Croakers

[rappahanockman]

Any body been fishing yet?
I'll bet the Croakers will be early this year!!!

[SlateDog]

March 31st is when the usual suspects show up around my creek. I keep thinking there has to be nasty weather coming soon that will wallop us. Sure would be nice if it just avoided us altogether this winter.

[striper143]

I feel the same way. We're going to pay for this weather here soon I think. Croaker fishing does sound nice right about now though. Any fishing seems nice though. %#@&$ wind is killing all my plans. That and my wife won't go for a new and bigger boat!!!

[satterly]

Last time the winter was mild like this I was catching them March 15th at my place Tom. Give it a couple weeks and there will start to be a few here and there.

[Mudshanker]

Fishing Gill nets between 10 and 12...been an interesting year. Caught a croaker with a cull ring around its neck at the first of February. I assumed it was held up from migrating until it could break free from the crab pot it was a part of. But then I caught another one without a cull ring 10 days later. Perch are plentiful, considering. A few Rockfish, much like the H&L report...a lot of 20 to 25 inch fish and a few bigger ones mixed in. Catfish are all over everwhere. Some bait. Less mudshad, far fewer herring or hickory shad. Caught a Black Will and a Black Drum in early February, too. The biggest surprise has been the number of speckled trout we have seen, nice sized fish, too. Great to see this diversity in the Rappahannock. Do you think it has anything to do with the oyster population growth in this area?

[SlateDog]

Fishing Gill nets between 10 and 12...been an interesting year. Caught a croaker with a cull ring around its neck at the first of February. I assumed it was held up from migrating until it could break free from the crab pot it was a part of. But then I caught another one without a cull ring 10 days later. Perch are plentiful, considering. A few Rockfish, much like the H&L report...a lot of 20 to 25 inch fish and a few bigger ones mixed in. Catfish are all over everwhere. Some bait. Less mudshad, far fewer herring or hickory shad. Caught a Black Will and a Black Drum in early February, too. The biggest surprise has been the number of speckled trout we have seen, nice sized fish, too. Great to see this diversity in the Rappahannock. Do you think it has anything to do with the oyster population growth in this area?

Interesting to hear about the specks. We fish for them every year on the Rapp and have mixed results. We have had some luck on them over the last 5 years or so on live bunker (mostly) but like everyone else I see reporting on them, very spotty results. I hope they show in better numbers in the future. Some people thought the bitter cold year before last hurt them some. Maybe not. Thanks for the input.

[deltaville]

Water temp at Stingray yesterday was 46F. My experience the last two years is that we need another 11-12 degrees before you'll catch Croakers in the shallows. Recent years that's been mid-late April for me but things seems to be running ahead this year.

[rowboater1]

Last few years did well the second week of April, hope the croaker are earlier this year. Will be down in mid March, hopefully something is biting!

[minner magic]

58 to 60 at west point the bigguns show up

[rowboater1]

My brother-in-law was telling me his friends had netted 2700 and 800 pounds of speckled trout in the Piankatank recently (not sure if over a week or the whole season so far). For those who have the experience, does this mean there are (were) a lot more speckled trout than usual this year (maybe because of the mild temps?), or the trout just tend to congregate together and were wiped out (hoping the former).