Dr. Skip Lazauski

The spotted sea trout (Cynocscion nubulosus) is a member of the drum family sciaenidae, which includes the red and black drums, king fish and white trout.

The fish in this family make a drumming noise by vibrating their swim bladder, hence the family name.

The spotted sea trout is also called one of the “weak fish” because hooks are easily pulled out of its mouth. It ranges along most the east coast of North America from New Jersey to Central America including Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and lives to be about 10 years old.

Spotted sea trout have been reported as large as 20 pounds but commonly are one to five pounds with the females almost always being the larger fish. It lives in estuaries, marshes, inlets plus oyster and weed beds in both inshore and near shore.

Salt and brackish waters are equally preferred to depths of 60 feet and temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s.

Water temperatures in the low 50s can be fatal if the fish doesn’t move into deeper water. This is the reason that when we get a winter cold snap lasting longer than a couple of days we find them floating dead or on the shore.

The speckled sea trout are batch spawners and lay several groups of eggs over an extended period starting when the waters heat up in the spring and on into the early fall. They are sexually mature at two years of age and their egg production ranges from 100,000 in smaller fish to more than one million in large females.

Fish of two to four years of age make up the majority of the spawning population. They spawn in the early evening in the high salinity areas of bay and sounds and in some shallow near shore areas. They don’t spawn in rivers and streams or the upper and middle areas of Mobile Bay. Their eggs hatch in less than 24 hours and the larvae are washed by the tide into the estuaries.

The smaller trout feed in schools near shallow grass and oyster beds, especially in the early morning or late evening and are attracted by and feed under lights at night. This is one of the reasons people will leave their pier light on all night.

They feed largely on shrimp, crabs and smaller fish like pinfish, croakers, mullet, menhaden and glass minnows. Larger fish feed near seawalls and grass beds bordering deeper water, especially in areas with strong currents and oysters reefs.

Spotted sea trout will occasionally feed in the surf and on the edges of passes and channels, and will only rarely go out into open ocean to follow schools of bait fish.

Speckled trout grow to eight or nine inches in length during their first year of life. The females grow larger than the males and when they are seven years old are an average of eight inches long.

Speckled sea trout are nonmigratory with only small inter-bay movements. This is in response to changing water temperatures and spawning.

They are common in shallow bays during spring and summer. When water temperatures decline during the fall the fish move into deeper areas of the bay.

Speckled trout are a game fish and any commercial harvest is prohibited.

Fishermen should be sure to check with the Alabama Marine Resources Division on number and size regulations.

Think Global-Act Local!

Dr. Lazauski can be seen on his television show “Eco-Bites”, which airs on Mediacom's channel 14 and Smartel's channel 4. To reach Dr. Lazauski for questions and comments, send e-mails to IchiOrca@yahoo.com. For more information, see his Web site, www.drskiponline.com.