Working Through The Croaker

We did an afternoon trip today, starting at 1pm and fishing an high and outgoing tide. I had Will Carlton and his friends Shay and Bob as we headed north up to the Jolley River to fish float rigs up near the marsh grass. We had very few bites but when we switched to jigs and shrimp we had bites almost immediately. But most were Croaker and it took a deft hand to catch them, which Shay proved to have. Bob put a small Sea Robin in the boat then we had one good hookup but it threw the hook at the boat so we moved further up into Jolley. Shay caught a small but feisty Bonnethead Shark then we moved around to the MOA where there
was tons of bait activity, but no fish bites. We made a stop at a dock in Bell River, had no bites, then made the long run around to Tiger Island. Shay landed a hungry Seatrout early then we fished the whole island, but again, the bite was slow. Then Shay had a strong hookup, fought the fish patiently, and landed a nice 18" Seatrout. Shortly after that Will hooked up he too had a good fight. But he played the fish perfectly and landed a keeper sized 17" Black "puppy" Drum. With that, we called it a day. As we left the area we were treated to a convoy of ships escorting a submarine through the channel.