across their path.
I even tried sub surface lures this week in between the times I lost interest in chasing the whiting as the areas I came were scattered with weed beds, really perfect spots to try for some Flathead. And that's what happened, I started to catch Flathead just by slowly jigging a shallow diving shad lure across the weed beds.
The overall results were excellent considering that Spring has just sprung, early indications are that this could be an awesome summer to chase some whiting especially with the lack of rains leading into spring. The waters are so clear and free of weed and debris which sometimes plagues me when popper fishing for whiting.
On the lure front, in the past I have used Jaz Zappas, Maria 55 Pencil Poppers and Atomic Hardz Pop 50. I happened to pick up a couple new colors in the Hardz poppers before my trip away and one color the Orange Wonder was just going off the whole time!
Anyway check out the results in the pictures below...I caught heaps of fish!!!!
I thought it might be a bit too early to try for them but after seeing so many local boat fishermen anchored up and off the channel close to the sand banks I knew the whiting must be on. Plus that all the local fish shops had ample supplies of them available for sale.
So the gear was prepared, I was in a rush this week after fishing the Wivenhoe Kayak and Canoe Convention last weekend and I virtually arrived home from that to unpack and repack again for the coast. Anyway I had my usual G Loomis IMX8 1- 3 kg 6 foot stick with a 1000 size Shimano Stradic spooled with Fins 4lb Braid and a 6lb Leader. I wish I had packed an anchor but I only had a Surf board Leg rope, the leg rope was still OK as it allowed me to secure the kayak to my body as I walked the flats in search of the whiting.
This past week I fished various stages of the tide, a tide on the rise, a tide on the turn to out and a tide dead flat on the turn to come back in. I must say my favored tide is on the top of the tide as it turns to go out. This was how my first session was, and although the fishingwas good it was much better latter in the week when the tide was dead low. But in saying this the conditions on this later day were almost perfect for poppers, meaning low light overcast conditions and a slight breeze. So the whiting were guessing and taking more of a chance with the popper going across their path.
I even tried sub surface lures this week in between the times I lost interest in chasing the whiting as the areas I came were scattered with weed beds, really perfect spots to try for some Flathead. And that's what happened, I started to catch Flathead just by slowly jigging a shallow diving shad lure across the weed beds.
The overall results were excellent considering that Spring has just sprung, early indications are that this could be an awesome summer to chase some whiting especially with the lack of rains leading into spring. The waters are so clear and free of weed and debris which sometimes plagues me when popper fishing for whiting.
On the lure front, in the past I have used Jaz Zappas, Maria 55 Pencil Poppers and Atomic Hardz Pop 50. I happened to pick up a couple new colors in the Hardz poppers before my trip away and one color the Orange Wonder was just going off the whole time!
Anyway check out the results in the pictures below...I caught heaps of fish!!!!
