Having written something about these some months back for FWA, I thought I would post a little how to (together with a few pics) to show you how easy these things are to use and a few tips to make your whiting fishing, cleaning and filletting a breeze.

So here we go.

I have long been an advocate of having a trip saver organised on the way out to my usual grounds, on the assumption that I will not always come home with a Dhuie for tea. The best eating fish in the ocean bar a few would have to be the humble sand whiting. Trouble is they are messy as all buggery to scale and clean. The time taken to mess around with them doesn't always justify the capture if you only have a few of them.

Well if you can find a spot that produces regularly, it is a great idea to give it half an hour and set up a production line fishing session. Those that have deckied for me may well have experienced this. First I make sure I have three whole squid cut up in small slivers on the baitboard. Then I use smallish longshank hooks (three on a rig) with say 7kilo line or something similar. Drop it down, wait a second get a bite then lift gently and set down, wait another few seconds and get another bite and lift gently and set down. By now you will have at least a double header and proceed to winch the whiting up. Do not pump and wind as the small soft mouths will easily tear away if you use too much sudden pressure.

Get your scalling bag (about $20 - $30 in the tackle shops) put the fine inner mesh bag in the esky with the opening left hanging out over the edge. This allows quick and easy deposits into the bag as you fish, without you having to stick your hands in the freezing cold ice slurry that you should have in your esky before you start.

Once you have a good feed plus a few for bait, (keeping within limits of course) you simply tie off the inner bag and place it in the larger guage bag.

This is then tied off on the back of the boat

Then dragged along at about 10 knots or just so the bag surfs the wave without bouncing too violently.

Give it about 5 minutes and then bring it in, by then the fish will have been completely scaled.

When you get back home the bag will still be sitting in the slurry, keeping the whiting separate from the other huge fish (hehehe) again saving you the agony of sifting through the freezing cold slurry when you go to get them out of the esky.

Best thing is the whiting then only need a quick slice and dice and they are ready to be bagged for the freezer of better still, slapped in egg and breadcrumbs and slapped on the barbie. Gotta love the humble sandie.

Check them out if you haven't got one, I think they are an essential part of a boat fisho's equipment. I am sure Ryan and John both stock them so if you catch whiting and haven't got one, I suggest you give your local tackle store a call.