Croak!

It being an exceptionally nice afternoon, I decided to go out and do a little fishing.  I decided rather than seek the wiley Striped Bass, I'd go for some bottom fish.  I dusted off the croaker rods, made sure I had some Fishbites for bait, and set off around 2ish

 I wandered off to the edge of the submarine cliff off our shore, about half way to "Location X", hoping the southeast wind would push me across the relatively shallow water (10-20) ft, without having to motor much.  It worked perfectly.  The wind pushed me up Bay, and slowly but steadily inshore

I set out two rods, one baited with squid tasting Fishbites, and the other with bloodworm flavor, while I replace the old, rusty dull hooks on a third.  I had my first croaker before I replace the hooks.  Unfortunately (for me, fortunately for it) it was undersized.  I switched rods, and put the newly fixed one out and kept the one with the fish for attention.

Fishing was pretty good.  The croaker were on the small side; only about half made the 9 inch minimum.  Mixed in were some decent Norfolk Spot, another similar species, with no size limit or creel limit.  They tend to be small, but these were within the same range as the croaker.  I ended up with 15 fish in the live well by the time I drifted north near the Harbor mouth, at which point I figured I had more than I really wanted to clean.

Fish for dinner!