Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

            “How ‘bout some of those CROAKERS!”

            Anglers read that croakers are suddenly all over the bay and 
want to try to catch some. It’s not hard to do it and once you catch and 
clean a bunch, you may beg to go back to flounder fishing. BUT, when the 
croaker run is on, it’s lots of fun for you and the family.

            “What kind of rig do I use? Is it different than flounder 
fishing?”

            Basically, when one fishes the regular flounder haunts in the 
bay anglers run into schools of croakers.  Flounder like a #1 or  #1/0 size 
hook with a big minnow or shiner with a strip of squid beside it on the same 
hook. If you run into a school croaker you will catch some of the larger 
ones on these hooks and bait, BUT you will get more bites than fish.

            If you are specifically croaker fishing, you want to use smaller 
hooks. Set up a top and bottom rig with size #4 or #6 hooks (either wide gap 
or long shank type). Since these fish are bait stealers, you definitely want 
to fish with two hooks! It doesn’t matter what type of top and bottom rig. 
It can be a wire JT1040 rig or a monofilament top and bottom rig (30SW). 
There are also a variety of pre-made 2-Drop rigs made by Sea Striker or 
Eagle Claw made with #6 or #4 hooks that work just fine. One of the Sea 
Striker rigs is called a (SMP1) Spot/Mullet/Pompano Rig. Another is an Eagle 
Claw L967-4 or a L967-6 Lazer Pompano Rig made with double gold Kahle hooks. 
Even though the rig says “pompano” it is a perfect size for croaker.

Just remember, if you are fishing in the bay, don’t buy the rigs with little 
floats. These are for the surf.

            At our stores, we take a simple 1040 wire top and bottom rig and 
insert two Bear Paw snelled spinner hooks, size #4, on the stand-offs. These 
make great croaker rigs and a size #4 hook will still catch a flounder. I do 
suggest setting the hook quickly so if you do get a flounder on these 
smaller hooks you do not give the fish a chance to swallow it. Use just 
enough sinker weight to hold the bottom. Carry a variety of weights 
including 1, 1 ½, and 2-ounce bass cast or bank type sinkers.  Carry extra 
hooks or rigs, as croaker have hard mouths (that’s why they are also called 
Hard Heads). They can dull a hook quickly.

            “What is the bait to catch croaker?”

            When croaker are feeding they will eat just about anything. They 
take shiners and squid, but aren’t particularly interested in live minnows. 
They take squid alone, a combination bait of bloodworm and squid, bait 
shrimp, clam snouts, pieces of peeler crab or clam, and they love the new 
FishBite Bloodworms. At night, they’ll even take lures such as a lead head 
with a 4-inch soft body!

            I wouldn’t waste the $10 on real bloodworms if you can get some 
FishBite bloodworm for croaker. They FishBites stay on the hook longer and 
you can catch 3 to 5 fish on one piece of bait. The Crab flavored FishBites 
also work for croaker and they stay on the hook even longer because they are 
thicker. BUT croaker seem to love the Bloodworm flavored FishBites. When I 
bait up with these, I like to double hook the bait strip so it stays on 
longer. (Do this before it gets wet—It is hard to work with after it gets 
wet as it gets kind of gooey!)

            “Will flounder take FishBite Bloodworms?”

            I have caught several flounder on the Fishbites, though the good 
ol’ shiner and squid or minnow and squid combo still works the best!  When I 
think there may be flounder around with the croaker, I fish the Fishbite 
like a strip of squid. I cut it longer and let it dangle off the hook in a 
longer strip. (Your Bag of Worms will not last as long when you do this, as 
you WILL lose some of the strips to croaker!) You can also combo your strip 
of bloodworm flavored FishBite with a shiner, strip of squid or a FishBite 
Crab Strip. (I caught a nice fluke on this combination last week!)

            “What is the technique for catching croaker?”

            Croaker will practically jump on the hook when they are biting. 
I like to jig my rod up and down a little to entice them if I’m not getting 
any bites. You can also cast off the side of the boat and retrieve in slow 
to “fire them up.” The larger croaker seem to be in the deeper areas of the 
Thorofare, Main East Channel, and the Inlet. The incoming tide seems to be 
the best in the bay areas and the last of the outgoing has seen some large 
ones in the Inlet.

            When the tide gets slack, the croaker when slack off. That’s 
when you want to start jigging up and down more.

            “I don’t know whether to fish for croaker or fish for flounder. 
I’m so confused!”

            When the tide is coming in hard, go ahead and fish for croaker. 
The Thorofare, the Convention Hall Channel, the deep hole near 33rd Street, 
and buoy #6 just Southeast of the Thorofare are hot spots for croaker. When 
the tide starts to slack and ESPECIALLY when the tide peaks and just starts 
to go out is FLOUNDER TIDE. Pull off the croaker rigs and put on the 
flounder rigs. Sometimes one only gets a good 45-minutes to one hour of 
premium flounder fishing. Don’t blow it fishing for croaker that will be 
there most of the day somewhere no matter what!

            Sometimes flounder bite quite good at the very end of the 
outgoing tide and sometimes they don’t. One way to know if you might ought 
to switch your rigs is when you start catching small flounder on the croaker 
rigs. Where there’s small flounder there’s one or two big ones around.

            “Can I fish two hooks? One for croaker and one for flounder?”

            Certainly. I would put the smaller size #4 hook on the top and 
the larger #1/0 hook for flounder on the bottom.  Let a little line out to 
the top hook will dangle closer to the bottom.  Bait the flounder hook with 
a live minnow without squid so the croaker will leave that hook alone.  Now, 
the only problem you will have is when you get a bite. Is it a croaker bite 
where you want to jerk the rod tip right away?  Or is it a flounder bite, 
where you want the fish to take the bait for at least 15-20 seconds? 
Concentrate on the different bites. Croakers wham the bait and shake it 
hard. A flounder bite is softer and subtler. The flounder gives a little 
shake, then maybe there’s a moment when nothing happens, then you feel a 
weight.  Pull up on the rod tip slowly and then if you feel the weight of 
the flounder, set the hook. If you note the different feel of the bites you 
will learn quickly which ones are which.

            “How do you clean a croaker? Are they good to eat?”

            Croaker have a big head and a large rib cage. When you start 
filleting them, you’ll realize that you should only KEEP THE BIG ONES. Once 
you get the fillet off the side, feel for TWO sets of belly bones. Once you 
get all the bones out of the fillet they are wonderful to eat if you pan 
fry, sauté, or deep fry. Some people don’t mind eating around the bones and 
like to scale and then “head and tail” the croaker. I find that croaker is 
great fresh, but that it does not freeze for a long length of time like 
flounder or sea bass. Your best bet is to keep what you want to eat fresh 
and release the rest.  One legal flounder will give you as much filleted 
meat as 10-12 croakers.

            Croakers are a BALL to catch. If you have company or just like 
to have fun yourself, carry some lightweight spinning outfits out and watch 
those rods almost bend in half with fighting croaker.  You’ll see smiles all 
around from the kids…

            Good fishing…
 
 
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