anyone got a picture of what one looks like. i've googled whiting and it seems to be a generic name for a bunch of species. i've caught a number of little critters lately, while bottom and tuna fishing, that i can't identify. i see the comm boats working the edge of the swc and was told that was what they're targeting. also what size sabiki should i use for them as i was told recently the big ones make good tuna bait.

http://www.fishingnj.org/prohake.htm

I've had the best luck using a white feathered sibiki, but the bigger ones will eat mackeral rigs no problem.

Caught my largest giant on a chunk of one of them. Excellent live bait.

We piched up a few last week while bottom jigging when we set up to shark fish.

The statement in the link attached above "it is not an important quarry of the sportsfishermen." would not have been true in the 60s when they were plentiful off the NJ coast. This was the number one target of the winter party boat fleet, along with ling. It's only true today because like many other fish their numbers are way down. Smoked whiting was sold in most fish markets and bars along the Jersey shore.

Here's a link to "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine", which I believe was taken from an old book, great source for identifying fish, and although the drawings are not in color the descriptions are excellent.

http://www.gma.org/fogm/

thanks boys. we'll be out there tomorrow

I think they were also called Frost Fish. Guys use to fish for them from the surf in Jan.

Very tasty fish as well. Almost smelt-like with delicate white (of course) meat. Lightly floured and fried up in hot oil- delish! :hee:

i'm going to bring a few tomorrow and fry em up. everything is good fried

Everything ?? :bshake:

They are great tuna bait for sure. A lot of times when the draggers pull back you can get some floaters for your bait if you want to use whiting for tuna. DEADLY! Also a sabiki rig tipped with a little clam will produce whiting quickly for you.

yup, frost fish. my uncle used to take us kids to barrington beach in the winter at night with lanterns, hip boots, and gig poles. they'd swim into the shallows and we'd try to gig them...

When I was kid we use to get them on the beach next to the West wall. My old man would have to make us get in his old Pontiac. We fish when the air temp was in the teens.

Sabiki rigs? we used to use 4/0 hooks for them. A big one can be 3 feet long! They are coming back, but leave the little guys alone, please!

Good luck Paul. Watch out, those little buggers have very sharp teeth.

From what I've heard the stripers seem to enjoy these too and they used to come into the canal many years ago. My father has a few old original gibbs plugs and they're brown to try and match the whiting or hake (or so I'm told). I've caught some cod fishing not too far from Boston Light on jigs and teasers. I've also heard they are quite tasty.

I've been catching them the last couple of weeks at last light off of the beach on little swimmers and tins. They are feeding on sand eels. If I get some tonight/tomorrow they are going to find the bottom of the fry pan. Just small ones, maybe 10-12" tops. Aggressive, but not much of a fight.

Hit an exotic hat trick last Saturday - schoolie, mackerel & whiting.

How about a picture? I have always heard of frost fish but never seen one.

here is a link to an awesome fish id site
http://www.fishbase.org/search.php


and here is a link with pics from the above mentioned site
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=323