A stringer of whiting like these taken by Diana Halabi is the first step in creating a fish fry. Photo by Ron Brooks

Whether you call them whiting, southern kingfish or menticirrhus americanus, these fish offer some of the most dependable action and finest table fare of any fish found on the Georgia coast.

Whiting are cooperative fish. They can be found in schools of well over a hundred fish, running the beaches in search of food. Once they find a good feeding area, they hang there, feeding for the duration of the tide. The angler who discovers such a concentration can fill an ice chest in short order.

Georgia's coast is a mixture of inhabited and uninhabited barrier islands, but mostly the latter. That makes beach surf-fishing a somewhat limited opportunity in the Peach State. Still, there are miles of public beaches where surf-anglers can target whiting.

On a recent day, several anglers were fishing the surf at the public beach on Jekyll Island. All but one of them had 11- to 12-foot surf rods equipped with heavy spinning reels. The one without the surf tackle had a 7-foot spinning rod. Yet he was catching most of the fish!

While the surf-casters made long casts out beyond the breakers, this light-tackle guy was on the fish, which were in the breakers within easy casting range.

This is typical of fishing for whiting. Like real estate, it is a matter of location, location and location. Find the fish and the action can be furious. It is simply a matter of knowledge.

The trick is to head to the beach at low tide and search for some very specific places to fish. Look for run-outs, outer sandbars and deep tidal pools. These areas are obvious during low-water periods. Once located, take note of these in some way -- ordinarily from landmarks on the shore -- and return at high tide to fish them.

RUN-OUTS
Run-outs occur as the contour of the beach causes the retreating water of waves to be funneled into one particular path. After the wave is spent, the water "runs out" through this channel. Each additional wave makes the channel a little bigger and a little deeper.

Small crabs, shrimp and sand fleas are washed around by the waves and carried away from the beach by the swifter water in the run-out. Whiting often position themselves outside the run-out, waiting for their food to be delivered to them!

Let's look at a typical run-out. The power of the water contained in a wave is awesome. Water can move mountains, and the sand along the beach presents little resistance to the waves. On a perfectly flat stretch of beach, the spent waves simply retreat back from the shore in a very even fashion. But beaches are rarely perfectly flat. There are generally some dips, humps and inclines.

Where a high spot or a sandy hump allows water to run off to the sides before it runs back to the sea, a run-out may form. The amount of water retreating along one area increases because of that high spot. That means more power, and that in turn moves sand. After several tide changes, the run-out can become quite noticeable.

In heavy northeast winds, the water generates enough wave power to significantly change the structure of the beach. Rip currents -- sometimes called undertows -- carve out new and larger run-outs. Other run-outs are filled and changed by the moving water.