First. for my 1000th post, I'm taking a vow to stay off the OT for 30 days bad for the brain in alot of ways.

Second, had someone explain to me in a PM about the whole croaker thing for speckled trout. Seems like the simple, effective solution would be to ban the commercial sale of live croaker (bait camps, et al) ... not, repeat NOT to ban the use of live croaker by fishermen.

The effectiveness of croaker for speck bait is comparable to that of live shad for stripers on Texoma. I'm sure the striper fishery on Texoma might be very different if you could just buy live shad at every bait shop around the lake, rather than putting the effort into catching your own.

Thinking about it, the best fishing I've had is when I identify, catch & use live bait on my trip, whether it's live shad for blue cats, live mullet for redfish, live blue runner for amberjack, live sandtrout for red snapper and yes, live croaker for specks. A big part of the catch is that I caught the bait myself (ie I did the work). I know lots of fishermen think the same way, though I'm sure there's times when it would be nice to pick up a dozen blue runners at the bait camp before heading out lol

Most guides are good fishermen who are trying to make a living. The good guides are quite capable of catching their own bait, and the ones who can't probably aren't true guides as we on this forum think of them.

That's all ... now I have another 1000 to think of something truly profound.