Matapeake 6/4 croakers and spot

[kuljc]

A PERFECT DAY FOR FISHING! The weather was nice, barely any wind, no waves. I haven't been fishing on a day like this in a LONG time. And to make it even better, the croaker were biting.

Finally got to really use my lowrance elite 4, found an oyster bed in front of the pier. Marked it, anchored and immediately started catching fish. high low rig, with fish bite and shrimp worked well. While having to constantly re-bait, plunk, my scissors falls into the water (the first time i didn't tie it down!!). Realizing I forgot to pack any knife, I was pissed. Tried shrimp on it's own, but the bite stopped. Thankfully I went with dson05 and he had an extra pocket knife I borrowed so I could cut the fish bites again. He was further out and was doing really well on blood worm. Caught a few more good sized croaker and called it a day around sunset.


Also! FISH SCALERS! WOW! They're amazing, how did I ever live without one. I've always hated scaling croakers, but the cheap $1.50 http://www.basspro.com/Fish-Scaler/product/104333/ is the BEST $1.50 I've ever spent. scaled the fish in my ice box, and only a few scales flew out. I really don't know why I've never bought one until now.

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[mytmouse]

Way to go!! Nice catch you got there!! Glad to see the Croakers coming back after last season's dismal showing! LOL

Quick tip I learned about fishbites. I get one of those small cheap ziplock containers and pre cut my fishbites so I don't have to fool around with it on the water. And the ziplock container keeps the water out so they don't get ruined.

MYT

[Mmacro]

A great DIY scaler is cheap to build and I like to justify the gathering of the necessary materials... Get a decent size 2" x whatever long piece scrap of hardwood (you can use pine but I've found hard wood holds up better).
Go get a 6 or 12 pack of your favorite beer (or glass bottled soda if you don't drink) and go fishing. Save the bottle caps and when you get home take the scrap wood and screw the bottle caps loosely down so the still wiggle a bit... Giving them 1/8" between each cap.
Take that bottle cap studded wood and run it back and forth along the fish and kleblewie! Your fish is scaled!

Another fast technique I picked up was watching fish mangers in Alaska. They clean fish using sharp cleavers. They don't hack away at the fish but rather flip the cleaver over and use the spine of the cleaver blade to sclae the fish and then deftly flip it around and slice the belly open, curve up around the pectoral fins and lever cut the head off. The weight of the blade does all the work. I have a really nice German steel cleaver that I use for cleaning my fish now... Even croaker and perch.

[moc]

Nice job on the croakers. It seemed that you caught a good mess in a short period of time. What size where the croaker? Where they the lager varieties (13-17inches), smaller varieties (9-12), or the micro kind, perch size....less than 9 inches?

[kuljc]

Nice job on the croakers. It seemed that you caught a good mess in a short period of time. What size where the croaker? Where they the lager varieties (13-17inches), smaller varieties (9-12), or the micro kind, perch size....less than 9 inches?

They were consistently between 10"-13". I only caught 1 undersized.