Poor Mans Bone Fish

[Greg Burt]

 I had a top little Popping session last week at the extreme bottom end of the scale, 'Whiting Popping'. It was the 1st go at it for Rodney Marks and myself and we were completely out of out comfort zone of Game Fishing, heavy Popping and Jigging, it was great fun and will do it again when I can't get out on the Blue Water.
 The fish came in at between 155 to 400grm+

[Andy Rowe]

Great Stuff, beats working!

[Jon Li]

Hi guys ,

Reminds me of my student days fishing in the Sunshine Coast during the long weekend using telescopic rod + cheap reel , we caught breams too .

Jon .

[Greg Burt]

The Sunshine Coast is still doing it Jon, sometimes Changed a bit though

[Peter Morris]

Onya mate,

I have had ago at it and got quite a few in the Noosa.

Surpising that a whiting is so agressive as to hit a popper eh..?

Pete

[Jon Li]

The Sunshine Coast is still doing it Jon, sometimes Changed a bit though

Hi Greg ,

The Sunshine Coast is a beautifull place , if only I had the money to buy a few purchases of land then I would be millionaires many time over but I was just a penniless student then .

That is good to hear there are still plenty of whitings in the area despite the developments there , Australia is indeed a lucky country .

Jon .

[Rohit Saqa Lal]

Nice one, flicking em lil poppers around is good fun

[Graham Scott]

Good report!
I have tried up here in CQ, but I think our whiting population is a bit low...too many big predators.
I had some success with Bushy's stiffy poppers.
What worked for you guys.

I also found adding an extra split ring to the back treble increased my hook up rate. Looks like your whiting were a lot hungrier than the ones I could find.
Still great fun at any size.

[Nathan Cefai]

nice one mate,smaller version of GT popping..

[Greg Burt]

Graham, the Cultiva 60mm 'GOBO' in clear killed it, I tried two others including a pink R2C in the same size with only one hit. It is strange they like a bigger lure than you usually use for Bream, and as Pete said they aggressively chase the continuously moving Popper down.

[Rohit Saqa Lal]

If you can get your hands on any Sugoi poppers then it will be a good investment. problem is they are discontinued and rare as hens teeth and $35 a pop if you can find any. Hawk has some clones that a close and get some good fish but not quite on par with the Sugoi, but still I find the Hawks to be better then most others and at $7 a steal. The top pic is the Sugoi and the bottom one the Hawk. Both are identical in size and shape but the camera angle makes em look a bit different. They swim the same as well with the real difference in the sound of the rattle.

[Warwick Joyce]

Good report!
I have tried up here in CQ, but I think our whiting population is a bit low...too many big predators.
I had some success with Bushy's stiffy poppers.
What worked for you guys.

I also found adding an extra split ring to the back treble increased my hook up rate. Looks like your whiting were a lot hungrier than the ones I could find.
Still great fun at any size.

I too have been trying heaps, no luck yet but plenty of strikes and by catches no whiting yet 

I'll be trying that 2 split trick of yours Graham as I'm sure there have been whiting strikes!!

[Graham Scott]

Hi warwick,
Yes I was getting lots of slashes behind the popper with zero connects. I've caught maybe 5 or 6 now all on the back treble, just in the lip. I guess they are trying to disable or even annoy the popper rather than eating it, which is clearly impossible given the size of their mouths.
If I'm looking for a feed of whiting I have been using the popper to prospect as you can cover a lot of ground quickly, then swing over to bait when I've seen them having a go at the popper, not very sporting I know.

Also caught some decnt flathead...and a big green toad.

Surprisingly I've had heaps of gar have a go but no hookups.

[Travis Heaps]

Hi warwick,
Yes I was getting lots of slashes behind the popper with zero connects. I've caught maybe 5 or 6 now all on the back treble, just in the lip. I guess they are trying to disable or even annoy the popper rather than eating it, which is clearly impossible given the size of their mouths.
If I'm looking for a feed of whiting I have been using the popper to prospect as you can cover a lot of ground quickly, then swing over to bait when I've seen them having a go at the popper, not very sporting I know.

Also caught some decnt flathead...and a big green toad.

Surprisingly I've had heaps of gar have a go but no hookups.

Hey Graham - also having trouble with them up here on the poppers, definitely nothing like the success you had on your first trip Greg.  Ahh yes the Gar/Longtoms do like them - ask Warwick, he managed to catch one without even hooking it!  Managed to get it's beak tangled in the trace...  

Recently bougth a Bassday Sugapen for a Jungle Perch trip though and it looks the goods, looking forward to trying it on the local whiting population.

[Stephen Polzin]

If you can get your hands on any Sugoi poppers then it will be a good investment. problem is they are discontinued and rare as hens teeth and $35 a pop if you can find any. .

Strewth, I picked up a couple of those Sugoi poppers at Tackleberry in Japan a few years ago.  Tackleberry is a franchise of stores selling used fishing tackle.  I think they worked out at about $2 each.  Work great on Sooty Grunter and Jungle Perch.