Whiting

Does anyone know of any marks in the North-West likely to produce whiting in the coming weeks? Never targeted them before so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

fish a calm evening into dark. use 3 hook flappers if fish are at close to medium range. 25- 30lb. snoods will make life easier at night. the rig dimensions will depend on where you fish. hooklenghts can be anything from 4" to 20".

use mackeral, squid and sandeel for bait. when fishing is slow try tipping sandeel with squid or mackeral(or both!) to get the odds in your favour. when the fish come heavy on the feed bait presentation will go out the window! u won't have time to keep up with the bites! this is were having a bait tub/ tray with all your fish baits cut to size comes in handy- do this before it gets dark. a 1' X 1/2' piece of mackeral and similar size piece of squid should be fine for size 2 or 1 hooks.
try putting a piece of mackeral on first and then a piece of squid on afterwards. this will keep the mackeral from being ripped from the hook, especially if its frozen your using.
small glow in the dark attractors can work well above the hook, u will only need 2 or 3. similarly baited hookeyes can work well too.

when the tide run slackens off switch to a plain lead and. this will allow u to strike the fish onto the hook. another trick for hard to hit whiting bites at slack tide is slowly reeling the baited rig along the bottom. as the fish chase and take the bait they often hook themselves.

if you want to catch a big 'un use a fillet of mackeral, or a small squid, on a pennel rig. wd40 can work well on baits.

mussel can work really well for whiting at times- especially for the better fish.

whiting will eat their own. if your stuck for bait try using cut pieces from a whiting u were keeping for the table! happy hunting! they're a great little fish.

seems to be a few being caught from the boats off portrush, no reason why they shouldnt be on the blue pool or back wall of harbour after dark?

Braid is great for detecting bites and striking. Where possible a plain lead which can be pulled in a few yards at a time until you get bites. I normally use around size 1 aberdeens with inch section of small frozen sand eel on 3 hook moveable paternoster.

Donagh

I've been told ragworm is the bait to use for whiting, no one here agree?

it'll catch 'em all right. most baits will. worm baits tipped with fish are good when the fishin is slow but fishbaits often reign supreme. mackeral and squid are cheap and work very well when there are good numbers of fish around.

Cheers folks.

Any marks worth trying in the Derry/DOnegal area?

Don't know about the Derry/Donegal areas but used to get a lot off the East Strand at Portrush just behind the car park in autumn/winter.

Rag tipped with mackerel or mackerel tipped with squid seemed to work best.

There Should be Whiting marks in the Donegal area. I caught plenty from Enniscrone Pier Co. Sligo a few years ago in January. They come in close on those cold still nights. Mackeral works well with luminious beads size 1 or 1/0 hooks. If is so cold that you don't want to venture out thats the time the whiting perfer.