YELLOWFIN WHITING POPPERS

Yellowfin whiting, the south's answer to sand whiting, are by their very nature are an aggressive fish with opportunistic tendencies. Most species that hunt on the flats bite hard and furious as they try to make the most of the feeding opportunities while there's water over their heads. Not dissimilar to flathead, or any other flats predator for that matter, whiting know where to hold for the best and easiest supply of food, and these areas will be ambushed by waiting packs of gold bars. With this in mind, it's no real shock they'll happily smash a range of small surface lures! AREAS FOR POPPER WHITING Ideal locations to start your search with poppers include shallow run-off drains from banks and mangroves, sandbanks, noted nipper beds, and gutters or depressions in the bottom. Try and think like a whiting and fish these areas when their tucker is likely to be easy pickings. So when working a drain for instance, look for a run-out tide to draw the food out of it and into the mouths of waiting whiting which will bunch up at the entrance to such areas. Sandbanks tend to fish well when first covered by water, and whiting will feed in these areas right up to the point they run out of water. Good tides tends to equal more intense feeding with these fish and should be factored into your efforts. The perfect topwater lure scenario for YFW is identifying the above areas in relatively sheltered waters. Many small, whiting-intended surface lures are quite light and can be more effectively fished when there's not a lot of cross wind or wave activity; although if you can get the wind in your back we found we could fish them in quite windy conditions and still get hits. Moreover many creeks and protected river systems in the state which have a population of these fish are prime areas for this technique. I believe more open water popper sessions are possible also, especially on those oily calm days where you can spot schools of fish and take out a lot of the aimless casting. Another desirable trait to have with your location is a fairly shallow water depth. As touched on yellowfin only need meagre amounts of water over them to venture into some areas, with a couple of feet, up to say two metres ample. What will initial amaze you most about popper yellowfin is how quickly they'll drop their bottom hugging ways and turn their attention to the surface if the situation dictates it. We're often amazed by how deep these fish will rise up from to hit a lure, and it seems they're quite happy to do it, and are probably accustomed to taking small baitfish and prawns etc. from quite high up in the water column in some areas. It's probably not far out of their comfort zone when you think about it. THE LURES & TACKLE With the range of modern hard-bodies on offer these days there's hardly a shortage of sporty little topwaters you can tie on for yellowfin, with both poppers and stickbaits or walk-the-dog style lures fine for the job. Size wise most of these lures fall into the 30 to 70mm bracket. Don't think you need micro poppers and stickbaits for this fishing, as some of the larger options performed well and their extra weight made them easier to fish in windy conditions. This said, I still prefer to keep things stealthy with this fishing if possible. Replacing standard trebles with either fine wire versions, or stinger style hooks will result in more hook-ups on these small mouthed fish. Sticky-sharp fine wire size 16 or 14 trebles work well, as do using fine, single stinger hooks further improves hook-ups, particularly with poppers. Many of my small whiting poppers now have both trebles and the rear split ring removed and a Decoy Dancing Jack 'swimming hook' is fitted to the belly split ring. Your standard bream out will double perfectly as a surface whiting outfit. The Zodias 270ML / Stella 1000 is currently my fave, but as long as you can control the subtle movements of your popper/stickbait you can't go too far wrong with outfit selection. Watching packs of hyped-up whiting swarm all over your surface lure and then hook-up is awesome visual action in shallow parts. To even further sweeten the deal, the great part about this fishing is you get some mighty tasty fillets at the end of the day as well!