I've now been to Coronet Bay twice and have sat maybe 500m off the shore amongst the sand and weed patches. First time I did okay, picking up 4 legal sized whiting, including a 40cm one. Picked up a fair few leatherjackets too, but only kept one. All was done on pre-made paternoster rigs with circle hooks. In fact the rig is still in one piece.

Second time I used the same rig, but kept losing the bait (pippies and/or squid) without any hookups. But feeling the line, I could feel the nibbles. Since you apparently aren't supposed to strike with circle hooks, I moved to a long shank hook paternoster setup. I certainly started bringing in fish then. Many small, some large, but almost all leatherjackets. Got three keeper whiting in the end and kept 4 leatherjackets (my son likes them). Threw back probably double this number though.

One thing I noticed with the long shank hooks was I had a lot more fish unhook themselves when close to the yak. This never happened on circle hooks. Also, the leatherjackets definitely chomped off the line/hook a number of times with the long shank hooks. Also never happened on circle hooks. Started to get annoying actually. But with the long-shank hooks I definitely got a lot more initial hook ups by striking on the small nibbles.

A few questions:

• How do I select for whiting over leatherjackets? KGW was my target species.

• How could I convert those nibbles to hook ups on circle hooks? Would smaller circle hooks do it? Maybe a bit of bait holder thread?

• Is striking with a circle hook such a no no? Is there something in between, with good self hooking capabilities, but with which you can still strike?

I actually want to try out the Sommers/Balnarring area again. There's meant to be good whiting out there. Maybe there's less leatherjackets too?

bugeater wrote: ↑04 Jul 2022, 00:13
Second time I used the same rig, but kept losing the bait (pippies and/or squid) without any hookups. But feeling the line, I could feel the nibbles. Since you apparently aren't supposed to strike with circle hooks, I moved to a long shank hook paternoster setup. I certainly started bringing in fish then. Many small, some large, but almost all leatherjackets. Got three keeper whiting in the end and kept 4 leatherjackets (my son likes them). Threw back probably double this number though.

One thing I noticed with the long shank hooks was I had a lot more fish unhook themselves when close to the yak. This never happened on circle hooks. Also, the leatherjackets definitely chomped off the line/hook a number of times with the long shank hooks. Also never happened on circle hooks. Started to get annoying actually. But with the long-shank hooks I definitely got a lot more initial hook ups by striking on the small nibbles.

A few questions:

• How do I select for whiting over leatherjackets? KGW was my target species.

• How could I convert those nibbles to hook ups on circle hooks? Would smaller circle hooks do it? Maybe a bit of bait holder thread?

• Is striking with a circle hook such a no no? Is there something in between, with good self hooking capabilities, but with which you can still strike?

I actually want to try out the Sommers/Balnarring area again. There's meant to be good whiting out there. Maybe there's less leatherjackets too?

First whiting over winter is a hit and miss affair I think as a rule you can find better size fish but less of them and by the way I in the past have done better at Balnarring over Coronet through the cooler months - my biggest LJs have also come from there
Balnarring has a lot of LJs and the other skurge of whiting fishing a sh!t ton of Wrasse that will eat you out of house and home

I still use circles for Whiting and if the LJs are around and the tide is light enough try floating your Paternoter down with out a sinker you will hook more LJs that way

really you will do much better on whiting as the water warms from early snapper season on - fishing this time of the year can be hard work

cheaterparts wrote: ↑04 Jul 2022, 07:59 really you will do much better on whiting as the water warms from early snapper season on - fishing this time of the year can be hard work

thanks for the tip ^^^

I don't have much experience catching whitings. But from the videos I've seen, the whitings are often at the back of the LJ school. I guess you either smash through the LJs quickly, or have something distract them while you actively work a bit further back.

cheaterparts wrote: ↑04 Jul 2022, 07:59
First whiting over winter is a hit and miss affair I think as a rule you can find better size fish but less of them and by the way I in the past have done better at Balnarring over Coronet through the cooler months - my biggest LJs have also come from there
Balnarring has a lot of LJs and the other skurge of whiting fishing a sh!t ton of Wrasse that will eat you out of house and home

I still use circles for Whiting and if the LJs are around and the tide is light enough try floating your Paternoter down with out a sinker you will hook more LJs that way

really you will do much better on whiting as the water warms from early snapper season on - fishing this time of the year can be hard work

Thanks for the tips. Though I must say if this is tough fishing, either I've been lucky or summer is going to be amazing. I don't think I've ever caught so many fish, even if most go back. So much more success than my attempts from the shore. That said, it's a lot more work versus shore fishing too. My prep, transport and cleaning the yak and equipment takes up a lot of time. Still, it's worth it.

bugeater wrote: ↑04 Jul 2022, 22:14
Thanks for the tips. Though I must say if this is tough fishing, either I've been lucky or summer is going to be amazing. I don't think I've ever caught so many fish, even if most go back. So much more success than my attempts from the shore. That said, it's a lot more work versus shore fishing too. My prep, transport and cleaning the yak and equipment takes up a lot of time. Still, it's worth it.

it is surprising at time just how close you find fish just out of casting reach from the beach or you have probably figured that out

from snapper season on you will find the Coronet bay - reef island areas fire up there are also great whiting grounds all the way through to San remo
with large sand patches between the weed - well worth the explore

this time of the year there should be plenty of large squid ( 40 + hoods ) around that area if you are into squid

another thing worth a punt on the San Remo side of Reef Island ( dickies bay ) always have a gummy rod in while whiting fishing loaded with cured eel any other bait the pickers will get before a gummy does

this clip was 8 years or so ago but that day a 128 over all length gummy a 55 cm snapper and a good feed of whiting al in about 3 meters of water in the same spot



hope that also helps

cheaterparts wrote: ↑05 Jul 2022, 07:54
it is surprising at time just how close you find fish just out of casting reach from the beach or you have probably figured that out

from snapper season on you will find the Coronet bay - reef island areas fire up there are also great whiting grounds all the way through to San remo
with large sand patches between the weed - well worth the explore

this time of the year there should be plenty of large squid ( 40 + hoods ) around that area if you are into squid

another thing worth a punt on the San Remo side of Reef Island ( dickies bay ) always have a gummy rod in while whiting fishing loaded with cured eel any other bait the pickers will get before a gummy does

this clip was 8 years or so ago but that day a 128 over all length gummy a 55 cm snapper and a good feed of whiting al in about 3 meters of water in the same spot



hope that also helps

Cool. Yeah I wouldn't mind getting some calamari. I was chucking around some squid jigs around on my first visit to Coronet bay a couple of weeks ago, but not a sniff. Also towed a pilchard around under a float on a squid prong thing. The whiting were much more successful.

Squid fishing is another disciple I'm yet to master. In May I spent the month going from pier to pier catching nothing and then stopped at Blairgowrie, caught my first squid ever and proceeded to bag out before everyone else on the pier. Because it has a sandy bottom there, I just let it sink after each lift until it was definitely on the bottom, then did the next lift. I'm perhaps too cautious in weedier areas since I've lost a couple of jigs to snags.

I've also had a go at the gummies land based, but with no success. But that rod's a little long for kayak use at 12ft long or something I have a much shorter heavy weight rod that I've moved the reel over to, so I'm set up for the gummies on the yak.

The rigs I use for Whiting can vary widely. Current vs Non Current areas the method is different. I fish mainly non tidal areas such as Altona, Point Cook, Werribee.

I thing I do is I use a mix circles and long shank. Circles I love them but once I'm on a decent bite I will pretty much just go to a single rod with a long shank. Once whiting are on trying to manage multiple rods you will most likely lose more fish than fishing with one rod.

With the circles yes hook up rate is higher and when you do get hit its a gentle lift rather than a strike. However i love using the long shank as the strike is what I love.

If the whiting are underneath me rather than casting out I'll often switch to handline. Handline has 2 distinct advantages.
- Sensitivity to a bite is greater when the line is in your hand.
- If the whiting are really on you will lose the bait as soon as it hits the bottom. with a reel once you hit the bottom and removed the slack you could have lost the fish. Handline I just set the line depth in position and on bottom first time every time with no slack.

Whiting are one of those fish you can move 20 times in hours and not get nothing but can also catch couple fish a minute as well.

I prefer circle hooks, just give the rod a gentle lift to set the hook as a sudden jerk is liable to rip the hook out of its mouth without giving it a chance to turn. I find circles work better with my stiffer graphite rods while long shanks are better with a softer nibble tip rod.

I’ll fish paternoster rigs with short droppers in low current areas but use running sinker rigs with a long dropper (1m+) in current like St Leonard’s. Don’t ask me why it works, it just does.

It’s not so effective in Port Phillip but prawn is like a cheat code for fish in WPB, especially in the eastern side.

Downsizing your hook might mean you catch a few pickers but I’m not sure it’s really worth it. A size 6 Owner Mutu circle is my go to, but I also like Mustad Demon circles around the same size. Some people swear by Black Magic hooks but I reckon they’re a softer metal that is really sticky for the first few fish but goes dull faster than other types.