King George Whiting are one of the most loved table fish in southern Australia, and they are a proper target species in their own right. They fight well on light gear, taste unreal, and when you find a good patch you can put together a cracking session.
In Australia you’ll mainly find them across the southern half of the country, especially South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the lower west coast. They love clean sand, broken weed beds, seagrass flats and shallow inshore bays, but bigger fish often hold along deeper channels and edges out to a few tens of metres.
King George Whiting grub around the bottom for worms, small crustaceans, shellfish and other little critters living in sand and weed. They feed by nosing over clean patches and edges, often moving in small schools and picking their way across an area rather than smashing bait like a predator fish.
Tide matters a lot, with the run-in and run-out both fishing well if there’s enough movement to stir food off the bottom without making it hard to hold bottom. Low light around dawn, dusk and even overcast days can switch them on in the shallows, while bright middle-of-the-day sun often pushes better fish slightly deeper or onto broken ground. Light to moderate wind is usually best because a bit of ripple helps, but too much wind makes boat control and bite detection painful. Small to moderate swell can help along open beaches and bays by lifting food, but heavy swell tends to dirty the water too much and makes them harder to fish for properly.
A light whiting outfit is ideal, with a 2–4 kg rod, light braid or mono, and simple paternoster or running sinker rigs with long-shank hooks. Fresh local bait is hard to beat, especially pipis, squid, bloodworms, cockles and beachworms, and keeping the bait neat and moving naturally makes a big difference. A bit of burley can help hold a school in the area when they’re cruising.
Despite the name, King George Whiting are actually the biggest true whiting species in Australia.