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Weakfish
Cynoscion regalis
"AKA Sea trout, Gray trout, Saltwater trout, corvia and Squeteague "

Description:   This lovely fish has a dark bluish green or olive colored back with sides of speckled flakes of gold, copper and lavender. There are definite irregular diagonal rows of slightly defined dark spots that appear above the lateral line. The weakfish has one or two distinctly prominent large canine teeth at the tip of the upper jaw while the inside of the large oblique shaped mouth is yellow. There is a black margin on the tongue tip. The pelvic and anal fins are yellow and the pectoral fins are olive. The underside or belly is without spots. The gas bladder has a pair of practically straight horn-like appendages. The chin is without barbels or pores. The first dorsal fin is higher than the second dorsal fin and the second dorsal is much longer than the first. It's body is slender (about four times as long as it is deep), it's head is about 1/3 as long as its body and it has a slightly emarginated tail.

The scales of the weakfish are short and wide. The soft portion of the dorsal fin is covered with small scales up to 1/2 of the fin height.

Weakfish are part of the drum family and noted for the drumming sound they make by rapidly contracting their abdominal muscles against an air bladder that resonates and produces a drumming sound that anglers can hear. This sound is increased during spawning time.

Similar Fish:    Spotted sea trout, spot and croaker. All of these similar fish are also known for the drumming sound the male makes. When the croaker is removed from the water it makes a sound somewhat like that of a grunt.

Where Found:   The weakfish are found from Florida to Nova scotia especially from North Carolina through Long Island. They find their meals near eelgrass beds. The adult weakfish (two years of age) migrate into the lower Chesapeake Bay in the spring. The weakfish migrate in schools sometimes in the thousands.

In the fall the adults begin to migrate south to the continental shelf from the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout. The weakfish winter in North Carolina and as the waters begin to warm they start migrating to bays, estuaries and close to the shore sounds. It is interesting to note that during the summer, weakfish seem to travel in schools of the same sex. The weakfish can be found at a depth range as deep as 78 ft.

Size:    The weakfish will reach maturity by the age of two years. Females north of the Delaware Bay will be mature at ten inches and the males at nine inches. Further south, both sexes will reach maturity when they reach seven inches. Weakfish can grow as long as of 30 inches and weigh as much as 12 pounds. These large fish known as "tide runners" and are uncommon.
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State Record:    17 lbs 8 oz's. by angler A. Weisbecker Jr., on September 30, 1944 with a rod and reel on the coast of New Jersey.

World Record:   19 lbs. 2 ounces, 1984 in New York

Bait used:    Weakfish will anxiously bite on various kinds of bait, especially on shedder crabs, clams, shrimp, and mummichogs or other small fish. The weakfish are often caught on artificial lures of one kind or another, and the commonly used jig-baited bucktail.

Tactics to catch:    While commercial fisheries catch weakfish with pound nets, gill nets and haul seines the recreational angler will troll bucktail in the spring and bottom fish with hooks in the summer and fall. On open coasts they often feed on bottom right in the surf. They also feed on bottom in estuarine waters when dieting on bottom-living animals, but in the upper water layers when preying on small fish.

Take time to check your local recreational size and catch limits before you go fishing. Practice catch and release of any fish that you do not intend to eat.

Climate   (water temperature range):    55ºF to 70 ºF

Spawning habits:   From April through August the weakfish seek estuaries (including near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay) with shallow sandy bottom areas with salinity above 20%. The eelgrass beds are necessary nursery areas for juveniles for their food of shrimp, zooplankton, crustaceans (including crabs) and small fish. The eggs are buoyant, spherical, 0.74 to 1.1mm in diameter that has anywhere from one to four oil globules that coalesce into a single as the development progresses. The incubation lasts 36 to 40 hours at temperatures of 68° -70° F. The newly hatched larvae are 1.75 mm long and when they are 4 1/2 to 5 inches they begin to travel toward water with a higher salt content. The young fish grow really fast but do not have adult coloration until they are 7-8 inches long.

The large female weakfish has a very impressive reproductive life. The can produce as many as 500,000 eggs per batch as often as every other day and since they can live to be 17-years-old having been sexually mature at 1-year-old, this could be why the weakfish population has been able to tolerate the heavy pressures of fishing without being added to the endangered list. The age of the weakfish is determined by counting the growth rings on their ear bones (otoliths).

Table food?    The finely textured flesh of the weakfish is a sweet, low in fat, lean and white to pinkish meat. It is mouth-watering whether it is fried, baked or broiled. The flavor is mildly sweet with edible skin It is important to keep the fish iced from capture to fire or it will loose that wonderful flavor.

Consumption Concerns:   There is a consumption advisory due to PCBs.

Feeding habits:    Weakfish mainly feed on what is most available, but small menhaden are most likely the most important single item. Weakfish feed on a wide variety of animals, including crabs, amphipods, mysid and shrimps, squid, shelled mollusks, and annelid worms, chiefly on smaller fish, such as menhaden, butterfish, herring, scup, anchovies, silversides, and mummichogs (a North American burrowing fish in the killifish family that lives in salt marshes in Atlantic coastal regions and can bury itself in mud when the tide recedes) of which they destroy vast quantities.

The juveniles are more dependent on shrimp and on other small crustaceans than the adults, whereas the adult weakfish usually depend on fish, but once in a while they have been found feeding only on crabs and shrimp.

Remarks:    The name weakfish doesn't mean this fish is a weak swimmer, to the contrary they are powerful swimmers and terrific fighters when hooked.    The name weakfish refers to their soft mouth which allows the hook to tear out easily.

It is interesting to realize that U.S. East Coast is home to the weakfish and although the Chesapeake Bay is home to huge numbers of weakfish, Delaware has named the weakfish as it's state fish and Fortescue, on the Delaware Bay in New Jersey, calls itself the "Weakfish Capital of the World" There is a much larger "weakfish" in Brazil that grows to a length of 43 inches and weighs as much as 29 pounds. The weakfish is definitely a fish worthy to lay claim on.

References:
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/weakfish.cfm
http://www.yankee3.com/Fish/Weakfish.html
http://myfwc.com/marine/FishID/drumweak.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakfish
http://www.ocean.udel.edu/mas/seafood/seatrout.html
http://oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=fishpage&fish=104
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/fbi/age-man/weak/weak.htm
http://www.odu.edu/sci/cqfe/species%20studied/weakfish/weakfish.htm
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=406
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/education/weakfish/weakfish.html
http://www.gma.org/fogm/Cynoscion_regalis.htm
http://research.myfwc.com/gallery/image_details.asp?id=13272
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/weakfish.asp
http://www.gortons.com/cookbook/gl_we_wo.php
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/gloucester/weakfish.htm
Picture by Diane Rome Peebles

Weakfish Cynoscion regalis "AKA Sea trout, Gray trout, Saltwater trout, corvia and Squeteague "

Weakfish
Cynoscion regalis
"AKA Sea trout, Gray trout, Saltwater trout, corvia and Squeteague "