How to avoid the little ones pls

Member Joined: Jul 01, 2009 Posts: 39

In the summer it's the pouts, in the winter it's whiting. Does anyone have some tips on avoiding these bait-robbers? Don't get me wrong - the odd decent sized whiting is welcome but the little pesky ones get on my nerves! I'm trying to target codling from the beach and when using worm and squid all I seem to get is whiting and the occaisional flatty.

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:16 pm

Hi, probably the only way you can do it is to use larger hooks and bait. I only caught one fish the other day, it was a whiting, but a fairly big one, caught on a size 4/0 hook with a whole squid body stuffed with lug. They say big hooks dont catch small fish, but i know thats not strictly true, i only used size 3/0s at one time, and its surprising how many very small flatties i caught. So its not foolproof, but it will help, go to a size 4/0 or bigger, bearing in mind your bait size. Cheers...Mick

Member Joined: Nov 30, 2009 Posts: 49

i was useing 4/0s and 6/0s last night trying to get through the small fish with big hooks big baits and only caught whiting and flaties on the 4/0 but nothing on the 6/0s big grin

joe.

Member Joined: Jul 01, 2009 Posts: 39

Thanks guys. Will try using larger hooks in general. (been using 3/0's generaly so will move to 5/0 perhpas). The other night at sandwich bay I was using a pennel rig with a 5/0 on the bottom and whole squid - caught a flatty smaller than the squid and perfectly hooked as well! - very strange...

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:30 pm

Hi, a few months ago i caught a gurnard at filey cliffs, i caught it on a whole squid bait stuffed with lug, the bait was only about half an inch shorter than the fish. even stranger, it swallowed the bait down backwards and the hook was just visible outside its mouth. I managed to land it simply because the bait was so large and so far down, the fish was stuck on it, and couldnt let it go. big grin

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:33 pm

most fish will swallow anything they can fit in its mouth, there is no real way to stop the smaller fish getting to the bait first im afraid. Larger hooks dont help that much you will still find that they will still quite easily get that hook down their throat. problem is with having too bigger hook is the fish could feel it and drop the bait before its hooked.

Member Joined: Oct 20, 2009 Posts: 6

Embrace the Whiting and use a Livebait Rig, setup a reverse pennel rig, bait the smaller lower hook with a bit of squid to catch a Whiting and then wait for Mr Cod.

The other way is to use a normal pennel setup with worm/squid baits, and fish normally, chances are a Whiting will hook itself and a Cod will grab the lot, although doing this is more expensive in terms of bait.

I had a nice 6.5lb Cod grab a small whiting last week.

Member Joined: Nov 30, 2009 Posts: 49

fair play thats not a bad idea acturly will have to try dat 1!
so wen u fink uv got a whiting on ya hook just leave it out there and wait for mr cod to bite the whole whiting??lol?? cool

cheers joe. big grin