Photo: NOAA's Fisheries Collection; Collection of Brandi Noble, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Leiostomus xanthurus

How to catch Spot

Spot feed in 56–86°F water and bite best at 62–80°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 6 waters; in October they are at their peak in The Golden Isles, The Lowcountry, The Southern Outer Banks & Cape Fear and 2 more.

3 pts · trophy at 11"Feeds 56–86°FBest 62–80°FIn season nowChannel edgeFishing pierBridgeBeach / surf

About

A small drum with a spot on its shoulder, in the fall runs off the piers and in the channels of North Florida, caught by the dozen on bloodworms and shrimp. Sweet, small, and fried whole.

How to fish it

A two-hook bottom rig with tiny hooks and shrimp bits off the pier or in the channel in the fall.

What it eats

bloodwormsshrimp bitsFishbites

Live bait for it

Live shrimpUnder a popping cork or free-lined, hooked under the horn on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook; on a jig head for the bottom. The universal inshore bait.

Sand fleas (mole crabs)On a small circle hook or a pompano rig, digger-end first — the pompano and whiting bait.

BloodwormsA piece threaded on a #2 to 2/0 hook on a hi-lo or fish-finder rig — the striper, spot, croaker and white perch bait of the Chesapeake and the surf.