King George Whiting

Low Head and Tamar River

Richard Sherriff

For some time, a King George Whiting trip had been planned with the Minister for fisheries, Guy Barnett, MHA with a view for him to firstly catch one of these prized fish and to see for himself what’s happening in this emerging fishery. Guy is well known as a keen freshwater angler and some light tackle King George experience will add to his fishing skills, honed annually whilst fishing in Georges Bay St. Helens and Tuna Fishing wide offshore.

Pick the tides

Planning a trip to Low Head on the states north coast in a 6-metre boat is not that simple due to both wind and tide direction and strength. Ideally, a smaller boat with an electric GPS spot lock motor offsets the need for such in-depth planning. A large boat tends to swing around a lot, making it impossible to target those small sandy bottom spots which are critical to successful whiting fishing. The added frustration of a moving boat is trying to stay out of the weed where wrasse and leather jackets will quickly seize onto baited hooks, and either chop your hooks off or drag your line into weed. Hence, I usually plan my Low Head king gorge whiting missions around an incoming tide with a northerly directional wind or a southerly wind for an outgoing tidal flow. This way the boat will be stationary enough at anchor to methodically target the sand patches. As is the case with most species, king gorge whiting will go off the bite during high and low slack tide and that’s a good time to have your morning tea or lunch.

Where to find Low Head whiting

On any given day it’s not unusual to catch ten wrasse to each whiting or lose gear to Noah the friendly ray that does a swoop around particularly during slack tide. Always have a few extra rigs at hand to avoid fishing downtime. Whilst burley can be helpful it also attracts some of those annoying rig stealing species.

It’s important to target the sand patches, that’s where whiting scavenge for sandworms and other favoured food items that lurk on the bottom. There are untold amounts of those sandy patches where they feed, but of course, King George are not in the one spot all the time, which means you need to be prepared to move about a bit.

They tend to swim around in schools, and when they come on the chew it’s not unusual to bag out in a matter of minutes with all crew members rods going off together. Of course, all the time keeping an eye on your boat sounder and GPS as what may look like a navigable area half an hour ago may have had a reef sticking out of the top of the water as the tide runs out. I have heard of anglers being stranded on reefs or close inshore bottom for hours waiting for an incoming tide to float their boat off. Tide heights and lows vary significantly at times.

The larger King George whiting at Low Head seems to be closer to the seas entrance end of the channel and whilst I have not fished for them out past Black Reef, I am reliably told there are some good spots out further to sea. Bright sunny days make finding these patches easy due to the colour variation caused by the reflection of the sand showing as bright blue on top of the water.

If you have success pin the waypoint on your GPS for those days which are cloudy or overcast. A catalogue of sand hole waypoints is also imperative for early morning starts when the sunlight angle makes finding your favoured spot difficult.

One favourite spot at low tide usually has a metre of water under the boat, but with tides varying I have had the boat sitting on the bottom during a very low tide event.

Before heading out fishing be sure to double-check the tide movement and depths for the day ahead. Boat fishing at Low Head does require a bit of local knowledge and unless you know the area well for boating, keep to the channel and required depths shown on your depth sounder. Once you have a feel for the place, you can then venture further away from the channel where some of the best whiting fishing takes place.

Pictured is the type of bottom one needs to look for to maximise the opportunity to hook into some whiting. Clear patches of sand surrounded by weed with some reef in amongst it all. This has all the ingredients that whiting love. Places to feed while still having cover to move to if they need it.

Many shore-based anglers successfully target Whiting in the George Town and Kelso areas, and no doubt with local knowledge they know some good sand patches amongst the weed where to cast a bait or two.

Gear for a day on the whiting

Most of the whiting encountered can be caught on medium size spinning outfits. A good option is a 2.1 metre 5-8kg spin stick with a fast action that will help you feel the bites. The more you spend on a rod the nicer it will be to fish with but cheaper options will definitely get the job done. A 3000 or 4000 size reel with a smooth drag loaded with thin 8-10kg braid that’s brightly coloured will be more than capable of stopping large whiting headed for the bottom. A brightly coloured braid is perfect for knowing exactly where your line is at the time, particularly when the light is low or it is an overcast day. Tie a rod length of leader to the end of the braid, usually, 10kg breaking strain is about perfect. You can go lighter if the fish are being fussy or heavier if you happen to get busted off. The leader can be attached with either an Albright or uni knot, both of which are easy to tie. Fresh or frozen Squid makes very good bait, as it stays on the hook longer. Squid will also survive many wrasse catch and releases. Number two or three hooks are an ideal size for a whiting’s small mouth and make sure to not overload the hook with bait. This way they will be able to get the bait in their mouths and the hook can find its mark. Replace any hook that gets bent out of shape due to stress of snagging on the reef or from unhooking wrasse. The last thing you want to happen is for a fatigued hook to snap when a monster whiting grabs the bait! Have a good net at hand for securing the whiting as they near the boat. Remember to always take care of those small fish under 35cm that must be returned to continue their growth life cycle. Take care when handling them as they are powerful and slippery with a risk of them escaping your grip and the second hook jagging your hand as the fish falls free. A wet towel is a great way of controlling the smaller fish and using one will reduce the amount of protective smile you remove while unhooking them.

Tips from Todd

Continually work your rods, wind them in to check for weed, rebaiting because toadies denude the hooks so much, and cast to different spots – you need to be on the sand, but near the weed. Keep searching all the time.

Run four rods if you can, and if the whiting come on pull two out, ready to cast back behind the hooked up fish. There will be more there.

Fishing as dawn breaks and a little later on a tide change will improve you success rate enormously.

Ensuring a fishery for the future

It’s important to respect the legal sizes and bag limit of five fish. Firstly, to help sustain the fishery and of course, avoid a steep fine as it’s not unusual to have the marine police check your catch both on the water or back at the ramp. Sustainability is something most are concerned about with little known or publicised at present on spawning grounds and timing of such. I am told by authorities that most of the King George Whiting are caught around Flinders Island. However, I am not aware if that catch is recorded as commercial or recreational.

Finally, the good news is that the Minister had a successful day, upstaging myself and my mate by bagging out with some nice King George whiting!

Richard Sherriff