UTER
Photo: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Stenotomus chrysops · also porgy
How to catch Scup
Scup feed in 50–78°F water and bite best at 58–72°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 4 waters; in October they are at their peak in Long Island & the Sound.
5 pts · trophy at 16"Feeds 50–78°FBest 58–72°FIn season nowArtificial reefWreckLedge / hard bottomFishing pierDock / pilingsChannel edge
About
The Northeast porgy: a silver, hump-backed pan fish that fills the rock piles, piers and wrecks from New Jersey to Cape Cod all summer. Kids catch them by the bucket; a 'hubcap' scup is a real fish.
How to fish it
A hi-lo rig with small hooks and clam or squid, tight to the bottom on the rocks or off the pier; when they're there they're there by the hundred.
What it eats
clamsquid stripssandworms
Live bait for it
SquidStrips on a bottom rig for snapper, grunts and porgies; whole on a deep-drop rig.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.
What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader30–60 lb fluorocarbon
Hook2/0–7/0
Braid30–65 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereRules differ by state — check NYSDEC before you keep one.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Mid & North Atlantic