Weakfish

Weakfish are slim, elegant drums with an iridescent olive-green back shading to purple, bronze and silver flanks spattered with small dark spots, yellow fins and a pair of large canine teeth. The name comes from the soft, easily torn membrane of the mouth, not from any lack of fight. They range from Nova Scotia to Florida but are a sportfish chiefly from Massachusetts to North Carolina, with Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, Raritan Bay and Long Island's Peconic Bay the historic strongholds. Most fish today run 1–4 lb and 14–22 in; the 10 lb-plus tiderunners of the 1980s boom are rare now, and the stock remains depleted, so most states allow only one fish per angler.

Weakfish move inshore in April and May as water warms past 55°F (13°C) to spawn in bays and sounds, feeding on shrimp, sand eels, spearing, squid and crabs over sand and mud bottoms along channel edges and bridge shadows. They bite best at dusk, after dark and on the first light of dawn, often holding in 10–30 ft of moving water. Summer fish spread along the beaches and in the surf, and a fall run in September and October pushes them back out. Anglers prize them for the delicate take, the subtle fight on light tackle and their beauty, and release most to help the stock recover.