Scientific name
Merlangius merlangus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Morphology
Whiting is a slender fish with a widely slit mouth containing many fine teeth. The upper jaw is slightly prominent. Sometimes whiting has a very small chin barb, but it can be absent. It has a black spot always present at the base of the pectoral fin and two soft dorsal fins. The coloration of the back is bluish gray, the flanks are clear and the belly silvery white.
Fishing spots
Whiting can be caught just about anywhere: on the beaches, on the harbor dikes, on the offshore ridens, on the wrecks. It evolves in a wide range of depths: between 10 and 200 m.
Fishing techniques
The whiting is a winter fish which appreciates an iridescent faceted pearl before a areca. On wrecks, especially when looking for pollock, it happens to come across a whiting: voracious, it is capable of catching our big swimbait (shad) despite its small size. A soft lure type "octopus" (imitation of cephalopod) of white or yellow color, placed in the potence and behind the jig or the heavy spoon, works well to capture whiting.
This groundfish is fished at different periods according to the geographical sectors, but we can affirm that it is present in all France between September and October, until November from the Vendée to the Spanish border.
Reproduction
The sexual maturity of whiting is reached at the size of 30 cm for an age of 2 years. It lays between January (Bay of Biscay) and March (Western Channel) a quantity of 100,000 to 1 million eggs over a period of 10 weeks. The pelagic larvae that are born often evolve hidden under the jellyfish sheltered from carnivores and feed on the jellyfish ovaries.
From 5 to 10 cm, the young whiting move closer to the coast and remain close to the bottom between 5 and 30 m of depth, sometimes even in the harbor areas and docks mixed with pout. Whiting reach 15 to 20 cm at 1 year, 20 to 25 cm at 2 years and 30 to 35 cm at 3 years. Adults are fished in winter both on the coast and offshore, day and night, and the largest specimens are found on rocks and wrecks in depths of more than 30 meters.
Size and weight
- Legal size of capture (legal minimum): 27 cm
- Size of sexual maturity : 30 cm
- Average size: 20 to 30 cm
- Maximum size: 70 cm (3.2 kg)
- French record : 1,77 kg (La Rochelle, Poitou Charentes, 03/02/2005)
Good to know
Whiting are benthic fish that often hang out near the bottom and sometimes move in very dense schools.
