It was time for a fish and with a stinkin’ northerly blowing I knew one of the better land based options this time of the year would be the newly built Shorncliffe Pier. Strong north-easterly’s there can stir up the sea bed and really put the whiting on the bite. We fished gentlemen’s hours - arriving at about 10AM and were back in the car by 3:00PM after experiencing four seasons in one day. We finished with 20 whiting and 2 bream. The whiting were mostly between 25 and 27 cm but with the best measuring 33 cm and a few just over the 30cm mark. Of the 20 whiting, 17 were yellowfin whiting and 3 were sand whiting, and this is a more or less typical species mix of whiting in Bramble Bay in September. There is a picture below which shows both species. The best bream was 34cm. The bait was yabbies and Cribb Island worms with yabbies being far superior on the day, something that is not unusual when there are plenty of yellowfin whiting around.
All in all it was a good day, and don’t believe the naysayers that it is hard to catch fish in Moreton Bay. If a 3 year old and a 7 year old can catch over 20 legal fish off a Pier in the middle of the day on a weekend, you can scratch up a feed as well.
The black spot on the pectoral fin of the top fish in the photo which identifies it as the sand whiting (Sillago ciliata). The bottom fish is the yellowfin whiting (Sillago analis). They also differ in terms of scale count and slightly in body proportions (the yellowfin whiting is a stockier fish), although both of these characteristics are difficult to discern from the picture.
Daryl I saw a 60 plus cm snapper hooked on the western side of the covered area 3 weeks ago, the young fella got it right in to below him, I suggested twice to walk it up to the beach but he tried to lift the fish ad we know what happened, I just couldn't believe my eyes but snapper it was in around 8 feet of water at 2 pm...
Too cool Darryl. I have never spotted the difference before, although had an vague idea i was getting a couple of different types.
On looking back at some old photos it now seems very obvious. The yellowfin whiting definately seem to be the heavier of the two.
Thanks Ben
Like a lot of fish that are physically similar, the best way to understand the difference and to differentiate species is to look at them or photograph them together in the first instance. Since both of these whiting species have different prey preferences, if you have an idea of what species you are dealing with you can optimise the bait choice.
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