Victorian Summer Whiting by John Cahill

My first contact with these marvellous fish was about 27 years ago fishing Port Welshpool with a schoolmate and his dad.

Tucked in behind Snake Island we regularly caught big bags of quality specimens that seemed to be as long as a cricket bat but I'm sure that's just my memory playing tricks on me - the term kidney slapper comes to mind however. I distinctly remember that we only caught fish when the tide was running and nothing has changed much in that regard.

Since that big introduction to whiting fishing, I have not experienced fish of that size again but have enjoyed catching them none the less at both ends of the state and into South Australia.

With a distribution covering the South Australian border to the west of Victoria, the north and east coasts of Tasmania throughout Victoria and across the NSW border, Victoria is a whiting stronghold right in the middle of their range. Slender, stunningly marked, hard fighting and extremely delicious: I can't find enough reasons to talk them up! Favouring tidal inshore bays and inlets when juvenile to mid-sized and more so offshore when reaching maturity 'tingas' as they are affectionately known are so accessible.

I am far from a whiting expert, those that fish for them almost exclusively deserve that title however I am certain I know enough about them to offer a few tips on locating them and the techniques that work when snapper fever wanes.