Thread: Whiting Rigs?

Like how gear and clothes are coordinated !

Never lose that rig; that precious photo and the actual pole will be priceless somewhere down the road, I would think.

When fishing from the beach don't throw too far out.. Filet some of those whiting, fry them, and teach the kids to love eating fish.

I am a complete "new boy" when it comes to saltwater fishing so take this with a grain of salt- I fished in front of Bluewater Condos the week of Sept 1 every morning around daylight for a week. After feeding the little bait stealer fish one morning and catching nothing I went to J& M Tackle on Canal Rd and the nice and knowledgeable people there showed me a top/bottom rig with floats and a #2 Circle hook (not 2/0) - really small hook - I put a small pink fish bite strip on one hook and a white strip (1/2 to 1") on the other hook with a 1/4 to 3/8 bell sinker and had a ball catching small Whiting and a few small Pampano. The great thing for me was that I had no gut hooks . I never used circle hooks before but for this kind of fishing they worked great. Had a big bird buddy behind me several mornings that waited for me to feed him - looked like what we call a Blue Heron here in N AL? When I get within 25-50 yards from them here bass fishing they take off - he got within 10-20 feet from me to take my fish.

Had the same thing happen to me bird wise on the two mornings I fished in front of Phoenix 5 this past weekend...caught lots of whiting and a few pompano on smaller hooks with fish bites and frozen shrimp, and fed almost all of them to the Great Blue Heron that set down almost as soon as I started putting bait in the water.

Tell me you didn"t !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

A couple of Whiting maybe, but the small Pompano are to valuable a resource to be feeding to some shore bird. When your kids grow up and ask you why they can't catch any Pompano maybe you can explain to them about uncaring fishermen who fed all the little ones to the Heron's because they didn't think those little ones would grow up to make more. I guess some people have never heard that old saying, "Waste not, Want Not"

We learned our lesson way back, concerning the Herons. Once they become used to you, they will take bait out of your bucket and even try to snatch baited shrimp from your line when you are not watching closely.

That's a common mistake.
Keep in mind you are not doing the (wild) bird any favors.
They can quickly become conditioned to humans feeding them and they spend all their time following humans (hoping to mooch more fish),
instead of seeking their food naturally.
It messes up natural selection and creates a bunch of aggressive 'freeloading' birds fighting each other and encroaching on ANY people on the beach (looking for food) because they have forgotten how.

Wow, that sounds to much like our society today.