Nah, Nowhere near being too big. A 25lb red will eat that thing like you would a piece of candy. I can assure you that that croaker wouldn’t live more than 10 min on Dixie bar.

Well that will be good to know for the next trip!

Tail hook him on 6/0 or 8/0 owner mutu light circle hook and hold on. I fish 6” croakers all the time in the bay down here for the bigger specks and slot reds and you’d be surprised at how many 3 lb specks or 4-5 lb reds will eat that 6” croaker or bigger. You’d be amazed at how big a bait most saltwater fish will eat. I think a 9-10” croaker is really the perfect bait for big bulls.

I learn new things about fishing down here almost everytime I open a Ft Morgan thread, Dixie Bar, bull red thread...interesting for sure!

Jay, there's some pretty decent guides in that area if you need some pointers!

AND it's DIXEY BAR, not Dixie Bar. The clipper ship, named for Capt John H Dixey, ran up on that sand bar during a hurricane, Sept 14/ 15, 1860. Nineteen men died when the ship broke apart. I pass that area every day I work. It's a common mistake for folks not to spell the name of this area correctly,but it's a part of our history. It seems to stick in my mind, and at my age I forget a few things, but that's not one of them.

Dang man, never new that, thanks for the history lesson. Historians are still trying to figure out what ship wreck the coffee table at J&M Tackle came from that was exposed after Hurricane Camille. Yep, that 800lb table is the keel. Been a lot of slivers sliced off the under side over the years by people digging into it.

Pilot boat capt?

Real close Turkey Joe. Real close

Croaker is the best eating of those 3.

I was thinking the same thing.

I just got back from the eastern side of Orange Beach, had great surf fishing! caught TONS of bluefish (we ate a few one night) a good number of lady fish, small pompano and catfish, and my dad caught a permit! it was some of the best surf fishing we've ever had. we were using fresh dead, whole shrimp and cut bait (lady fish)

That's awesome man! I tried some surf fishing early sunday morning but the current was so bad I couldn't keep my baits from washing up down the beach.

Yeah, Saturday was getting pretty rough. the biggest weights we had were 3 ounce and even those were struggling on Saturday. we were just throwing about 30 degrees into the current and letting it wash about 30 degrees down current. gong to keep a couple 4 ounce sinkers in my kit from now on.

He caught a permit eh?

I was really wishing I had some of those sputnik sinkers Sunday morning lol

Indeed!

post up a pic of that permit

We didnt get any pics since it wasnt a big one (probably 12" -14") We didn't realize it was a big deal to catch one in Alabama until we mentioned it to the guy in the bait shop later that night. He mentioned that earlier this spring there seemed to be more people than usual catching small permit from the surf.