"Croakerville" in the Chesapeake

[Megabyte]

I was on vacation this past week and the Admiral and I traveled south to Tilghman Island to do a little fishing and relaxing.

On Monday we fished an oyster bar off of Knapps Narrows about 2 miles north of the Sharps Island Light where the Admiral caught the biggest croaker I've ever caught before in the Chesapeake.

The smallest fish was 16" and the biggest was estimated to be 21". I didn't get a measurement on that pig because it was too much to handle to try to get a measurement and photo without harming it.

All fish were released unharmed to make more little fishes. :wink:

Don't mind the fish... check out the coozie!

 

[Keith FDNY]

Hey at least you were honest and you gave her the credit for the biggest fish!!Great Job!!!

 

[TheOtherLine]

Nice Fish. I was looking at your tackle setup. Looks like you have a snap swivel which you connect to a sinker that also has a swivel and then your leader looks like it connects to the snap swivel.

Is this a setup particular to catching croakers or is that how you normally rig your terminal tackle? If it's your normal setup, why do you do it this way?

You know me! I'm a sponge for knowledge.

 

[Megabyte]

Actually, that is just my own home-cooked setup for bottom fishing.

I use flurocarbon leader on my braid, but I don't tie directly to my lures or terminal tackle. I tie a large loop on the end of my leader which is used to attach my LTJ lures with a slip loop without using a swivel.

When bait fishing, I use the same method to attach the swivel (a slip loop), and then to that I attach the snelled circle hook. The snap swivel makes it easy to swap out weight (or hook size) easilly depending on the conditions at the time. It's a poor mans fish-finder rig, but where the weight doesn't move.

Here is a (much heavier) fishfinder rig used by surf fishermen in our area.
http://www.stripersurf.com/ff_orderform.html

Croaker are bottom dwellers and hang out on the oyster reefs along with all the other fish. They stay pretty tight to the bottom, so with this rig I get the weight down to the reef... let it bump the oyster shell... then lift it a few inches. That puts the bait right on top of the shell and right where the fish are.

There isn't any science involved here. Just trial-and-error.

BTW - Cooked shrimp has been my bait of choice. I've used it to catch croaker, perch, spot, rock, and blues so far this season. :wink:

 

[rangerdog]

You and your gourmet bait! :lol: Kev, you were in a classic spot for croaker drifting...2 summers ago we boated a 22" hardhead right close to that spot on UL tackle. You can also get the occasional striper there. If you can drift south from behind Tilman's into the channel there are good HH and striper opportunities on the drop off. Ever gone under the bridge? It's pretty cool to do so. Sometimes we anchor up back there for lunch.

 

[Megabyte]

I buy the frozen 'ready to eat' cocktail shrimp in a 2# bag at SuperFresh and it lasts me the whole season. When you look at it like that, it sure beats bloodworms at $12 a dozen. :shock:

When I'm ready to go fishing, I toss a half dozen shrimp in a zip-lock bag and they are thawed by the time I get to Hacketts.

We actually spent 3 days and two nights at Knapps Marina and fished all around the area. On Wed we went through the narrows and fished the Airplane Wreck and the nearby oyster bar in the Choptank. Saw this old girl on our way through the Narrows...

We had company while we fished the 'Tank. Had a 2520XL with an F250 pass us on the way out, and a really nice 2520 with a raised sun cover drifted the Airplane Wreck along with us.

We did see the fleet fishing the inside of Black Walnut Point as we went around the island, but I didn't feel much like trying to squeeze into the fleet. Instead we worked our way around to Sharps Island Light, and then north back to "Croakerville". From there we stopped at all of my (former) hot spots all the way home. Didn't find fish until we got back to Hacketts Bar.

Good fishing down there around Tilghman. :wink:

Edit: The weather was just the best you could ask for the whole time we were in Tilghman.
This was how nice it was on our ride back home.

It doesn't get much better than that.