CLEARING UP THE WHITING CONFUSION

As noted in yesterday’s blog, Frank Manzi caught a large snook at Sarasota on a live whiting, but is that an accurate description of the species?

Anglers in the NY/NJ Bight area are familiar with a once abundant whiting which was actually a silver hake – a member of the cod family. Anglers in the South Atlantic also fish for a whiting, but is actually closely related to the weakfish and familiar to surfcasters as the northern kingfish. There are also southern and Gulf versions of that species. Kngfish is used for the much larger king mackerel in the south. Thus, it’s likely that the bait Frank was using was a Gulf kingfish.

The forecast is for NE winds at only 5 knots before going to SE in the afternoon.