# I had a good day on the water



## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

Too bad it was on a boat. Went fishing with some "old foggies" (what they called themselves) and ran a clinic. 

The fish were spread out and were picky eaters. early in the day. The bigger fish wanted squid. You could catch shorts on bloods, but I wanted the freight train hit the bigger fish provide. As it got later in the evening the fish began to hit bloods. 
When I got on the boat I noticed that most of the guys had bass rods. I took my Penn 6500, 7500, and as a back-up my 8500. There were drum in the fishing reports so I wanted to be ready. I was meat fishing and wanted to load the box up, if the fish would cooperate.
The boat left the dock at 3:00 pm. After a short run we drifted. There were small fish caught every now and then which indicated scattered fish. I didn't expect to do much catching as the sun was high overhead and we were in rough bottom area. I figured what the heck and I put a crab on a 3/0 circle and proceeded to feel the rod nearly jump out my hand with a massive hit. The captain was standing there watching me. He winked at me and said "I saw that". I could not hook-up and proceeded to run out of crab. We were fishing in about 15 feet of water. By about 6 pm the horses started running  and the catching began in earnest.
For the next two and a half hours we (party of 17) started bailing fish. The young man next to me was catching nothing. I took some time to adjust his equipment and teach him the technique. 
I kept forty seven croakers. The smallest was fifteen inches (average) and the largest was twenty one inches. It is funny how Viginia allows you to keep as many as you want.


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## TC (Oct 21, 2002)

Nice Report your Radness.
TC


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## inawe (May 24, 2003)

*only in VA*

man my freezer is packed with them croakers been slayn here in the Tidals for a while now , no records set but some good eatn  def got my pullage down


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## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

*Croaker filets*

for father's day. I had some tasty deep fried croakers. OH Baby they were good......


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## chest2head&glassy (Jul 2, 2002)

Big Rad said:


> The young man next to me was catching nothing. I took some time to adjust his equipment and teach him the technique.


That was the best part of the report. 
Glad you had fun in the VA waters. Thx for the report.


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## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

*C2h*

You are right. The other fisherpeoples were raggin the young man really bad. After we talked about what was happening under the water, how his rig was looking to the fish, and his bait presentation, the young man started catching. It was really good during the run into port, when he sat down next to me, shook my hand and said thanks.


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

Man, it is *really hard * not to catch
croaker when they go on an 
evening feeding binge and you 
are right on top of them.


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

Do tell, which boat were you on? I'm moving to NoVa soon, and I need some new places to fish


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