Is this a croaker?

[22Tango]

I saw this fish, but it looked too dark to be a croaker. Can one of you experts help me out?

[Pinch]

Looks like a whiting

[ronaultmtd]

Northern Whiting Kingfish- delicious white flakey meat

[frettr00]

Been a while since I've seen one of those. Caught some in NJ as a kid.

[22Tango]

Well I'm proud to announce that some have relocated to the chesapeake bay. This one was hooked about 100 yards off the rocks at Shady Side - Columbia Beach using bloodworms on a hand-tied double bottom rig with dropper loops.

[Derekfish]

They are in the same family as the sea mullet I believe. I catch a lot of those from the surf in hatteras during the summer.

[ronaultmtd]

Sea mullet is the same fish, just another name- and they are a favorite pier catch off the carolina coast- excellent table fare- I have caught them up to a couple of pounds- usually catch them when fishing for spot on pieces of bloodworms

[hardhead]

I'm no expert...we also call them roundhead in Carolina..if you catch them regular...You will forget about eating other fish.

[kayak456]

its a virigina mullet. (whiting). so your telling me you caught it near shady side in the middle bay???

[kevinwbell]

Yup!....that there would be a whiting. Yuuuummmmmmmmmyyyyyyy!

[kayak456]

dang, whiting and that weird spotted hake i caught? maybe this year will be another weird year. if its salty enough for whiting the drum should def be here. i dont know where the croakers are. whereever they are, they are late?

[22Tango]

its a virigina mullet. (whiting). so your telling me you caught it near shady side in the middle bay???

Sure did. I was surprised too. Obviously didn't know what it was. At first I thought it was a channel cat - but no whiskers. Then I was thinking maybe a black drum (because I've never seen one in real life) or a very strange looking croaker. At any rate, I was not far from the shore. I was about 3:30 pm so I think the tide was coming in slightly at that time on Friday. Columbia Beach is in Shady Side, just south of the West River and north of Deale.

[kayak456]

a few charter captains we know caught a few whiting around deal last year while catching their spot for livelining, i wish they were here in big numbers

[MetroMan]

Delicious fish right there.