Spot Croaker
Spot Croaker (Leiostomus xanthurus) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: a prominent round dark shoulder blotch just behind the upper edge of the gill cover. The look-alike to rule out is Atlantic Croaker: croaker carry several pairs of small chin barbels and no distinct shoulder blotch.
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| Scientific name | Leiostomus xanthurus |
|---|---|
| Also called | spot, Norfolk spot, flat croaker |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Drum |
| Temperature | Feeds between about 60 and 80 °F. |
How to identify a Spot Croaker
- A prominent round dark shoulder blotch just behind the upper edge of the gill cover.
- No chin barbels at all, which separates it from every true croaker.
- Twelve to fifteen faint dark oblique bars running down and back across a brassy silver flank, and a forked tail.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Croaker | Croaker carry several pairs of small chin barbels and no distinct shoulder blotch. |
| Pinfish | Pinfish also have a shoulder spot but carry sharp dorsal spines, gold horizontal stripes and a much smaller, deeper body. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Read the full entry for Atlantic Croaker and Pinfish.
Where it lives
Atlantic and Gulf estuaries, piers, surf and sounds from the mid-Atlantic to Texas. Feeds over soft bottom in large schools, moving offshore in autumn.
Temperature
Feeds between about 60 and 80 °F.
The conditions that matter
Spot are a schooling bottom feeder and one of the most dependable fish on a pier, biting through turbid water and moving tide when nothing else will. The autumn run down the beach, when they school up to move offshore, is triggered by falling water temperature and is the best of the year.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about spot croaker into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.