Have you had a good fishing life?
In midsummer, a proper rocky shore is simply too hot to fish. So I spend a lot of summer days standing ankle-deep on a beach instead, catching sand borer.
Sand borer eat marine worms, and plenty of people would rather not handle those. The good news is you do not have to. Scented soft plastic worms work well, and once you have the rig sorted you can catch these fish almost anywhere, almost any time.
What is a sand borer?
Sand borer — known as Japanese whiting, and simply as whiting in Australia — is a slim fish of sandy bottoms.
- It burrows into the sand, exactly as the name suggests
- It is easy to catch
- It can be caught all year round
- It is excellent eating
- In Japan it is one of the classic tempura fish
That combination — easy to catch and genuinely good on the plate — is why sand borer fishing is so popular in Japan.
The family ranges much wider than Japan — down the east coast of Africa, into the Mediterranean, around the Arabian peninsula, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and East Asia — so there is a good chance something very similar lives on your local sand.
Tackle
This blog is built around lure fishing, so I will assume you do not own a dedicated bait rod. You do not need one.
Rod
Anything from 6 to 9 feet — an eging rod or a bass rod is fine. The only requirement is that it can cast around 20 g comfortably.
Reel and line
Whatever you have. A reel rated for saltwater is worth using. PE, nylon or fluorocarbon all work — this is not a fishing style that cares.
The rig: spreader and sinker
The key component is a spreader — an L-shaped metal arm that holds your hook trace away from your sinker so the two do not tangle on the cast.
Spreaders may be unfamiliar outside Japan and Southeast Asia. If you cannot find one, any paternoster-style arrangement that keeps the trace clear of the weight does the same job.
Sinker: 15–25 g (0.5–0.9 oz)
I particularly recommend the “standing” type of spreader, which has the weight built in. With one of those plus hooks, you are ready to fish — nothing else to assemble.
Hooks and trace
Use a two-hook trace. Shop traces come with four or five hooks, but a trace longer than your rod is impossible to lift and land cleanly.
Keep the trace shorter than the rod. That single rule solves most beginner frustration with this rig.
For general use, a set with a size 7 hook and a No. 5 weight will catch a wide range of species, not just sand borer.
The soft plastic worm
Sand borer love marine worms, so the artificial you want is one impregnated with scent and flavour.
This matters more than it might sound. An unscented plastic worm will catch the occasional fish. A scented one — the type sold specifically as an artificial marine worm — catches properly. If you buy one thing on this list carefully, buy this.
Putting the rig together
- Tie your main line to one arm of the spreader
- Fit the sinker at the centre
- Tie the hook trace to the other arm
That is the whole rig. The one thing to get right is which arm goes where — the main line and the sinker should sit in a straight line, with the trace arm standing off to the side.
Get it backwards and the trace tangles round the sinker on every cast.
How to actually catch them
The method is simple: cast out and drag the worm slowly back across the sand. These are the details that turn a slow day into a good one.
- Thread the worm on straight. A worm that sits crooked spins in the water and puts fish off.
- Getting bites but no hookups? Cut the worm in half. They are nipping at a tail that is too long for them.
- Adjust your retrieve speed by what you catch. Pufferfish or flathead showing up means you are going too slow — speed up. No bites at all means speed down.
- Once you find the fish, wait for a second one. When the catch rate picks up, leave the rig down until you feel two on before winding in.
- Strike gently but sharply. A hard strike pulls the hook straight out of a small mouth.
- Move the worm by lifting the rod, not by winding. Wind only to take up the slack afterwards.
- Find the drop-off. Sand borer travel along it. You will feel the rig suddenly go heavier as it comes up the slope — that is the spot.
- The drop-off is often close in. Keep dragging all the way to your feet; a lot of fish come from the last few metres.
- Keep walking. Cast, drag, take a few steps along the beach, cast again. They sit in pockets rather than spread evenly.
- Watch out for pufferfish. They will bite your hooks clean off.
Summary
Sand borer fishing is about as accessible as saltwater fishing gets: a rod you already own, a spreader rig that costs almost nothing, and a scented plastic worm instead of the real thing.
I keep a sand borer rig in the bag whenever I go squid fishing. When the squid are not playing, or when the middle of the day is too hot to keep casting, it turns a blank session into dinner.
And the tempura really is worth the trip on its own.
