Fishing for Texas trout with live croaker: You might be doing it all wrong

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Fishing for Texas trout with live croaker: You might be doing it all wrong


Using the proper hook-set to catch trout should result in an unharmed fish.

During the past 20 years, the bait-stand price of juvenile croaker has doubled, more or less.

A dozen of these mostly summertime baits for speckled trout has gone from $6 retail to as high as a dollar each. Depending on the seller, anglers today commonly pay on average $7-$10 for a dozen pieces of trout candy.

Croaker began as a novelty bait roughly 30 years ago, as best as I can figure. And while many anglers/guides claim to be among the pioneers who first put croaker on a hook, most tell me in the beginning they got them directly from bay-shrimpers on the water.

It’s unclear whether the popularity of bait croaker was stymied or boosted by fish-killing freezes in 1983 and ’89, which produced the worst of times for the Upper Laguna Madre and surrounding bays. Millions of decaying fish led to seven years of brown tide.

Lure fishing was difficult for years and you could forget about sight-casting. But within about six years of the ’89 freeze, those ugly waters had rebounded with remarkable resilience.

In 1996, when Corpus Christi anglers were yearning for good news, Jim Wallace and the Corky lure he used became household names in Texas when the Houston angler reset the state record with a 33.13-inch trout that weighed 13.69 pounds.

This was followed by bountiful years for taxidermists, as well as a boon for lure maker Paul Brown.

Perhaps the stained tide had actually helped guard vulnerable fish populations from anglers, allowing stocks to rebuild at a furious pace in the recovering habitat.

The Laguna Madre defied conventional wisdom by producing more double-digit trout than anyone thought possible. Reduced fishing pressure combined with predation, reduced competition from older trout, and burgeoning prey populations all contributed to several years of larger trout, especially in the Upper Laguna Madre, according to Mark Fisher, TPW’s Coastal Fisheries science director.

Fishing guides from Rockport to Corpus Christi, eager to report this good fortune, doubled down by broadcasting the efficacy of croaker to a trout-hungry public. And as any enterprising professional would, they began telling their stories to outdoor writers, who were equally eager to spread the news.

Soon, the noisy finfish with the onomatopoeic name would become the most controversial bait since the use of live bait became a thing. Of course, they became widely available at bait shops.

By 1998, croaker was the deadliest bait in the land of big trout. And this got the attention of many conservation-minded anglers, who feared man would steal what nature had bestowed.

A popular refrain heard among some guides returning to marinas before noon with smiling clients became “Got my 40,” which meant they had boxed forty trout during a three-angler charter trip.

At the time, a working guide was allowed to keep 10 trout, along with his charter party. And more often than not, all those fillets went home with their clients.

In this atmosphere, came an avalanche of name-calling, self-righteous rhetoric, resentment and heated debates. The bitter civil war severed friendships and sparked a vocal anti-croaker movement, with its own flag and slogan to “just keep five (trout).”

It didn’t help that croaker were abundant in bait shops only during the trout spawn. This meant many of the croaker-caught trout chilling in ice chests were fat with eggs.

Ultimately this social backlash resulted in major regulatory changes, which included a trout limit reduction from 10 to five fish daily for the lower coast, which later spread to the middle coast. Texas Parks & Wildlife also began prohibiting anglers statewide from keeping more than a single fish daily that measured 25 inches or better.

And finally, the working guide no longer could retain a daily bag of any species. Almost overnight, a typical bay-charter trip went from killing 40 trout daily, with numerous fish over 25 inches, to returning with 15 trout, with no more than three fish 25 inches or greater.

Perhaps these sensible regulations have diminished the notion that croaker are evil or the folks who use them are somehow less than ethical. More likely, those sentiments continue to simmer. Apparently, a bait-divide among anglers will always exist.

But for those who simply want to enjoy fishing for trout (or flounder and redfish) with the least affordable bait sold, I’ve listed some helpful information to limit your bait bill and enhance your fishing pleasure. I’ll also try to dispel some of the myths surrounding croaker.

NATURAL ENEMIES?

Someone at some point many years ago labeled juvenile croaker as a miracle bait because croaker eat trout eggs. Many outdoor writers, including me, accepted this as fact and repeated the unfounded rumor, without supporting evidence.

Many folks concluded croaker represented an unfair advantage because trout are biologically compelled to eat them as a survival mechanism.

Biologists say this is ridiculous on my levels. First, trout eggs are tiny. Juvenile croaker simply would not target trout eggs routinely because the nutritional value would not be worth the energy expenditure. Plus, trout eggs float and croaker don’t typically feed on the surface.

GOOD CROAKER-BAD CROAKER

Anglers who regularly use croaker know by sight which ones will or won’t survive long enough to catch a trout. Juvenile croaker are delicate and must be coddled from the time they are scooped by nets from the bay until the moment you put a hook in them.

Croaker aficionados want the healthiest croaker money can buy. This means the croaker is lively, with all its color, no red blemishes, and none of its tail chewed off. Plus, it should be covered in a protective coating of slime. Ask to see the croaker before you buy.

TINY BUBBLES

Several croaker swimming inside a bucket will die within about 30 minutes, unless you boost the water’s level of dissolved oxygen. To keep them alive longer, anglers use elaborate oxygen systems, simple aeration devices and chemicals.

Recirculating live wells alone will not suffice in the South Texas heat. Also consider freezing water in small, sealed plastic bottles and floating them in your bait well to maintain the water at a livable temperature. A dead croaker is crab bait.

WE CAN’T BE OUT OF BAIT!

While lure fishermen chuckle at this proclamation, the disappointment is real for the natural bait crowd. So how many croaker should you buy? The answer depends on many obvious contributing factors. But let’s assume you’re fishing a spot with an active trout bite and everyone knows the nuances of properly setting the hook. If your goal is to box a limit of keeper trout for each angler, the following insight should help determine your bait needs.

I fished last week with hunting outfitter Haiden Mensik, who recently completed the U.S. Coast Guard charter captain course. It was just the two of us, so we purchased four dozen croaker and headed to a reliable trout area in the Laguna Madre. When the bait well was empty by 10:30 a.m., we had six keepers in the box.

I estimate we released at least 30 undersized trout. We motored to Bluff’s Landing and purchased another four dozen croaker. We bounced around the bay and had no trouble catching four additional keepers, along with another 30 small trout.

So 96 croaker yielded 10 keeper trout in this unscientific experiment. Obviously, if you find larger trout, this 9.6:1 ratio should improve. In financial terms, we spent $96 to catch 70 trout; or nearly $100 on bait for a full day of fishing. Or you could say we spent $96 to catch 10 keepers.

QUIT REELING!

The proven tackle for croaker is very basic. Many anglers use nothing but a No. 3 kahle hook tied directly to a monofilament leader. Others add a pair of glass beads or a lightweight rattling chamber for noise and weight. The weight is important for longer casts and to quickly sink your croaker out of the grasp of bait-stealing terns and gulls, which notoriously hover over anglers using croaker.

It’s important not to drag your bait through seagrass by reeling it toward you. Let the croaker swim as freely as it can. Every several seconds, I find it helpful to assert an abrupt jerk of my rod tip. This lifts the croaker away from seagrass and forces it to emit the noise that gave the croaker its name. This sound attracts trout, most folks believe.

NOT FOR THE BIRDS

There are two simple ways to guard against gulls and terns stealing your croaker. Keep a lively bait on your line, so it can quickly swim deeply out of sight when it hits the surface. And do not discard used croaker into the bay. Toss them in a bucket on the boat and discard them later. Also, do not cast into or over a flock of birds. They may become entangled in your line.

DON’T BE A PREMATURE HOOK-SETTER

The only thing worse than killing expensive bait before its time is wasting baits because of poor technique. When a fish bites, our job is to jerk back so the hook-point embeds somewhere in or near the fish’s mouth. Seems simple enough.

As best we can imagine, when a trout preys on a croaker, it either engulfs the entire bait outright or strikes to stun, injure or disorient the croaker. Either way, the astute angler feels the jolt in their hands. The jolt is more pronounced when using braided fishing line, by the way. To some, the urge to set their hook immediately is irresistible. More times than not, jerking back quickly will either pull the bait away from the trout or yank it from the fish’s mouth.

Both scenarios take time to develop. If the trout stuns the bait, its follow-up motion is to engulf the croaker then swim away. So our job is to pause during the one-two punch and wait for the run. If the croaker is engulfed fully, most trout will immediately swim away to complete the process. Either way, the rule of thumb is to give the trout time to position the croaker in its mouth so it can be swallowed head first.

This generally happens within seconds. The more aggressive the bite or the larger the trout, the shorter the wait. Many anglers suggest we count to three or five, or simply lower the rod tip and extend our arms until the line grows taut, before heaving a mighty hookset. A wimpy hookset will not yank the hook cleanly from croaker so the hook’s point can embed in the trout’s mouth.

It may seem complicated, but once you get the hang of it, you will catch more fish, waste fewer croaker, and lower your bait bill.

You are viewing this post: Fishing for Texas trout with live croaker: You might be doing it all wrong. Information curated and compiled by Kayaknv.com along with other related topics.

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