Whiting Time.

[geffaz]

maybe not touch them and shake them off the hook! maybe just touch the head area and stay away from the scales and lateral line! wet hand (hard core this time of year)

yous a drop net if your dropping them from any height?

these ar just guesses mate!

[Jaffa]

Do the whiting your getting look in good condition this year?

[Stoaty]

Use larger hooks and larger baits. The smaller hooks go down further and pull on the gut on retrieval, they are also harder to get out. Whiting is one of those species that can't tolerate being out the water for any length of time. I use a 6/0 fine wire aberdeen for whiting. I would catch no less meaningful fish than someone using 1/0 or 2/0.

 

Do the whiting your getting look in good condition this year?

 

We are having a much improved run of whiting this year.

[Tony U]

Stoaty

I was using 4/0 aberdeens for that reason, but for some reason about one in five of the fish we caught went belly up even if they were lip hooked and returned immediately.

there was only about a 3-4ft drop and all of the Pouting caught went back without a problem and they normally go belly up no matter what you do.

[Pompey Matt]

Fished at Eastney again lastnight.. 3 shoaly bass, a pouting and a whiting.

 

Here's a pic of the whiting

 

[M.P]

Use larger hooks and larger baits. The smaller hooks go down further and pull on the gut on retrieval, they are also harder to get out. Whiting is one of those species that can't tolerate being out the water for any length of time. I use a 6/0 fine wire aberdeen for whiting. I would catch no less meaningful fish than someone using 1/0 or 2/0.

We are having a much improved run of whiting this year.

 

 

 

I agree with what you say regarding bigger hooks. Personally i don't like catching Whiting, i would much rather hook into one decent Cod, then catch half a dozen Whiting. Hence i always fish with big hooks and big baits, normally a 4/0-6/0 pennel rig using fine wire hooks, hopefully to attract a Cod.

However, Whiting will still manage to scoff the lot. Quite often they are the larger fish around 1.5-2lb mark,but the smaller ones, sometimes still manage to get hooked, most are lip hooked and manage to swim away OK.

Using the bigger hooks don't seem to reduce the chances of catching Whiting, but less of them get gut hooked, and this increases their survival chances when returned.

 

I don't know why some anglers use small hooks such as 1/0-2/0, other then for scratching out the smaller fish in matches.

Cod fishing require big baits, and bigger hooks will give a better bait presentation, and a better chance of landing a big fish.

Someone else on here pointed out that when Bass fishing, for the best fish, use a big bait. That makes a lot of sense to me, and also goes for Cod fishing. Maybe that's why a lot of anglers never catch a big fish, and if they do hook into one, it normally comes off. Hence the words, "I lost a good fish".

[Pompey Matt]

Don't you increase your chances of catching various speicies of fish if you use a smaller hook though ?

 

Whereas, if you are using big hooks n big bait then you will only get big fish (if they are there) and would end up blanking more often than not?

[M.P]

Don't you increase your chances of catching various speicies of fish if you use a smaller hook though ?

 

Whereas, if you are using big hooks n big bait then you will only get big fish (if they are there) and would end up blanking more often than not?

 

 

 

 

Yes, possibly you do reduce the chances of hooking into smaller fish, that is why the match anglers use what we call, scratching rigs. Normally made up of three traces, each with a small hook. They are out to catch as much and whatever is swimming in front of them, to make up weight and hopefully win a prize.

 

But, what do you want to catch as a leisure angler? Are you happy with scratching out all the small fish? if so carry on using the three hook flapper. However, if you are looking for that one off fish of a lifetime and it suddenly comes your way, don't be surprised if you lose it.

 

Over the years i have been fishing, as far as i can remember, Cod fishing has never been a fast way to catch fish, it has always been a waiting game, with quite a lot of blanks. However, the waiting has been rewarded, with Cod at 21lb my PB. Several around 18lb, umpteen around 15lb, and far too many to recall from 8lb up to 12lb. Sometimes several caught in one session, but these sessions are rare, most ending with two or three fish.

My rigs have always been the same for Cod fishing, a 6/0 pennel on a 30lb trace, baited with large baits, and by large i mean very big = 8-9 Lug tipped with Peeler crab, or whole Squid, big squid.

Yes. i have still lost a lot of fish in the surf, but nowhere near as many i would have lost if i had been using a match rig fitted with small hooks.

Having said all this, i have still caught smaller fish such as 2-3lb Codling/Whiting/Gurnard/ and even an Eel on the 6/0 hooks.

It does work the other way round if your lucky, my mate hooked and landed a 16lb Cod on a 1/0 hook, but he lost two others on the same trip, one snapped his trace, the other straightened his hook.

 

Big Cod are like big Carp, you need to specialize a little to search out and catch the big one, and nothing else matters, because the small fish will always be available, Big Cod don't hang around for long.

[maximo]

interesting advice mp i keep fishing my local big fish marks but usually just end up with a bag of codlings,maybe i need to fish bigger as i would normally have a single 4 or 5/o on and a decent but not massive bait on,like one big frozen crab and two blacks.ive had good bags of fish up to 6lb but not bigger although ive seen bigger fish come off.

[Stoaty]

M.P Everything you say I have to agree with except with cod and other large mouthed fish I fish really big baits. Like whole large cuttle for cod or jumbo mackeral flapper for turbot. In my local waters I usually have a rod out for bass with 2 or 3 large squid or a half pound pout livebait.

 

Big baits = Big fish.