New to CHS

Hey fellas, moved to town about 3 months ago and been stalking the site. Y’all have been educating me about local fishing. Grew up fishing inshore in S Florida, trying to get up to speed here. Caught this guy and he doesn’t quite look like any of the reds or black drum I’ve caught. Please LMK what this is. Thanks

Whiting. Typically caught off the beach on cut shrimp. People eat them.

Welcome to the site and that’s for posting a report!

Thats a whiting. Very good eating

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Awesome. Have caught them surf fishing in FL but they were silver, no color to them. And much smaller typically than this guy. No size limit?

Welcome to the sight. Very nice Whiting for around here.

Cut their heads off, gut and scale them and fry them whole. Good stuff. Not sure about size/number you can keep. Check out the SCDNR website for that. Welcome!

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Thanks! Got lazy and asked the forum, looks like no limits per DNR. (Now I’ll probably never catch another).

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Welcome.
Usually for me when I catch one, I catch quite a few in that same area. Good eating like EF said, but not a lot of meat on them so you need to fry up a good amount. Allowed 50 per day with no size limit.

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Welcome to town and the forum.

Man… not sure what size net that is but that appears to be a full-grown whiting for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Fatrat is gonna be smiling when he sees this one!

First time ever for a striped one, but new stuff every day, the black folks here will fight you for that size Whiting, wow!

Welcome! There is lots of info within the discussions of Inshore Reports…

Caught this guy cast netting off the dock. Was pulling in finger mullet, shrimp and just one of him.

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Glass minnow. Use it for bait, sometimes the fish are picky.

Thanks! Maybe more shelf life than Menhaden? Can’t keep those alive. Better floaters than swimmers.

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Almost no shelf/hook life on a glass minnow, even less than the bunker

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I think that’s a Northern Kingfish? We’ve been catching them off of the IOP pier, the past couple of years. Some nearing two pounds.

Welcome aboard!!

Menhadden need constant fresh water to stay alive. And a lot of water.

Reds will eat them freshly dead too though.

MN for the win! I think Barbawang was letting us learn in this one before he chimed in… lol

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bingo.

that’s a striped anchovy, Anchoa hepsetus, and you’d have a hard time keeping them alive for long. we also have the bay anchovy, Anchoa mitchilli, which is by far the more common species inshore.

mudminnows can tolerate anything, finger mullet need an aerator or frequent water changes. menhaden need a constant oxygenated flow preferably in a round live well. everything eats shrimp

as for the whiting, we get northerns, southerns, and gulfs here, but darn near 100% of them are Menticirrhus americanus, the southern. They display an array of bars and sometimes turn brown or purple depending on the color of their benthic habitat (barbel on the chin, flat bottom = bottom feeder) and they usually light up in response to being hauled around by a hole in their face too.

whiting are delicious, and if they got to be the size of seatrout, i probably would fish for little else aside from flounder and sheepshead. anything 12" or better is worth filleting to me, and a handful of them can feed a crowd if you’re making tacos.

the biggest average size on whiting is when they arrive again each spring, i believe the best is usually late april or early may, and then by june and july the size distribution is all over the place till they leave in the fall around 65 degrees.