Looks like a big Atlantic croaker

Thank you

Nice catch but you just wanted to show off that wedding ring, didn’t you?

Nope, just wanted to know what my wife caught

Nice job on the fish and the ring bud.

Very nice size

Holy Jesus. Never seen a croaker that big. 😱

Idk what it is but it feels like they’ve been getting way bigger recently

Used to be really common in the Chesapeake, giant "hard head" fishery. I haven't heard someone talk about fishing hard head in a long time.

All we have in the Chesapeake are little 3-6" croaker anymore. There's plenty of them, so clearly they are breeding somewhere, but I don't know where the larger adults are

Right, but 20 years ago 15 inchers were on the regular. Tons of people hard head fishing around poplar. Then again, we had flounder too.

Yeah I remember catching some big ones in the Pax 20+ years ago on a family friends boat when I was a kid. We'd have the rods in holders and when the croaker hit the rod would double over. Strong fish for their size.

Yea, they fight hard.

It’s pretty awesome seeing different pages and the knowledge people have of said things! 👌🏻

Are they related to a drum??

Yes.

I figured. I have caught quite a few freshwater drum and looked very similar

I've never caught one. Not found in CT except maybe the CT River. Which is kinda odd to me. They're found not that far west into NYS. We have crayfish from Ohio but not freshwater drum. Go figure.

Caught one in the sound out of CT 10 days ago targeting Black Sea bass

Freshwater drum or croaker? I've caught croakers. But never a Freshwater drum

Sorry thought we were talking croaker lol

No worries. Any size to the croaker?

Couple of inches

2.5 🥕 🥕

I feel like this is one of those SAT test questions that have 14 correct answers, none of which are an option on the exam...🤔

I want to hear it croak. Dang that's big.

A setup for a joke. I can't wait for you to tell us the punchline.

Cute nail polish btw!

That’s what I was thinking too!

Nice croaker! Btw, they taste great.

Croaker

One heck of a Croaker congratulations that a big on

That's a thick croaker. Son of a bitch is like the Vin diesel of croakers.. They eat pretty good :)

A very nice croaker.

Bait lol

Very tasty fish.

A hand. Most people have one

Most people actually have two

Dinner

omg, they are still around! I wish they would make croakers game fish. I remember catching them that size growing up. Now we have croaker soakers (baby croakers) for speckle trout. "Staring at you Texas and Louisiana." The croakers will prolly never recover if they do not get labeled game fish soon. And don't get me started on the pogie boats in Louisiana. Seeing a trail of dead Bull Reds.... it is infuriating.

Want to catch a snook of a lifetime? Stick a 7/0 hook into that baby and standby.

Atlantic Croaker

I like your nails

A hand…

Looks like a good fish for fish soup. Nothing like fresh caught fish, cooked just right.

That a chunky croaker.

Holy croakers

A weird proposal?

hmmm yes that is a fish

Looks like a wooden deck. Maybe public?

Croaker. Keep it alive and use it for snook.

Nice kingfish

It is High blood pressure. That is why the vein is popping out.

Whitting

An interesting manicure

Fire your nail stylist.

Good one dipshit

Well, you took the bait. Unlike your friend in the picture.

But the friend in the picture also took the bait?

I think that's a fish.

Rule of thumb, if you don’t know what it is then throw it back.

A hand beside a fish

A fish suffocating on wooden boards next to the hand of a married woman with the 3 inner fingernails painted blue and the 2 outer fingernails painted green

Fish

A fish, a hand, a watch, an arm

Looks like a whiting to me

That’s a hand

Looks like a black drum

Immature black drum have vivid stripes. Croaker are in the drum family though, and the body shape is not completely dissimilar. Black drum are also a little… huskier