Where and when to catch King George Whiting in South Australia: the SA season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find SA's current size and bag limits.
King George whiting are South Australia's favourite fish, and it isn't close. The gulfs, Kangaroo Island, Eyre Peninsula and the South East all hold them, and the state has some of the best King George fishing anywhere. Most of the serious fishing is done from boats over the deeper sand and weed, but the shore gets its share, especially from the long jetties of Yorke and Eyre peninsulas and the sheltered bays of the far west coast, where land-based fish can be big. Many places fire through the cooler months, while the South East runs from spring into autumn. PIRSA's King George rules are more involved than most, with different sizes either side of the 136°E line, different bags by zone and a spawning closure, so check before you go.
Western Australian limits don't apply in South Australia.
Where to Catch King George Whiting in SA
King George whiting are listed at over 40 SA spots, mostly the jetties of Yorke and Eyre peninsulas, Kangaroo Island and the far west coast, plus a few metro jetties where they're an occasional bonus. The best shore fishing is where a jetty or beach reaches clean sand holes between seagrass beds.
Cockles (pipis), mussels, razorfish, live or fresh sandworms and tube worms, squid strips, peeled prawn, gents (blowfly maggots) mixed with cockle
Lures
Mostly a bait fish. Small soft plastics (worm and shrimp imitations) and small blades work on the flats when fish are feeding hard.
Rigs
A running sinker or light paternoster rig with one or two size 4–6 long-shank or small circle hooks, and just enough lead to hold bottom. A short length of red tubing or a small bead above the hook is a common touch. Use a 3–5 kg fluorocarbon leader, because King George have good eyesight.
Technique
Fish the sand holes and edges between the weed rather than the weed itself. Use fresh bait and plenty of it, and berley with crushed shellfish if you can. Keep the rod in hand and feel for the tap-tap-tap, and let the fish take it before you lift. From a boat, anchor up-current of the sand patches and let a trail of berley drift over them; when the bites stop, move rather than wait. They're fussy and spook in clear shallow water, so keep noise and shadows down.
Best Time
A moving tide is the main thing, especially the run-in and the top of the tide, and dawn, dusk and the evening high tide are prime from the shore. Calm, clear days suit the shallow flats; some deeper spots fire when a bit of weather stirs the water. The peak months vary from place to place, so check the local season.
PIRSA has a mapped King George whiting spawning closure in parts of the southern gulfs and Investigator Strait from 1 March to 30 June. Check PIRSA's map and current rules before planning an autumn session in those waters.
The size limit differs either side of 136°E longitude, with the gulfs taking the larger size, and the bag differs by zone. Check the PIRSA profile for where you're fishing.
Identification
Also known asKG, KGW, whiting, spotted whiting
Long, slender and pale golden-brown to greenish above, silvery-white below, covered in small rusty-brown spots and broken wavy lines along the upper body. No other whiting is spotted like that, which makes it the easiest one to name. Small pointed head, small mouth set low for sucking prey out of the sand, and a longer, rounder body than the other whitings. Juvenile King George are paler with fainter spots, which is where they get mixed up with school whiting (a dusky stripe along the side) and yellowfin whiting (plain silver with yellow lower fins).
Size & Growth
A good shore-caught King George is 32–40 cm and 400–800 g. Anything over 45 cm is a very good fish and a 50 cm-plus one will draw a crowd; the species reaches 72 cm and almost 5 kg, but those are old deep-water fish. They live to about 15 years. Juveniles grow up in shallow seagrass beds and move out to deeper channels, gutters and offshore ground as they age, which is why the bigger fish are usually a boat proposition.
Diet & Habitat
King George are bottom feeders. They eat marine worms, small crabs, shrimp, shellfish and peanut worms (razorfish and other bivalves where they're common), sucking them from the sand. They work clean sand patches and holes between seagrass and weed beds, from knee-deep flats out to deep offshore ground, and move into the shallows on a rising tide, at night as well as by day. No weed, no King George. Adults spawn offshore in late autumn and winter, and the larvae drift for months before settling into the seagrass.
Eating Quality
King George whiting are many people's pick for the best-eating fish in the country. The flesh is sweet, delicate and fine-flaked, with no bloodline and almost no fishiness. Smaller fish can be scaled, gutted and cooked whole; bigger ones give two clean fillets. Keep it simple, dusted in seasoned flour and pan-fried in butter, or a light batter at most. Bleed and ice on capture and eat within a day or two. They freeze acceptably if skinned, portioned and vac-sealed, but the delicacy is the point and it's the first thing a freezer takes.