Surf Fishing Report Crisfield croakers yesterday

[pohocker]

It was a slow pick that eventually came to a halt at the end of high tide, but we managed 30 nice ones up to 18" for the 3 of us. According to my unscientific survey, the Fishbites BW were strongest, followed by real peeler crab, real squid, and Gulp squid. They'd hit the Gulp squid but then leave it alone, whereas they would stay after the FBBW with much more enthusiasm. We were in 25-40' of water but saw several big stacks of them in 50-60' of water, just over the ledge into the channel.

[mdram]

sweet, did you wait for the outgoing to start before leaving?

[Sam]

Sweet. I love croaker fishing when the bite is on. I have had major luck in the surf using squid strips, sometimes catching two at a time. Thanks for the report.

[pohocker]

Thanks guys.
Roger, we fished about the first hour of outgoing and still no action, so we called it a day.

[Critter Gitter]

Wow I miss that place. This is the time of year about 24 years ago we would nail the trout with flats of Soft crabs with most fish holed in deep deep water at buoys 8, 9 and the Puppy Hole. There were no limits then and we would return with a hundred fish up to 7 lbs. No wonder they are on the decline these days. Some fine eating they were. Sure a lot easier to fillet than those armour coated Hardheads.

[mdram]

gotcha, was just wandering because ive noticed the bite goes with the tides there, when the water stops moving the bite shuts off, but picks up again when it moves again

[Mighty Quinn]

Did pretty good on the croaker Monday night in Tangier sound at the MR bouy and the mouth of the Big Annamessix. Squid and fishbites bloods. They seemed to prefer the fishbites. I think the croaker are about everywhere right now and I've heard of a few trout near the Honga and south in the Pocomoke sound.

[Mighty Quinn]

Sam...speaking of catching croaker in the surf... me and heure35 had our best day ever (numbers wise) catching croaker in the surf. This was probably 4-5 years ago... we caught about 90 between the two of us with a few kings and other species mixed in. Anyone ever wonder why the croaker population has stayed up while almost all other species are declining?

[Sam]

I had some of those nights where we caught all we wanted and just started letting them go. Big boys too... Then we had that big fish kill 2 years ago. Thousands of dead croakers up and down the east coast. Since then I haven't really seen many. Last year I had horrible luck with kings and croakers in the surf.