Inshore, bays and inlets

Spotted seatrout

Cynoscion nebulosus

Spotted, soft-mouthed, delicious. Lives over the grass flats you paddle across.

What they like

  • 0.6–2.5 musual depth (they tolerate 0.3–6 m)
  • 17–28 °Cwater temperature they feed in
  • clear or coloured waterwater clarity
  • sloping edges, shallow flats, channelsbottom they hunt, in order
  • a moving tide (rising or falling)tide
  • dawn and dusklight

Grass flats with sand holes at dawn; deeper channels and canals when the water drops below 15 °C.

Season by region

Peak months, shaded. Outside them the species may still be around, just less reliably.

Florida and the Gulf
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Georgia to the Chesapeake
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Bait and technique

Methods: spinning / casting, fly, bait.

Bait and lures: Live shrimp under a popping cork, pigfish; soft plastic jerkbaits, topwater at first light.

Technique: Drift the edge of a grass flat casting to sand holes and pot holes; a popping cork over shrimp finds them fast.

Rules

Florida: Florida: slot 15-19 in, one over 19 in allowed per vessel, 3-5 per day by zone. Verify with FWC.

Seasons, sizes and bag limits change every year and differ by zone. Check the current regulations before you keep anything.

Depth maps where spotted seatrout live

Preferences are expert estimates from the fisheries literature and angling practice, not measurements at your spot. The likelihoods on the maps are a planning aid, not a catch prediction.