Will be fishing the Venice,LA area the later part of this month. I've called the local bait shops looking for good sized croakers, and came up with nada. So.... looks like we'll have to try and catch some.

We had some great success catching monster reds on 6" crokers last fall. We just lucked into these baifish by using a half piece of shrimp on a #1 gold hook.

Any experts out there on "croaker catching"?

that, my friend, is the best way

a 1/2 oz fish seeker rig using a #6 treble hook baited with some shrimp is what has always worked best for me.

What areas do you catch them in?

shrimp on a carolina rig works great or even a fishbite.. use a small treble or small kahle hook..

piers, rocky areas, oyster beds...the usual places you catch bait fish

I caught tons of croaker in the surf down in Matagorda the last couple of days, I just used shrimp on a three way rig. outside of catching them in the surf in L.A. i dont know, but here in texas they seem fairly easy to catch.

You can catch croakers with carolina rig,small jig(1/8oz.hook size 4 or 6)and GULP MINNOW GRUB chartreuse, 2 inch.