# The Croaker Soaking Brotherhood



## EdK13




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## Megalops

Hahahahahaha!


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## Smackdaddy53

Best one yet! Florida boys may not understand the struggle we have here...


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## Sublime

They are pretty easy to avoid other than the anchoring up in a channel part.


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## SomaliPirate

EdK13 said:


> View attachment 12029


And again, I laugh-spewed monster energy drink all over my work keyboard. Thanks.


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## SomaliPirate

Here in Florida the caption should read. "I like to burn across flats in a tower boat" "Me too".


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## crboggs

*



Best one yet! Florida boys may not understand the struggle we have here...

Click to expand...

*Good stuff...our most newly coined terminology for the Florida Skiff Lexicon (tm)...

Chucking bait ... "Chuck > Charles > Charlie"

Popping corks ... "Poppins".

So when the tower/flats boat roars across the flat with the neon popping corks rattling along atop their holstered spinning rods it signals that "Charlie Poppins" has arrived.

Charlie Poppins always sleeps in, arriving on the flat well after sunrise.
Charlie Poppins doesn't care about moving up onto the flat quietly.
Charlie Poppins loves to motor in and set up camp ahead of your drift or line.
Charlie Poppins doesn't care about crowding other boats out...because he's soaking meat.

Worst thing to hear on the skiff, while standing on the casting platform stalking redfish?

"Here comes Charlie Poppins..."


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## EdK13

SomaliPirate said:


> And again, I laugh-spewed monster energy drink all over my work keyboard. Thanks.


Anytime..


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## Smackdaddy53

crboggs said:


> Good stuff...our most newly coined terminology for the Florida Skiff Lexicon (tm)...
> 
> Chucking bait ... "Chuck > Charles > Charlie"
> 
> Popping corks ... "Poppins".
> 
> So when the tower/flats boat roars across the flat with the neon popping corks rattling along atop their holstered spinning rods it signals that "Charlie Poppins" has arrived.
> 
> Charlie Poppins always sleeps in, arriving on the flat well after sunrise.
> Charlie Poppins doesn't care about moving up onto the flat quietly.
> Charlie Poppins loves to motor in and set up camp ahead of your drift or line.
> Charlie Poppins doesn't care about crowding other boats out...because he's soaking meat.
> 
> Worst thing to hear on the skiff, while standing on the casting platform stalking redfish?
> 
> "Here comes Charlie Poppins..."


Yeah Charlie Poppins is everywhere here too.


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## Tx_Whipray

sitting in the middle of the only creek mouth into thousands of acres of marsh ponds, usually.


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## Zika

One of the funniest threads I've seen in a long time.


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## Roninrus1

ROFLMAO! 
Guess I am guilty of the croaker part but I ain't ever come even close to that kind of behavior. 69 years old and after hours in the sun at 95+ degrees, it's kinda nice to move out into open water where there might be a breeze, tie up a tarp for shade, get a big cup of ice tea and chunk out a croaker on a line with a clicker then sit back and relax. Not unheard of to get a nap too. Only way to make a dawn to dusk, or later, trip these days. Only bait fishing I do unless I have one of the younger grandkids along.


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## Smackdaddy53

Roninrus1 said:


> ROFLMAO!
> Guess I am guilty of the croaker part but I ain't ever come even close to that kind of behavior. 69 years old and after hours in the sun at 95+ degrees, it's kinda nice to move out into open water where there might be a breeze, tie up a tarp for shade, get a big cup of ice tea and chunk out a croaker on a line with a clicker then sit back and relax. Not unheard of to get a nap too. Only way to make a dawn to dusk, or later, trip these days. Only bait fishing I do unless I have one of the younger grandkids along.


I used to fish croaker but got away from them. My son is going to learn how to fish artificials, not bait. I don't have anything against them, I have everything against guides that can only catch fish during the summer (croaker season here in Texas) and slinging bait allows their googan clients to limit on trout in no time and the guides drop them off and pick up another group the same day...rinse and repeat...meat hauling has taken precedence to learning how to catch fish on artificials. My buddy has a saying "TRICK EM, DON'T FEED EM!"
I don't know about the rest of the Gulf Coast but there are waaaaay too many guides and lodges down here that rape the resource and typically only do it during croaker season...it's too easy.


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## Roninrus1

Agree with you Smack. I am 6 miles from the ramp to upper Galveston Bay and the boats will line the channel fishing with croaker. And most of the guides are client driven, with clients that have to have a picture of a big mess of fish they caught to brag on. Some may actually eat those fish.
Fished with a guide in Everglades a couple of years ago who was surprised when I said I didn't want to keep any fish. We only brought one juvy tarpon into the boat for a photo then revived and released it. 
As the grandkids get older they switch to lures but I ain't wild about a 4 or 5 year old slinging hooks around. Got hooked enough by my son when he was learning the switch to lures. And it's easier to keep the little one interested when there are some shrimp in the well for them to look at and fish with. Got them into their 20's now who love to fish, so I am glad to have done something right.


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## commtrd

SomaliPirate said:


> Here in Florida the caption should read. "I like to burn across flats in a tower boat" "Me too".


Heh not exclusive to FL... Massive problem in TX too. It REALLY sucks.


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## SomaliPirate

I will fish bait if I have a kid or someone new to fishing aboard but I honestly enjoy the challenge of tricking them to eat a piece of plastic or some chicken feathers, even if I don't boat as many fish. Plus bait smells bad. I don't care how others fish as long as they're respectful of other anglers and the resource.


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## commtrd

Smackdaddy53 said:


> I used to fish croaker but got away from them. My son is going to learn how to fish artificials, not bait. I don't have anything against them, I have everything against guides that can only catch fish during the summer (croaker season here in Texas) and slinging bait allows their googan clients to limit on trout in no time and the guides drop them off and pick up another group the same day...rinse and repeat...meat hauling has taken precedence to learning how to catch fish on artificials. My buddy has a saying "TRICK EM, DON'T FEED EM!"
> I don't know about the rest of the Gulf Coast but there are waaaaay too many guides and lodges down here that rape the resource and typically only do it during croaker season...it's too easy.


Amen brother. No concern for the resource whatsoever.


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## Zika

The Florida version...


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## crboggs

*lol* I'm with you on the white shades, but the Simms shirts really are fantastic.


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## Whiskey Angler

Smackdaddy53 said:


> I used to fish croaker but got away from them. My son is going to learn how to fish artificials, not bait. I don't have anything against them, I have everything against guides that can only catch fish during the summer (croaker season here in Texas) and slinging bait allows their googan clients to limit on trout in no time and the guides drop them off and pick up another group the same day...rinse and repeat...meat hauling has taken precedence to learning how to catch fish on artificials. My buddy has a saying "TRICK EM, DON'T FEED EM!"
> I don't know about the rest of the Gulf Coast but there are waaaaay too many guides and lodges down here that rape the resource and typically only do it during croaker season...it's too easy.


Don't get me started. I don't care what the limit is, and if it was group effort by 5 people.....our TX waters are being over-harvested by some (not all) guides.


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## Roninrus1

Whiskey, the really bad thing is these people would keep everything they can regardless of the bait, shrimp, croaker or plastics. It's an ego thing.
Remember, a few years back, the taxidermist who was buying trophy horns and any cape to make a wall mount that he sold to dentist/lawyer types to put in their offices to impress people. Charging several thousand dollars and getting it. 
Too many have no concept of conservation.
Wish I knew the answer.


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## Smackdaddy53

Roninrus1 said:


> Whiskey, the really bad thing is these people would keep everything they can regardless of the bait, shrimp, croaker or plastics. It's an ego thing.
> Remember, a few years back, the taxidermist who was buying trophy horns and any cape to make a wall mount that he sold to dentist/lawyer types to put in their offices to impress people. Charging several thousand dollars and getting it.
> Too many have no concept of conservation.
> Wish I knew the answer.


BUT when guides charge for a half day trip and give their clients live bait and limit out as quicky as possible on ONLY trout and run them in after just an hour or two just so they can pick up another group and do the same thing several times a day...that is the problem I have with it.
Half a day is 6 hours, not right away when the last person boxes the last trout to make a boat limit. What about redfish, flounder, black drum etc?!?


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## Roninrus1

Absolutely agree, Smack! And sadly it just keeps getting worse.
Greed and total lack of consideration for others is rampant in society and just keeps getting worse.
The guides doing this with 2 a day trips are just as greedy only it's all about the money to them.


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## commtrd

Until all TX fishermen INCLUDING GUIDES stop it already with the meat haul mentality the fishery resource is in danger. 

Just the other day was cruising around by Aransas Pass - Rockport and did not see one single fish on the flats. Nothing. Like the flats had been vacuum cleaned of fish. Back in the day that occurrence would be totally unbelievable. Now seems to be the standard. Very sad. The marsh coastal area of Louisiana can withstand virtually unlimited fishing pressure but the coastal bend and especially the lower Laguna Madre cannot. 

Would be poetic justice for the idiot guides to finally destroy their livelihood by eliminating the fishery resource they depend upon.


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## commtrd

Oh and BTW it's not just guides either. Way too many "sportsmen" seem to think they must fill the box every trip as bragging rights. Used to work with a guy years ago who would run to the Klondike and anchor up, throw out 8 lines with mullet or mud minnows and take his kid with him so he could get two limits of reds, take it to Gregory, unload, and do that three or four times in a day. To get around the three redfish limit per person. 

Small wonder it's a rare sight to see groups of reds on the flats any more? 

Welcome to TX.


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## EdK13

Uh, this was supposed to be a funny...







- In AUSTIN.


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## FXSBT26

Whiskey Angler said:


> Don't get me started. I don't care what the limit is, and if it was group effort by 5 people.....our TX waters are being over-harvested by some (not all) guides.


So then what you are saying is that if you 'harvest' a fish that there is one less fish to 'harvest'...huh....that's a novel idea......I really think that many croker soakers believe that the resource is inexhaustible.....sad.


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## Whiskey Angler

FXSBT26 said:


> So then what you are saying is that if you 'harvest' a fish that there is one less fish to 'harvest'...huh....that's a novel idea......I really think that many croker soakers believe that the resource is inexhaustible.....sad.


Not exactly. More so, I was saying "if you harvest a fish then there is one less fish to catch (not necessarily harvest), and one less fish to breed". Therefore (speaking on terms of limit sizes - 5 trout or 10 trout), if there are 20 more trout harvested (4 clients x 5 trout) per half day trip, then there are 40 less trout per guide per day to catch or breed. Therefore, there are 14,600 less trout per guide per year to catch or breed. There fore.....

Ok, this may be an exaggeration to some degree, but the point I was making was there are too many fish being harvested.


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## MariettaMike

I read a FB post that said there was a survey that found single mothers are up to 40% from just 5% post WWII. Victoria's Secret may be to blame.


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## Dawhoo

never trust a man with white sunglasses


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## MariettaMike

Dawhoo said:


> never trust a man with white sunglasses


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## Smackdaddy53

Here in a couple of weeks the croaker will be too big to effectively fish with and the seasonal so called "guides" will go back to their deer plots, duck blinds and dove fields while the real anglers keep fishing. People are so lazy they don't even cast net their own bait down here anymore.


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## permitchaser

commtrd said:


> Until all TX fishermen INCLUDING GUIDES stop it already with the meat haul mentality the fishery resource is in danger.
> 
> Just the other day was cruising around by Aransas Pass - Rockport and did not see one single fish on the flats. Nothing. Like the flats had been vacuum cleaned of fish. Back in the day that occurrence would be totally unbelievable. Now seems to be the standard. Very sad. The marsh coastal area of Louisiana can withstand virtually unlimited fishing pressure but the coastal bend and especially the lower Laguna Madre cannot.
> 
> Would be poetic justice for the idiot guides to finally destroy their livelihood by eliminating the fishery resource they depend upon.


LA could have stocks go down if everyone keeps 5 reds with one being large as you want


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## Tx_Whipray

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Here in a couple of weeks the croaker will be too big to effectively fish with and the seasonal so called "guides" will go back to their deer plots, duck blinds and dove fields while the real anglers keep fishing. People are so lazy they don't even cast net their own bait down here anymore.


My favorite time to fish is the opening weekend of Dove season through the opening weekend of deer season. It's like having private water.


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