WHITING are one of Australia's most common and popular species.

It depends on where you are as to the species and methods used to catch them.

However, fishing is constantly evolving and as Bob Dylan wrote more than 40 years ago, "the times, they are a-changing".

East coast anglers, from southern Queensland to East Gippsland, fish for sand whiting, while Victorian and South Australian anglers more often catch King George whiting.

There is some overlap, such as the Gippsland Lakes where both species are found.

Southern school whiting (silver whiting) are caught from Bass Strait to Western Australia, and yellowfin whiting from Gulf St Vincent in South Australia to Shark Bay in Western Australia.

There are other species, but these will suffice.

Whiting are one of those easily confused species that worry people like me who are supposed to get the names right.

Snapper anglers are probably more familiar with silver whiting as bait - although for some reason not many people put in the effort to catch them for bait.

A few years ago on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, I was fishing with Whyalla angler Lawrie Birdseye who offered to show me his technique for catching silver whiting.

He has made this species a specialty and created some interesting tackle adaptations.

It was to be a wading exercise and there were the expected rods and reels, tackle and a couple of packets of pipis for bait.

Then came the interesting bits: an old polystyrene broccoli box with a rope attached and a poly pipe tube with straps.

We left Whyalla and drove south about 20km to a shallow beach. To get to Lawrie's beach we had to drive through farm gates, along kangaroo fences and navigate soft sand tracks.

The beach comprised sand flats that the rising tide was only just starting to cover. Lawrie said this was ideal and that it was important not to wade deeper than your knees.

He explained that silver whiting were shallow-water fish, moving in with the tide to feed on the freshly covered sand.

Using a fixed paternoster sinker rig with two leaders with No. 6 hooks attached and baited with pipi, Lawrie started wading and casting while looking for the wink of a whiting as it turned on the flat.

Every so often, he would sprinkle berley on to the water as he fished the shallow gutters and watched. Behind him, floating on the water was the broccoli box containing tackle, bait and finally the whiting he started to catch.

To re-bait, Lawrie placed the butt of the rod in the poly tube strapped to the side of his leg, giving him two free hands to bait up and look around. It was easy, and made a lot of sense.

This week I received an email from Brendan Wing of Think Big charters, which operates in Western Port and Port Phillip bays.

Brendan said: "We have been catching lots of King George whiting in Western Port and Port Phillip Bay, fishing deep, fast water on structure. It's so good it's hard to find fish under 36cm; most are more than 40cm."

Brendan has been using pipis on Whiting Whackers, which he said were outstanding and saved money by making a bag of pipis, which are selling for about $15 a kilogram, last twice as long.

Among the photographs he forwarded was one of a catch of silver whiting.

Asked where he caught them, Brendan said: "In 34 metres of water at the western entrance to Western Port".

The only reason most anglers would chase this species would be for bait, although I consider King George whiting an equally effective bait.

Some might view putting King George whiting on a hook for bait as a waste, but it depends on whether you prefer to hook snapper or eat whiting.

In NSW waters, the main whiting species is the sand whiting. The most telling difference for me between this species and other whiting is its penchant for lures.

NSW anglers are doing well casting small surface poppers, such as Bushy's Stiffy 50mm popper, across shallow weed beds.

Colac angler Doug Lucas told me last year of anglers catching whiting on poppers in the lower lake section of the Curdies River at Peterborough. I was surprised when Doug said the fish were King George whiting. I shouldn't have been surprised.

A few years back in Swan Bay, I was regularly hooking King George whiting on fly.

Fishing shallow water with a sinking line and short leader, I found whiting could be caught on sparsely tied Closer Minnow and worm imitation pattern flies.

I am starting to wonder whether the silver whiting Lawrie was hooking in the shallows of Spencer Gulf could be caught on lures or flies. Time will tell as the fishing evolution continues.

• Steve Cooper can be heard on the Casting Off program on Radio Sport 927 between 4.30am and 6.30am on Saturdays.