Spot croaker (Leiostomus xanthurus) is a saltwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is mainly found over sand, mud, estuary, at depths of ≤ 50 m. The main season in the United States runs spring, summer, autumn.
Scientific name: Leiostomus xanthurus · Water: Saltwater, Brackish · Season: Spring, Summer, Autumn
Size: up to 36 cm
The spot is the only species in the genus Leiostomus, a small short-lived sciaenid with a deep, hump-backed body and the large dark blotch behind the top of each gill cover that gives the fish its name; juveniles carry oblique dark bars that fade with age. It lives in estuaries and coastal waters from Massachusetts to Texas and south to Campeche in Mexico, is most abundant in Chesapeake Bay and the Carolinas, and stays over sandy and muddy bottoms in less than about 6 m, though it has been recorded to 50 m. Each spring the schools move into bays and estuaries, spend the warmer months in higher-salinity water and head offshore in autumn to spawn — which is why East Coast anglers take them from shore from spring through autumn, and why Hampstead, North Carolina, closes September with the annual Spot Festival. The reliable approach is a light rod and a two-hook bottom rig: bloodworms are the classic bait, shrimp and squid strip next, fished from the surf, piers and bridges or from a boat inside the bay. Locals simply call it the spot, or Norfolk spot and Virginia spot, and it is one of the most accessible eating fish of the Chesapeake.
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