I was reading an article, not sure where though about fishing for spot and croaker. Obviously the easiest way is a double hook rig (no problem). The problem lies with the bait you use. It's something like 7-9$ for a bag of blood worms! Outrageous! I've used the fishbites but if you went fish for fish with someone using bloodworms you would loose 5 to 1. I heard from that article that you can use night crawlers? Has anyone used nightcrawlers to catch spot or croaker and is it just as good as bloodworms? I'm kind of thinking it is because they will look like each other under the water atleast i would think so. So what do ya'll think? have you used them and do they really work?

Thanks!

cut Squid strips, shrimp, and sand fleas are better choices and much cheaper on the wallet for CROAKER. Of course depends on the day, and area as to which is best. If they are really hitting it doesn't matter. I do not waste my money on bloodworms for Croaker. I have never used nightcrawlers nor have I heard of many people using them in the chesapeake bay area for Croaker. Bloodworms are the choice of bait for SPOT. Use smaller pieces with light rigging and you will make out better. I have used fish bites and tend to agree with you. However, many people swear by them.

As stated, cut squid is the bomb for croaker, at least early in the season. At the end of the season, I use fishbites & sometimes bloodworms but usually after you get 'em around you can switch to fishbites or squid. I find bloodworms work best for spot, but they will hit squid too when the bite is hot.

There is no doubt on a lite bite blood worms will out fish fish bites . . . but blood worms don't hold the hook like fish bite do . . . what I do is after I hook the blood worm on I'll us a tiny piece of fish bite which acts to block the bloodworm from being washed off or otherwise dissapearing off my hook.

[quote name='bigfaithmitch' date='Mar 3 2008, 08:02 AM' post='80396']
Have used night crawlers and when the Spot and Whiting are hitting non stop the earth worms worked as well as blood worms/fishbites. When the bite is slow the earth worms seem to be catching 1 to 4 earth worm/blood worm.

Back in the day before Bloodworms were used old timers used Perrywinkels.The small snails you see on grass blades in the flats.Night crawlers will work.I like fishbites no mess the mate can keep baits in his top pocket. I think the odds are alot better than 5:1 with Fishbites.

Not to give my age away, but in the REALLY old days - 1957 - there was no such thing as "bloodworms". We used shrimp from the fishmarket hat were packaged in wrapped-up in newspaper - then "progressed" to 1 lb boxes of frozen shrimp.They cost 20 cents then. We caught all the spot and croaker you could possibly clean on those shrimp. Rented a boat all-day from Harrison's pier for $5.00.

Kent

Later in the summer you can take peanut bunker live and the horse croaker love the 2 at a time if you can get them past the blues and striper fishbite work fine for spot a lot cheaper in th long run and will last mulitable trips

I have not tried night crawlers but a cheaper bait for spot that actually works is beef liver don't know about odds
but a couple of pier buddie sware by the liver.Shrimp works well also

Nightcrawlers work ok but you will catch more sand perch on them. For croaks use squid and spot use fresh chowder clams or fresh cut false albacore if available. They go nuts for them.

For me, squid works the best as well as peeler crab. Lots of bigger fish come off of peeler crab. Not to mention, dont throw away those little squid heads when you are gutting your squid. Stick em on the hook and you will be suprised! Fish bites work well too, but prefer squid alot better.


-Chris

Had good luck using gulp bloodworms on my boat side by side with guys using to real thing and had them wanting my bait instead. Lasts longer and stays on the hook.

I use them when I dont have fishbites and i will catch small black drum, speckled trout, perch, red drum, and small flounder.

I always buy one dz of bloodworms just to have more than one kind of bait and 1lb of small raw frozen shrimp for $4 or $5 from the local supermarket, cut to small pieces using #2 hooks. You can catch crockers, spots, trouts (weakfish) even snapper blues (fish Just loves shrimp).

If it's big horse croaker you want, I mean in excess of 3 lbs, hard crab is the bait to use. Sink your hook into a quartered blue crab and hang on! Another tip: crab pots can act like little chum pots for big croaker. They can smell the bait and crabs inside, but they can't get to them. Try dropping a crab bait down near a crab pot and you may get suprised! Be sure to stay far enough away so you don't get snagged. And Kent, I remember those wooden dorys Harrison's used to have back in the '60's. They had an old Willys Jeep with baloon tires to push and drag them with. Put your gear in and jump in and they shoved you off! But back then you didn't have to row far to get into some nice flounder.

I agree with Mega, fishbites are the bomb, no mess, and keeps forever if
they stay dry. Oh, did I say no mess, keep em in ur pocket and a small
pair of ss sissors in the other pocket. Haven`t bought BW`s in at least
3 yrs. now, use small pieces of shrimp and cut white squid also but have
mainly passed on BW`s because of the cost. The cost of a doz. BW`s will
buy me 2 1/2 gallons of gas !!!!!

Capt.Skid

Yea, i agree, because i fish in the Rapp. River and there is a long line of crab pots in a long row and i drift along them and it produces very well. I catch many good sized croaker by them. Just make sure you don't get caught on them.

this is a little off topic about the night crawlers and no i have never tried them, but when the bottom is more mucky like in the warick river for example, squid works better just about every time, when i am on a sandier bottom like out in the bay or close to the bay, fishbites works better almost all of the time.... just some thing to think about

Not quite that old, but I can remember using bait wrapped in newspaper as well, what kind hmmmmmm don't remember, but it workrd real good. My dad used to drop me off at the pier (Angler's Pier) in Fort Lauderdale and for bait, rod rental, and pass I fished all day for under $2.50. Boy were those the days huh.

George is right about drifting near crabs pots, it really is like a buffet to them. When I use to commercial fish we would catch TONS of croaker in the crab pots. They were just fatning up and I mean FAT. These were no little croakers, im talking 2-3lbs easy. Great tip by George, seems like striperzone has also had some great luck fishing by crab pots. Fishing by crab pots produces well with croaker, I guess I never fished near them hard. But when I was commercial fishing we were always keeping bushels of croaker and using them for bait that next day. Not to mention there were some decent flounder in those crab pots So when you catch some of those croaker save a couple and cut them into pretty strips and put those on a hook and try for some flatties,


-Chris

I can also rember those days,I guess we just spoled them.

The crab pot idea sounds great what i'm wondering is how are the crab pots secured to the bottom? Is it just thier weight that holds them down and the float at the top to locate? I dont want to anchor near one and get caught up in the line! I got caught up in a line that i guess was a crab pot line last fall but when i looked around there we're no pots so i dropped anchor. It took me over a half an hour to pull up the dang anchor and when i did there was a nice thick rope strung across it holding it down!

From this topic alone anyone who knew nothing about fishing for spot, croaker, or perch could go out and catch a bucket full! You guys are great tons of info on the 3 pages! Some of the stuff i would have never thought to use and if you think about it, with the clams and crabs you can end up catching some pretty interesting fish (drum, striper, spades in the summer and so on)

Can't wait till the bay warms up a bit more to get out there and get some pan fryin fish!

the crap pot are sitting on the bottom there weight holds them down remeber to look at the float and the way the line leads away it will tell were the pot is and help you to know what your drift will be.

Don't want to change the topic but when I was doing that for croaker I also found out that you can catch some real nice flounder doing the same thing except with a gudgeon and squid on the hook.

This is going to be rediculous but what is a "gudgeon"?

Gudgeons are local mud minnows, also called Killies by our northern brothers. You can catch them in just about any creek locally, or buy them in most bait shops. Great for flounder, but other predators will eat them as well. Tight lines and good luck!

True, blood worms are expensive. Throw them in a ziplock bag and cover throughly (caked) with kosher salt. Place them in the refrig. until ready for use. They will have toughened up like shoe leather after several days and will stay on the hook thru several spot bites. I even put them in the freezer and freeze them and they still work well. Rather hard to get the hook point thru the little buggers after they have been frozen because they are so tough.

Alright, soo much information got that thing in my head spinning again. Who has used the berkely gulp bloodworms or peeler crabs? I've heard the bloodworms work as good if a little better than the real thing. How do the peelers work that they have for sale?

I don't know about the bloodworms or peeler crabs, but I know the Gulp lures overall, I have had AWESOME results with in the Gulf of Mexico (Texas) and up off of Sandbridge, with trout. The lures I was using just looked like 5 inch chartreuse skinny worms. I was slaughtering the trout in September, and the guys next to me were using live bait and coming up empty. Not sure about how they work with croaker and spot though.

I recommend the Gulp lures alot. Just don't leave them on your hook for to long (when your done fishing) they get REALLY hard and I just end up throwing the hook away.

Johnny

I know what you mean by they get really hard, i used to use the gulp chartruse twister tail minnows for walleye up in pennsylvania. Well i put a rod away and forgot onoe was on there it not only stuck to the hook but it stuck to the rod and the line! What a mess!

We did some serious field testing last season using Gulp bloodworms, Fish Bites in the bloodworm flavor, and the real thing (bloodworms). The FishBites worked as well as the real bloodworms every time. The Gulp bloodworms didn't catch many fish at all...I was very disapointed with them. I will use nightcrawlers along with the real bloodworms and Fish Bites just to stretch out my bait supply. Shrimp and fresh clams work well too-not as good as bloodworms.
As far a croaker go we just try to keep a good variety of bait with us to see what the big ones want. Fresh cut fish is hard to beat, but some days squid is the ticket and other days they want shrimp or clam. We catch some huge horse croaker around the Cell when we are using peelers for trout up there. The Gulp peelers seem to catch everything from tog to croaker to rockfish.

Im a Charters Boat captain on the Eastern Shore of Maryland(middle Bay) and the best bait we use are Soft Crabs the Blood worms.Soft Crabs beat Squid,night crawlers 2-1 with ease.