Spot Croaker


Whole Spot Croaker [Spot, Norfolk spot, Virginia spot; Leiostomus xanthurus]

This fish is found mostly in estuarian waters close to the shore, but is also found in salt waters. It ins native to the coasts of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico from Massachusetts all the way down to the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula.

This fish is very important to recreational fishing, but is no longer harvested commercially due to bans on gill nets along the coast. It is a small fish, which can grow to 14 inches, but is commonly 10 inches or smaller. IUCN Red List LC (Least Concern).   Photo from Smithsonian Environmental Research Center distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

More on Croakers and Drums.


Prep & Cooking:

  This is an East Coast fish, so I have no experience with it, but, due to its small size it is almost certainly scaled, cleaned, and pan fried, whole or pan dressed. Otherwise, its characteristics are probably similar to the larger Atlantic Croaker.

sf_spotcroz 220607   -   www.clovegarden.com
©Andrew Grygus - agryg@clovegarden.com - Photos on this page not otherwise credited © cg1 - Linking to and non-commercial use of this page permitted