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.

The use of live croaker is very controversial. For the most part, your average angler that just wants to go out and catch a mess of fish has no problem with the use of the bait.

Croaker Fish Wash Up After Massive Die-Off L.A. Times Archives Aug. 4, 2004 12 AM PT From Times Wire Reports ...

The croaker craze has not gone unnoticed by TPWD's fishery managers. They are watching and, to date, have seen no indication that baiting with croakers is taking more trout from the population ...

They were about three inches long. Normally, the croakers get too big to be used for bait by sometime in August, but some years they are the go-to baits well into the fall,’’ Farah said.

Tim Davis said croaker moved into waters off Townsends Inlet and around the 8th Street Jetty in Avalon. Davis works at Moran's Dockside at Avalon Sport Fishing Center, where Miss Avalon docks.

Bottom fishing in 180 feet will yield grouper and greater amberjacks. Inshore: Snook, trout and redfish can be caught around the spoil islands and along the west shoreline from Oslo Road to Harbor ...

Speckled trout are not a trout at all, but a member of the drum/croaker family of fishes. They do resemble their freshwater look-alikes quite a lot, hence the moniker.

YORK COUNTY — York County, in partnership with the Historic Triangle Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, is hosting the inaugural ...

Muse had dozens of croaker in his live wells. Plenty enough for us to be among the first croaker soakers of the year. In the Coastal Bend, juvenile croaker usually appear in Rockport bait shops first.

Kingfish, croaker, spot and small bluefish are mixed in the surf at Brigantine. Fishing can be described as scattered along the beach there. One strech of beach can have kingfish and another won't.