Went to Folly today to hopefully fill a cooler of drum and whiting. Ended up catching about 12 small whiting between 7 and 10 inches. I hooked into something huge last night that fought me for about 45 minutes, eventually it stretched the hook out and got free. I’ve got to get a bigger rod/reel combo before going after anything over 5 feet.
So here’s my question. I kept all the whiting and they are sitting on ice in my cooler right now. I’m wondering if I should filet them now and freeze them (I typically fish with strips over chunks), or just freeze them whole and then cut them up at the beach, or just make little fish nuggets and eat them myself? I’ve never not used fresh whiting so any input is much appreciated.
If you are going to use them as bait, then just freeze them whole. You can cut them up as well, doesnt really matter. If you are going to eat them later, I cut the head off and gut and scale them, they are good like that until you decide to cook them.
Thank you sir, I’ll usually just filet, scale and toss them into a freezer bag, works fine for whenever I’m ready to eat them. Some of them are about 5-6 inches, not sure if that’s worth the effort to eat.
5 or 6 inches is small for me. If you had a bunch it might work, but I tend to throw that size back or bait them. I look for 9 inches and above.
Freeze whole or filet into strip baits salt liberally and refreeze. Good strip bait for bucktails offshore and even for light trolling or pitch baiting dolphin