croakers

[Southerly]

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any ideas???

[Pinch]

they migrate in and out of the Bay every year. They start to move out in the late summer. There were some very nice ones caught in Virginia during the tkaa tournament.

[ComeOnFish]

I love croaker fishing. But I didn’t do much last year. Perhaps I take some kids to croaker fishing.

I don’t think croaker (@14-17”) are here after June. I have seen big ones caught at the 1st Island (CBBT) in fall while we were fishing for Tog. I believe big croaker is available in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay until mid October, but not in the mid and upper bay. Though I and my sister caught about 30+ 17-18” croaker in September a mile off Breezy Point Marina (mid bay) once. Also once in June, three of us caught 70+ 16-17” croaker in the western edge (30-32’ of water) below Bay bridge

Here is my croaker schedule in the Western Shore, MD. I expected croaker as follows based on my 30 + years of fishing in the Western Shore. I don’t try to fish for croaker other than the following time period and places:

May 7 - Bushwood Wharf ( a guaranteed place)
Croaker @13-16” in 6-12’ of water. I recognized striper (16-20”) on the FF occasionally in 17-30’ of water.

May 15-30 – off Breezy Point Marina
East of the Green Can (GC1) in 26-32’ of water. Croaker @15-18” in 32’ of water, croaker @13-16” in 26-28’ of water

May 15 - June 7 –East off Lake Conoy (Point Lookout)
Croaker @15-18” in 28-32’ of water, croaker @13-16” in 20-24’ of water

Joe

[mmanolis2001]

there used to be a nice run of large croakers in the fall but i have not seen this in the last several years. We used to catch nice ones in mid to late September at Solomons from the pier.

[Memory Maker]

Every year a bunch of guys from NC launch out of Oyster VA to go to the channel and inlet to load up on croaker .......... BIG ice chests full of big croaker