Whiting on Yabbies - A Breakdown

By Paul Chew

So, with predictions of dirty water for ages after the floods coming true, it has been mostly bait fishing with freshly pumped yabbies over the winter period for me. During the next little while I will endeavour to break down most of what I know about chasing whiting, with the added curveball of generally super dirty water. Right now, the fish are getting ready to head to the surf beaches to spawn in the big Sou’ Easters around Christmas time. They can be easy pickings now, so please just take what you need for a feed.

Collecting yabbies is first on the agenda for most of my whiting trips, and mostly I will launch on a dropping tide, pumping yabbies as soon as I am able. Most of my good yabby banks are broad, sloping sand banks, with a few mangrove trees on them. For newcomers to chasing yabbies, generally the first sand to emerge on a bank as the tide is dropping will be a whiter/lighter colour than the rest of the bank. Generally, this area will hold no yabbies. As the tide drops to expose more sand, what you will be looking for is a darker colour sand, where the yabbies are excavating their tunnels below and pushing the darker mud to the surface.

If you are super stuck and the tide is still high, sometimes you will find a few around the mangroves. Generally, it’s softer digging and walking though, with lots of mud and not too many yabbies. Once you find a few drains dropping off the bank, the yabbies shouldn’t be far away and mostly it’s easier using the pump when you are digging on the edge of these drains. The pump will get more suction when it’s wet like that.

I use two yoghurt buckets, one with holes drilled in the bottom then inserted inside the other, to drain the mud out once I have enough. Another tip, especially when camping overnight, is to drain the water right out of the yabbies. I find the survival rate doing this is much better than leaving them covered in water. The other technique that does work is to put them in a flat tray and then just half cover them with water. Kept like that the majority will survive for 24 hours without issue. In summer you’ll want them in the esky.

Outfits… No not my fishing attire…

While I do re-purpose my light spinning rods to fish for whiting, my preference is a 1-3kg Okuma LRF spin rod and a 2500 size Ceymar HD reel, loaded with 6lb Platypus Pulse Mono. I find the mono and the UFR ‘nibble tip’ of the LRF results in less fish bounced off, particularly in the shallow water where I fish.

On the business end it’s a simple running sinker rig, with a small pea sinker, small swivel, and size 4 Mustad Bloodworm hook. As you will see in one of my whiting videos, after 20 or so fish it’s worth tying on a new hook to ensure good hook ups. I try to cast up current and just keep slowly winding to stay in touch with the bait. Generally, you’ll see the line stop, twitch a bit, then slowly move off, and this is when you should gently lift the rod and set the hook. Often, I will park the boat and walk the banks, as a lot of my good spots are too shallow to get the boat into. A wading bag, small tackle box and measuring stick, along with a bit of bait, is all that I need.

Location, Location, Location.

I will break this into two sections, one is up the creek and the other is out on the flats.

Up the creeks it is normally pretty easy to get a few whiting. The only thing that you really need is a yabby bank and then it’s just a matter of fishing the middle of the creek as the tide is dropping off the bank. The whiting will stay on the bank in literally four inches of water, so the trick is to identify the last drains that have water in them. The mouth of these drains is also a good place to park up, on the start of the incoming tide.

Out on the flats it’s the same idea, but different. Fish are creatures of habit and if not lazy, do not like expending energy if they do not have to. Any big sand flat that contains yabbies and soldier crabs will have one or more good drains where the water escapes as the tide drops. This will be the same place that the fish access first as the tide rises. Any of the online satellite sites are a great place to identify these areas. Also, one positive of the flood silt deposits is that, during winter, one of the best places to catch a whiting was anywhere there was a bit of dirty water. Currently in the Sandy Straits, that is pretty much anywhere on the big tides. Which leads me into the when.

The When…

Easily the best tides for whiting are on the big tides, a couple of days either side of the new and full moon. This will result in a late arvo low tide and then a big flood tide. Fishing the water up onto the flats and then around the mangrove islands will likely result in plenty of good fish. You will also likely encounter plenty of bream and good flathead at this time of year. On the smaller tides, fish the smaller creeks, where there will be a bit more run in the tide. On the neap tides, the water mostly doesn’t get off the flats to drive the whiting down. Commonly they will just bury in the ‘melon holes’ in the sand and not feed.

Chewy’s Wrap

So that’s a bit of a run down on how I chase whiting, what to look for on a sandbar chasing yabbies, and a bit of how, where, and when. There will be a video floating around on Tackle Tactics TV (YouTube) in a couple of weeks, so if you have any questions hit me up there and I will try to help you out.

Chasing whiting a few times a year holds a special place for me as it’s what I grew up doing as a kid, learning the craft from my grandparents. I still have my grandfather’s old tacklebox and each time I open it to grab a bit of tackle, it brings back those good memories. My focus when producing these articles and videos is to get people off their screens and back out into the outdoors with their kids. If they can catch a couple of fish for a feed, then all the better. There’s a lot of vague information out there, but hopefully this leads people in the right direction to grab a few of our prized Sandy Straits whiting.

Tight lines… Chewy

Gearing Up:

Okuma LRF GEN2 Spin Rod - LRF2-S-662L 6'6" 1-3kg
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reel - CHD-2500HA
Platypus Pulse Mono