Whatever nickname you prefer to use, whiting, sea mullet or Virginia mullet are properly named kingfish and are members of the croaker family. They are cousins of drum and trout and have the sweet taste of trout and a firmer meat like drum.
Kingfish have slender bodies and range from less than a pound to typically around 1 1/2 pounds. Individuals weighing more than 3 pounds have been recorded, and the state-record specimen weighed 3 pounds, 8 ounces, and was caught by Ted Drinnon from the now gone Bogue Banks Pier in 1971.
A 1 1/2-pound kingfish of any of the three species will earn an citation from the N.C. Annual Saltwater Tournament run by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
Kingfish have a small mouth on the bottom of the head, with a rigid barbel on their lower chin. Kingfish are bottom-feeders that eat a wide variety of small marine animals and fresh carrion. Their mouth serves them well for grubbing across sandy and muddy bottoms in search of shrimp, crabs, mole crabs, worms and more. A school of kingfish feeding in a shallow area may be located by finding the “mud” they create when feeding.
Don’t underrate kingfish because they are bottom-feeders. They may grub along the bottom, but use their advanced sense of smell to seek out and eat only live and very fresh pieces of crab, shrimp and fish. Except when feeding in stirred-up surf, kingfish usually pass on older bait, but in turbid water, they feed on what they can locate. Fresh bait that smells good will usually be eaten without hesitation.
Fresh shrimp and mole crabs, aka sand fleas, are favorite foods of all three kingfish species. Fishermen use different methods of keeping bait fresh. One method for keeping shrimp fresh is to freeze them in water. When fishing with shrimp purchased at a fish market, bring only a couple at a time out of the cooler, and keep them in the shade in a Styrofoam cup with ice and a little water dipped from over the side. Mole crabs are often fished live and can be kept in a bucket in layers of damp newspaper. Dead mole crabs can be stored like shrimp.
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