Drumlike fishes, cods, trouts, and catfishes

Spotted Seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus

Description

To 28" (71 cm); 16 lbs (7.3 kg). Elongate, fusiform, moderately compressed; dark gray above with bluish iridescence and black dots extending onto dorsal and caudal fins; spiny dorsal fin dusky, other fins pale yellowish; silvery below. Mouth oblique; lower jaw projects beyond upper, which extends past eye; 2 large canine teeth in front of upper jaw; no barbels or pores on chin; preopercular margin smooth. Dorsal fins completely separated by deep notch; soft dorsal fin unscaled, base much longer than anal fin base; caudal fin truncate or emarginate. Scales ctenoid, large; lateral line extends to caudal fin tip.

Habitat Juveniles in estuaries, tidal mud flats, grass beds, and salt marshes; larger specimens mostly in shallow coastal waters over sand.

Range

From Cape Cod to Florida; Gulf of Mexico from w. Florida to Laguna Madre, Mexico; absent from West Indies and Caribbean.

Discussion

The Spotted Seatrout, often called "speck," is a valued food and game fish, especially in the shallow sand flats around barrier islands off Florida and the Gulf Coast.