Speckled trout facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Speckled trout |
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The Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) is a popular fish found along the coasts of the southern United States. You might also hear it called the speckled trout. These fish live in shallow, grassy areas near the coast, like estuaries, but they can also be found in deeper ocean waters or even up coastal rivers.
Even though it's called a "trout," the Spotted Seatrout is actually part of the drum family, not the trout family. It's a very popular fish for both commercial fishing (where people catch fish to sell) and recreational fishing (where people fish for fun). Adult Spotted Seatrout can grow to be about 19 to 37 inches long and weigh between 3 and 17 pounds.
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Where Spotted Seatrout Live
Spotted Seatrout mostly live near the surface of the water. They are most common along the coasts of states like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. You can also find them along the coasts of North and South Carolina and Virginia.
These fish love areas where rivers meet the sea, called estuaries. They don't usually go too far north, like past Delaware Bay. Spotted Seatrout prefer water temperatures between 59°F and 86°F. They also like water that isn't too salty or too fresh, usually with a saltiness level between 5 and 35 parts per thousand.
Seasonal Movements
When winter comes and the water gets colder, Spotted Seatrout move away from the coast into deeper ocean waters. But when spring and summer arrive, they return to the warmer estuaries and coastal areas to live and reproduce.
What Spotted Seatrout Look Like
The Spotted Seatrout has many nicknames, like "speck," "speckles," or even "gator trout" for really big ones. In Louisiana, some people call it truite gris, which means "gray trout" in French.
This fish has sharp, pointed teeth, almost like a dog's! It has a long, soft fin on its back that's separated from a spiny fin by a deep dip. Its back and fins are covered in distinct spots, which is how it got its name. Unlike some other fish in its family, the Spotted Seatrout doesn't have any whiskers (called barbels) under its chin. If the water is a bit murky, the fish might look golden in color.
Most Spotted Seatrout weigh about 1 to 2 pounds. However, it's common to find fish up to 5.5 pounds in many areas. It's rare to catch one weighing 7.7 to 9.9 pounds. The biggest Spotted Seatrout ever caught weighed about 17.4 pounds!
What Do Spotted Seatrout Eat?
When Spotted Seatrout are small, they mostly eat shrimp and other small creatures with hard shells, like crabs. As they grow bigger, their diet changes. They start to eat more fish, and the bigger the fish, the better!
Studies have shown that very large Spotted Seatrout really love to eat mullet. A big trout will try to swallow the largest mullet it can find, sometimes even one that's half or two-thirds its own size!
Life Cycle and Reproduction
Like all fish in the drum family, male Spotted Seatrout make a special "drumming" sound during their breeding season. This sound helps them attract females. They have a long breeding season that lasts from spring all the way through summer.
Baby seatrout are very tiny when they first hatch. They grow quickly, reaching about 5–7 millimeters (about a quarter-inch) in length after two weeks. By about seven months, they can be 170–200 millimeters (about 7-8 inches) long.
It takes about one to two years for a Spotted Seatrout to reach 12 inches in length, and two to three years to reach 16 inches. Most Spotted Seatrout caught are around four or five years old, but some rare ones have been known to live up to 12 years!
By the time they are about 10 inches long (around one year old), about half of the Spotted Seatrout are old enough to reproduce. They usually lay their eggs in shallow, grassy parts of estuaries.
Fishing for Spotted Seatrout
Spotted Seatrout are caught by both commercial fishermen (who sell their catch) and recreational fishermen (who fish for fun). However, most of the Spotted Seatrout caught are by recreational anglers. People almost always catch them with a hook and line, because many places have made it illegal to catch them with large nets called gillnets.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that Spotted Seatrout are one of the top ten most popular fish for recreational fishing in the United States. For example, between 1993 and 2003, people fishing for fun in Louisiana caught over 6 million Spotted Seatrout every year! Along the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia, recreational fishermen caught more than half a million speckled trout each year between 2005 and 2008.
Because these fish reproduce so well, they are considered a "best choice" for sustainable seafood by the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program in places like Louisiana and Florida. This means there are enough of them in the wild for people to keep catching them without harming their population.
How Spotted Seatrout Are Managed
To help keep the Spotted Seatrout population healthy, there are rules about how many fish you can catch and how big they need to be. Scientists are also working to gather more information about the overall health and number of these fish in the ocean.
Images for kids
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This graph shows how the weight of a Spotted Seatrout increases as it gets longer.
