Croak, Croak!

We skipped the beach walk this morning to go croaker fishing.  We took a couple of old rods and reels set with pairs of circle hooks, baited with "Fishbites", artificial bait made from a pasty gel laid on a cloth strip, available in bloodworm, squid and crab flavors.  I had all three, and squid was by far the most productive.

A mild day out; no wind to speak of, temperatures in the high 70s, but not very humid.

Our first stop was out in the far end of the outflow from "Location X", where we caught most of the fish out in 25 feet of water or so. I made let Georgia reel in most of the fish, and she tried every "Wicked Tuna" cliche from "Color!", "Get the harpoon", to "We don't have him 'til we have the tail rope on him"!

We also saw Bald Eagles, Ospreys and a few other boats fishing.

After a partial return from "Location X", we stopped in the shallower waters off the shores of our own beach, and tried there a while.  Shockingly, there were croakers there, too, although they seemed to have preference for the crab flavored fish bites over the squid flavored one.  Same size though, only about 9.5-10 inches (9 inches is the minimum size).  We left with the fish still biting (although, one stole one of my rods out of a rod holder), and when we got home we had 12 croaker and one Norfolk Spot. Thank goodness for electric fillet knives!