Lakes whiting.

[yepi'mon]

Well proved my theory. It today all day for 1 whiting only. Same spots, same baits & pretty well much the same tide. A few tiddly flatties, small pinky, small trevally & toadies 🥺🥺

What was the theory?

[mr smokey]

Afternoon/evening sessions for best results. Even the local Whiting Whisperer Ricky is having trouble during morning/lunchtime sessions :

[Pirkz]

Suitably motivated by some of the above posts and being fairly local, and in enforced semi retirement these days , I made the trip across from Paynesville to the Metung area yesterday before the sea breeze kicked in . Far too lazy to get up at the crack of dawn so we fished 11- 4:30 pm. Started across from Shaving point as there were other boats there already. Strange though that as we arrived, most of them moved off, probably due to a change in tide and or fortune. After 30 mins catching nothing but a small pinky snapper, we moved to the Nungurner area (about 800 m either side) trying various spots close to shallows and drop offs. Yet again Nada! Last throw of the dice we dropped anchor mid channel in about 10 metres close to a previous haunt and the day improved. Despite leaving the freshly prepared mussels in the fridge, we caught a fish (albeit small) a drop using standard 2 hook paternoster squid and bluebait . Well actually my wife's rig was a cut down 3 hook hoki / feather type rig with small size 10 ish baited hooks on. She out fished my shop bought 2 hook whiting rig 2 -1 and that was only baiting 1 hook!. Good to see the potential of the lakes fishery with a variety of species coming aboard - including school /sand whiting , flathead, gurnard, pinky snapper, taylor and a strippy thing (grunter?). Also caught a crown of thorns and a crab who is now residing in the bottom of the tinny as Im not taking the floor up to get him (or her) out! Although all fish were small (eg flathead were 15-22cm ) it was good sport especially for a beginner ( the wife not me). After throwing about 10 sand whiting back due to their size around 18 cm - I googled to see what the min size actually was . Turned out no min size so the next 39 or so that ended up being 16-22cm were kept. Everything else was returned except for the Crown of Thorns (RIP). All up probably 100+ smallish fish caught over just 2 hrs. Met up afloat with another forum member who was on holidays in Metung and donated some/half of the catch as they hadn't eaten sand whiting before - that made 2 of us. Bit fiddly to prepare but for those that are interested we descaled, filleted, dipped in seasoned flour and lightly pan fried in olive oil, butter ,capers and lemon juice. Very nice and well worth the effort. No pics this week as too busy actually catching which makes a nice change. Just need to catch a KGW now from the lakes system and I will be a happy man... for this week at least...
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[StarrangerAU]

Suitably motivated by some of the above posts and being fairly local.........

...Just need to catch a KGW now from the lakes system and I will be a happy man... for this week at least...
Tight Lines
Pirkz

A nice read...thanks for posting

[re-tyred]

I went today early to try and get away from all the speedsters ploughing up and down. Just a few school whiting and small KGW. Going tomorrow after lunch to see if I can do better.

[mr smokey]

The sandies are fiddly but vurry noice lightly done in butter with a pinch of garlic

[CannonsJS]

I also went out yesterday afternoon. Launched at about 4:30pm and after a quick look at the bar went down to Mr Smokey's whiting spot. Well the word is well and truely out where the whiting are because there was a bunch of boats lined up hoping to catch a feed. We had a bit of a look for a spot but decided it was too crowded where it looked most promising so left and fished off Nungurner instead. In the next couple of hours we caught 20+ gurnard and flathead. Only 1 flathead was size and we kept three of the larger gurnard.

Now getting on for 7pm we decided to try back at the whiting spot. This time only a couple of boats remained so we anchored up and fished for about 30mins without a bite.

My sister-in-law's been hanging for some crab curry for a while so we pulled up anchor and moved down channel closer to the entrance and anchored up over some sand and threw in the crab net while we continued to try our luck with the fish. The fishing produced lots of undersized Australian Salmon while the crab net also did it's job. We came back with a dozen decent sized sand crabs after less than an hour's work.

All up it was a very enjoyable evening on the water.

Whiting hopefuls..

[Pirkz]

So just a Good News update Re my previous post.. The crab lives to bite another day! Despite spending 2 days under my Tinny's floor, Mr Crab has been rescued and released unharmed albeit in a new postcode... i.e. off Paynesville jetties. Had to take the floor up but couldn't sleep last night thinking of the poor bugger slowly dying down there ..so 7am saw me in the garage drill in one hand to unscrew the boarded floor, ánd glove on the other... I had tipped a bucket of sea water and some seaweed under there the day before so perhaps that made the difference in keeping his gills wet enough to keep scuttling about below decks. Also, caught my first and second KGW from the lakes today abeam the red buoy near Nyerimilang jetty in 3metres on paternostered cooked mussel. Unfortunately number 3 did a runner on sighting the boat.. Slow sport though. Mrs P caught nowt, whilst I only had a couple of additional small Gurnard in the 4hr session - little tidal movement which surprised me (1100 -1500). Fish measured 32 and 28cm and were very tasty as always.

[re-tyred]

I went up to Nungurner on a charter boat yesterday. Just giving them a hand. We produced 31 school whiting and 4 flying gurnard in 2hours. Four people fishing. KGWs seem to be taking a break. School/ silver/ sand whiting, call them what you like. They are awesome eating. All I do is scale them, then cut the head off and the rib cage out. I use some scissors to take off the spiky fins. Cook them however you like. Once cook just peel the flesh off one side, then pull the complete back bone out and eat the other side.
There is a secret to catching them in quantity.
I use half a sabiki rig. It has the be the right type. The small ones with the little paper feather. I cut the 5 hook rig in half. Discard one hook. Tie a sinker to each of the 2 hook rigs. So two rigs out of each sabiki. Then just use a very small piece of squid on the hooks. Double headers are common.

[Pirkz]

Yep pretty much concurs with what I said up thread albeit without a pic .To be honest I reckon just descaling and filleting with a sharp knife and a bit of patience achieves good results ...but each to their own. Either way I agree that they are worth catching and eating. In piscatorial terms ..size isnt everything. And for charter boat patrons even this type of catch qualifies the cost / chase and reinforces the memory of a good day afloat.