WSB croaking question

Great question. I shot this fish a few years ago at Catalina. Small male. You can hear it croaking at 15sec.. I don't pay attention to croaking when I dive. I know a lot of guys do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkp6-RUpnfw

cool video mike. bummed I lost my camera. I need to get a new one

Early in the season (Mid March) a lobster diver called me. He heard some croaking on a night dive in a kelp bed. Sure enough the next evening the wsb were in. Very good intel for being that early in the year. I would have never thought to dive it. The water was still 55 degrees.

Thanks for the video, always wonder what diving there was like,

I know that it keeps me focused when I hear it. It's funny that out of the dozens of times I've heard them croaking all over the place I have only seen them once or twice after. I have heard individual croaks and my buddy or me landed a fish shortly after in the same place. Last year Perry shot a 60lbr very shortly after hearing a single CROAK! We both heard it in the murky 54 degree water. You never know, but you can use at least know they are there.

dont be mislead by the "frog croaks" of the sargo. i've been hearing some fierce sargo croaking lately, mainly in the evenings. it sounds like a swamp full of frogs. just something to keep in mind.

That video is awesome. Thanks for posting that

Quote from coreyf

dont be mislead by the "frog croaks" of the sargo. i've been hearing some fierce sargo croaking lately, mainly in the evenings. it sounds like a swamp full of frogs. just something to keep in mind.

I got some sargo video last week. They make good subjects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGwLPFoDOU8

Here's a link to a WSB from last year. You can hear it at a few different times throughout the video. It's better to have good speakers. I can barely hear it on my computer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1QkwvNa7bE

Here is a link to sargo croaking. These aren't necessarily good examples for any reason other than how deep the croak from the WSB is from the Sargo since they are both speared and distressed. Cool to have witnessed nonetheless.

I speared a WSB yesterday that had some pretty loud croaking. I had a 50lbr do it earlier this year too and never can seem to not get a little creeped out by it. I hunt coyotes with an assortment of distress calls. Why wouldn't it work the same with ocean predators? I'm just saying:)

Quote from The freediver

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I speared a WSB yesterday that had some pretty loud croaking. I had a 50lbr do it earlier this year too and never can seem to not get a little creeped out by it. I hunt coyotes with an assortment of distress calls. Why wouldn't it work the same with ocean predators? I'm just saying:)

I am not sure about predators but I have had large schools of wsb swim up to me while stringing a croaking fish.

I know guys that swear they can follow croaks to the fish.

The croaking used to drive me crazy as I "knew the fish were there" and could never find them. My experience has been that more often than not, when I hear them, I never end up seeing them.

Of course, just like everything about these fish, sometimes they prove you wrong. This year I actually followed some croaks in shallow at a spot and ended up finding them.

That should be the key word for these things: SOMETIMES:D

Why wouldn't it work the same with ocean predators? I'm just saying:)[/QUOTE] Gobig

It has worked for me for 30 years, If I know the fish are near I lay in the sand or reef and talk to them.
One croak per breathold is all I do followed by a wait and see with the gun laying in front of me and my finger on the trigger. Some times you can piss them off if you don't get the sound right..... ask me how I
know.;)

Cheers, Don

Quote from Don Paul

Why wouldn't it work the same with ocean predators? I'm just saying:)

Gobig

It has worked for me for 30 years, If I know the fish are near I lay in the sand or reef and talk to them.
One croak per breathold is all I do followed by a wait and see with the gun laying in front of me and my finger on the trigger. Some times you can piss them off if you don't get the sound right..... ask me how I
know.;)

Cheers, Don[/QUOTE]

I have practiced a bit here and there with croaking. I wish that I saw enough fish to take the gamble and try it more frequently. I'm just afraid I'll screw it up. :rolleyes1: I would really love to hear someone such as yourself Don so I knew what would work. Trial and error is a rough road.

I've heard different types of wsb croaking. Early in the season and during mass breeding there's the typical one. Then I've heard a couple really angry sounding ones like a wet balloon getting rubbed, my buddy said this is when you are right next to them in dirty water. And then towards the end of the season I hear a different one.

I've followed wsb croaks several times and found the fish. I've also croaked them up at least two times when there were no seabass around and I was hunting yellowtail and croaking to pass the time.

Here's a question. I was on the outside edge of a bed recently had a solo swim up from open water, stop about 20 feet away, then open and close its mouth really wide and fast about 4 or 5 times. It almost looked like it would be yelling "WAH WAH WAH!" but there was no noise at all. After that it swam straight at me to about 10 feet away and then turned broadside (and was then stoned).
Almost seemed like I was in its spot and it wanted me to move. I should mention I had another fish on my stringer - maybe that has something to do with it. Anyone ever seen that or heard of wsb doing that?