and i reckon the whiting would be and exellent bait even if fished dead - just wack a single hook throught the tail

i will try to pm them thru wen my dad gets back from melbourne - near ocean reef boat harbour

love whiting for bait lobbing for tailor or bottom bashin

You know when I fished Simo's boat the whiting died when brought up from 7m. They're just a little bit hopeless and poorly put together.

Must find those yellowtail, slimies or hezzas.

Hi Paul sorry to say but your out of luck, I've tried everything to keep whiting alive in live wells and in buckets with airators but they still die. I think they get stressed .

The only thing that sort of works is to keep changing ALL of the water completely, i usually get another half hour out of them just enough time to get out deep and drop down...

But they still work awesome dead, either whole or halves..

But I'm open too new ideas or if someone has had better luck....

Cheers...

yer we keep to tank running full on but they dont't keep ,as said they are good dead but iv'e had the odd one live and oh boy they don't last long.

its like they know to kill them sellves in stead of getting absolutely MUNCHED!

:)

XD

Fish seem to be able to handle going down much better than coming up from what i've heard, so if you had them alive when they went back down with a hook in them, they should be ok once down there I would think. I've had a yellowtail survive being plunged down to 100m and back up (I was hoping I could swap the ocean a yellowtail for a sambo).

Someone recently came out with a powdered (or maybe liquid) live well additive that is supposed to reduce stress. Perhaps just flushing more water though might be a better option than to something that is perhaps a gimmick (though, the makers claim otherwise). Perhaps puncturing the swolen swim bladder might improve their chances of living for another hour? With the right tool, and a bit of practice, may not be as hard as it sounds. Slowing their metabolism down by chilling them a little would work in theory, but might not be practical in practice.

Is there any spots in 2-3m that might work? Perhaps around rockingham area there would be, but not sure on two rocks. It would be interesting to know if its the barotrauma or the live well trauma? Otherwise, maybe count to 10, do one wind of the handle, count to 10, another, :p

Thanks Matt some good suggestions,will have a go tomorrow

dont touch them with your hands until you bait them on a hook.

It may help but the ones on simo's boat didn't get touched by human hands once before turning belly up in the baitwell. You can try all you like, and it may help, but they are utterly hopeless still =)

Just stick them straight on to a set of gangs,never had an ouce of luck trying to use them as livies over the years.So now its on the gangs with them ,no mucking about.

with the dead ones (all of them ) try butterflying the fish and putting snelled hooks through top hook in the head and the other through 1 side and leaving the other to flap around giving it a bit of a swimming motion, when you butterfly the whiting take out the backbone just behind the head

 it all depends on there Swim bladder ,

i catch them off the beach and send them out live straight away and they dont last long at all they get really stressed but ive had the same ammount sucsess dead as i have live!!

my live bait well constantly has fresh water pumping through it and they still dont last too long.

are people using round live bait tanks or squarish tanks with corners? i know that can make a little difference, prob not alot with whiting though

ive got a patch in 22m of water that they come up fine if you take it slow then i send them straight back out live one on the bottom one under a balloon and they both stay live until something smashes them in half which is what always seems to happen