Where and when to catch Yellowfin 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.
Called Yellowfin Whiting (Sand Whiting) on our Western Australian guide.
Yellowfin whiting are South Australia's summer flats fish. As the water warms they move onto the shallow sand along the Adelaide beaches and the shores of both gulfs, and a rising tide on a calm, hot morning is the time to be there. The upper Spencer Gulf, around Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Germein, is real yellowfin country, with fish to 40 cm. They're a light-tackle, walk-and-cast fish, and on a popper over a metre of water they're as good as shallow-water fishing gets. Port Broughton breaks the rule with a winter run, because of course it does.
SA Size & Bag Limits
SA limits for Yellowfin Whiting are set by PIRSA and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them.
Check PIRSA's limits and PIRSA's yellowfin whiting profile before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in South Australia.
Where to Catch Yellowfin Whiting in SA
Yellowfin whiting are listed at about 20 SA spots, almost all shallow sand flats and the jetties and beaches beside them. The Adelaide metro beaches, Carrickalinga and Normanville, the Yorke Peninsula gulf coast and the upper Spencer Gulf are the main areas.
Live sandworms, beach worms and tube worms, nippers (yabbies), peeled prawn, cockles and pipis
Lures
Small surface poppers and walk-the-dog lures over shallow sand on calm, warm days; small soft plastics (worm and shrimp imitations)
Rigs
A light running sinker rig with a small ball sinker and a size 4–6 long-shank hook, on 2–4 kg line with a light fluorocarbon leader. The lighter the rig, the more bites you'll get. For poppers, a light spin outfit and a long cast.
Technique
Fish the sand, not the weed. Walk the flats or the beach and fan-cast to find fish rather than sitting in one spot, and watch for wakes, tails and feeding marks in the sand. Cast ahead of them and work the bait back slowly. Yellowfin are gentle biters, so keep the rod in hand and feel for the tap. On calm summer days, a small popper walked across a metre of water over the sand is the most fun you can have with a whiting.
Best Time
A rising tide over shallow sand is ideal, and the hours either side of the top of the tide are best. They bite through the day, midday included, on warm, calm, clear days. They're mostly a warmer-months fish, though some places have their own seasons.
Identification
Also known asYellowfin, yellowfinned whiting
Plain silvery-white to sandy with a pale olive back, no spots and no stripe on adults, and the giveaway yellow wash through the pelvic and anal fins. Slim pointed head and a small underslung mouth for working the sand. Juveniles carry rows of dark blotches along the back and sides. The usual mix-ups are school whiting, which carry a dusky stripe along the side, and juvenile King George whiting, which are covered in brown spots. On the flats the shorthand holds. Spots means King George, a stripe means school whiting, plain silver with yellow fins means yellowfin.
Size & Growth
A typical flats fish is 25–32 cm and 250–450 g. A good yellowfin is over 35 cm and around 600 g, and a 40 cm-plus fish is genuinely big; about 42 cm is the recorded maximum. They're moderately long-lived, around a decade for a big fish, and slow down once mature. Under about 25 cm they're barely a mouthful.
Diet & Habitat
Yellowfin whiting eat marine worms, nippers (yabbies), small crabs, shrimp and small bivalves, hoovering the sand in ankle- to knee-deep water. They favour warm, shallow, sheltered sand flats, bars, spits and the sandy hollows around seagrass, often so shallow you'll see the wakes on a calm morning, and they drop back into the adjacent gutters and channels as the tide falls. They push up onto the flats on the making tide and feed hardest as the water covers the sand. Warm water suits them; in the cold months they sit deeper and are harder to find.
Eating Quality
Excellent eating, very close to King George whiting and hard to tell apart on the plate. The flesh is sweet, mild and fine-flaked, with no bloodline and very little fishiness. Smaller fish are best scaled, gutted and pan-fried whole; anything over about 30 cm fillets cleanly. Dust in seasoned flour and fry in butter, or crumb and deep-fry. Because they come out of warm shallow water, they go off faster than you'd expect, so ice them straight away and eat them within a day or two.