Great catch, Peter! This is actually a Southern Kingfish (Whiting) — same drum/croaker family but a different species. The giveaway is that long slender body, the S-shaped tail, and no wavy brassy lines that Atlantic Croakers have. Perfect surf zone predator — they love hunting mollusks in the shallows. Were you sight-fishing or just blind casting into that shallow water?

Hi Markt! Thanks for the info as I'm a Brit so the fish and the rigs here are novel for me (and the fact I've not fished for 40 yrs!). The river is too murky to sight fish so definitely blind with an Ozark float which has 1ft of wire. I've been trying to align with the good times on the page but and got 4 fish on a reportedly poor day and none on the 3* day - maybe due to my foreign approach LOL!