Croakers have been a part of my life since a very early age. As I have noted before, I was raised by my grandparents, and my grandfather, Roger Culver, worked shift work at American Viscose in Marcus Hook, Pa. He and several of his co-workers would go fishing when they had their three-day break between the night shift and day shift.
This was in the 1940s and ’50s, and they would fish with Capt. Green out of Slaughter Beach. At first, they caught porgies, but then porgies disappeared and croaker took their place.
This was before YETI coolers. Pop would bring his catch home in lard cans filled with ice. We had stationary sinks in the basement where Pop would clean the catch. No filet knives, just a fork to scale the fish, a sturdy knife to cut off the head and open up the body cavity, then rinse out the guts. I would stand on a chair to watch Pop do this work.
Once the fish were cleaned, my grandmother would take over. The bodies were rolled in flour and fried in lard or bacon grease. That’s right, everything we ate was cooked in animal fat, including vegetables. Pop lived into his 80s, and Mom-Mom died from a fall that broke her hip.
Since we ate the fish whole, you had to pick out the bones. I soon learned to lift off the skin, pick off the first layer of meat, then lift off the bones and eat the second layer of meat. If the skin was nice and crispy, I would eat that as well.
My good friend Mike Pizzolato likes to keep his fish whole. He claims they taste better. I must disagree. I have eaten my share of whole fish, and I will take a filet any time.
When I was about 10 years old, I was invited to go on a fishing trip with Pop and a few of his friends. This was a different experience, as we were going to fish out of Bivalve, Md., on our own from a rental boat.
We began catching croakers from the Nanticoke River almost as soon as our squid-baited top-bottom rigs hit bottom. We were also catching crabs and oyster crackers. The oyster crackers were returned to the water, while the crabs were put in a box to be used as bait.
Mr. Bestpitch, who had arranged this trip, was using crabs for bait and soon stuck his hand in the bait box. He let out a scream. When his hand came out, a crab was attached to one of his fingers. It seems when you put a crab in the bait box, you are supposed to remove the claws. Nobody told me, and so my crabs were fully armed. I believe Mr. Bestpitch would have used much stronger language while explaining to me that we remove the claws before putting crabs in the bait box if I had been older and Pop had not been aboard.
The day passed without further incident until just before we were about to quit. I hooked something big and was having a hard time reeling it up. Finally, a huge oyster cracker broke the surface and all on board began to laugh. Then a huge croaker showed up on the bottom hook and cries of “get the net” rang out.
A lot of croaker have come and gone since then, but that was the highlight of my croaker fishing career.
When I ran charters from Virginia Beach, I had a father and son on board on one of those days when nothing I tried seemed to work. Finally, I pulled up to the north corner of the Third Island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on the bayside. The father dropped down, his rod bent double, and he cranked up what I thought at first was a red drum, but turned out to be a croaker. I believe it weighted close to 4 pounds, and it came in second in the Virginia Fishing Tournament for the year.
Right now, there are some very big croaker in the Broadkill River in the area of Oyster Rocks. Dan, at Dan’s Tackle on Route 1 near Milton, says he is seeing the largest croaker in years. There have also been reports of big croaker at the Old Grounds. Several years ago, I had good fall fishing for croaker at Broadkill Beach.
You don’t need any fancy tackle or rigs. Just a rod and reel that can cast far enough to get your top-bottom rig out into the Broadkill River or drop down from a boat. Baits include squid, peeler crab, bloodworms, Fishbites or Gulp! and cut bait.
Good luck.
-
Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
