Episode 325: Port Lincoln Whiting With Dan Challinger

Dan’s Top Tips For Port Lincoln Whiting

• Whiting fishing with lures is all about long casting. These fish are prey to every large predator in the ocean and are living in shallow, clear water, so they’re easily spooked. Long casts reduce the chance of spooked fish.
• A little bit of breeze helps both with casting and with getting the whiting feeding more actively. Some ripple on the water surface helps conceal the whiting from predators.
• When casting, flick the bail arm over just before the lure lands, removing the belly in the line and helping to lay out a longer cast.
• The water should ideally be 20-24C for optimum bites.
• A bit of weed or rubbly, rocky bottom in the sandbanks and shallow channels help to hold whiting in the area. When fishing structure-less beaches, keep moving to find the fish as they will likely be schooled up and moving.
• Knee deep water is about right for whiting fishing. If the water gets to waist deep you’re probably starting to stray outside prime whiting territory. Casting behind structure and working the lure back over the top of the structure seems to be effective.
• For daytime fishing Dan reckons ideal conditions are around a new moon with a little breeze and some cloud cover, about 2 hours from the top of the tide. Around the full moon, Dan likes the hour before dawn, especially when this coincides with a high tide a couple of hours before dawn allowing him to fish the runout at dawn.
• Beaches around Port Lincoln are often expansive flats at low tide, but whiting often congregate in the shallow channels that run parallel with the beach, following the tide up and down. Wade out knee deep and follow the tide and you should find plenty of whiting.

Dan’s Whiting Fishing Tackle

• A 7-8’, 1-4kg rod with a 1000 size reel, 6lb braid and 6-8lb fluorocarbon leader is a good option. Dan is using Shimano Zodias the new T-Curve rods and the tiny Seahawk Light Pro 800 reel. Dan likes fluorocarbon even when using surface lures.

Dan’s Whiting Fishing Lures

• The 70mm Bassday Sugapen is often the first lure Dan reaches for, especially in colours C137, HF119 and C66. Switch the belly treble to a size 16 and the back treble to a size 10 atomic assist hook in red or gold tassels. This can be fished with a typical “walk the dog” style retrieve at pretty much constant speed with not too many pauses.
• Shimano Brenious Rise Walk, 65F, colours 005 and 006. These small poppers have a spout that spits water with each twitch. Change the hooks up, same as for the Sugapen above, size 16 belly treble and Atomic assist hook, size 10 on the rear. These lures cast very long and can be twitched with occasional pauses. A heavier leader (10lb fluorocarbon) attached with a clinch knot will get the best action out of these lures as it helps to keep them tracking straight and spitting water.
• Berkley 6” Camo worm. This is usually fished as light as possible, but with 1/8 finesse jig heads with a size 2 can be cast a very long way with the wind. The head also helps throw up little puffs of sand, which attracts whiting. Give them a double hop, them pause for 1-2 seconds. Repeat back to the rod tip. Fish these lures a lot slower than the others mentioned here.