Berley for whiting

[Tony Ainsworth]

I am comp fishing this weekend and whiting are worth 5 points. Is there an advantage to berley and if so what mix is best and is the catch result better at night and falling or rising tide many thanks Tony

[robersl]

Hi Tony you could use pellets or a few minced yabbies mixed with wet sand but with the big tides it will get washed downstream pretty quick personaly i do not use berley for whiting i find the move with the currents and tides on the edge of sand bars a school will come past a few quick fish then quite till the next school

shane

[Noelm]

I dont like berley for Whiting myself, but I guess if using worms, then some small odds and ends of worms would be OK, or if using nippers, a few bits also would be OK, but as general rule, I don't berley for them. As far as catching big ones go, night time with live nippers in quiet locations will often yield some rippers.

[HeadBanger]

I barely ever use berley for whiting, as I've found that they seem to hang around the places I fish in massive numbers, and berley usually isn't necessary.

However, I've found that if the numbers are starting to dwindle, throwing out a few crushed up yabbies, along with crushed prawns and sand brings that back around quickly. Also, if you're using yabbies for bait, and you prefer to pull the claw off before hooking them, collect about 15 of the big claws and chuck them out, along with some sand, I've found that the whiting start to bite a little more aggressively. I don't know if it's just my imagination though.

Finally, if the whiting are visible from the shore, or you're in a boat and can see them, throw them whole yabbies. When you've done this a few times, chuck out an unweighted or very, very lightly weighted yabby. I've found that the whiting will bite harder if there's more bait in the area, and you have more chance of hooking up.

Good luck in the competition,
Kaidon

[tunaticer]

In times gone by I have used soldier crabs as bait and berley with lots better than average results.
Generally I catch i bucket load of soldier crabs and separate the little black ones from the big blue ones. The blue ones go thru a hand mincer after they have died in an ice slurry. I use the smaller crabs two to a hook for the whiting.
Generally i put the minced soldier crabs in a fine mesh bag and dangle it over the side of the boat and the boat is anchored accross the current. The bigger whiting are generally about 10 metres from the boat and the smaller pickers are up close.
Use just enough lead to get the baits to the bottom and let the current swing them around. bigger fish crunch and run, average fish suck and munch without running and pickers piss me off.

[grumpy santa]

Crushed soldier crabs do work a treat. 2-3 in a hand full of sand pressed into a ball and dropped overboard does the trick but there is a bag limit of 50 per person in QLD.