The northern weakfish’s habitat overlaps that of its close cousin, the spotted or speckled seatrout, throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Less experienced anglers sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between these two cousins. Weakfish and speckled trout, however, are easily told apart by their markings. The spots on a weakfish are numerous, less distinct and close together. They have no large tail spots or second dorsal fins, nor do their scales extend onto their fins.
Depending on where you’re fishing, there may be one wave of migrating weakfish or two distinct pulses. Usually the smaller fish follow the larger ones. In southern New England, shoreline weakfishing begins in May and lasts through June. In the mid-Atlantic, however, the action may start along the beaches in April. During the dog days of July and August, the reefs and rips become your best bet for hooking a bruiser. A fall migration can produce a flurry of action in September; unfortunately, the recent population in the Northeast hasn’t yet been strong enough to support an extensive autumn fishery.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of matching wits with weakfish, think of them as a cross between a bluefish and a striper. They are less fussy than bass and like bluefish are attracted to big, bright lures and flies. But, they are not built for sustained, open-water attacks on baitfish pods; you’ll never see a school of them blitzing bait a half-mile off the beach. Like stripers, they favor inshore structure where they can ambush prey.
Weakfish have a varied diet that consists of crustaceans and fishes. Their choice of forage depends upon the size of the weakfish and the relative abundance of different forage species where they feed. Like most drums, they’re highly adaptable, and will feed at any depth. Smaller weakfish prefer the shallows where they eat grass shrimp, crabs, mollusks and other crustaceans. They also devour baitfish like silversides, sand eels, mummichogs and peanut bunker. Large weakfish frequent beaches, but when the water gets warm they usually retreat to nearshore reefs and ledges where they gobble squid, butterfish, adult menhaden, herring and mantis shrimp.
Recreational and Commercial Land
Weakfish are highly sought by commercial and recreational fishermen and have supported professional fisheries along the Atlantic coast since at least the 1800s. According to the ASMFC, commercial landings fluctuated without trend from about 1950 to the late 1960s and ranged from three to nine million pounds. The early 1970s were a time of large growth in the commercial fishery, and in 1980 landings peaked at an amazing 36 million pounds. The commercial catch then spiraled downward during the 1980s and fell to a low of six million pounds in 1994. Since then, the fishery has maintained itself at around seven to eight million pounds, largely in response to harvest restrictions under the Commission’s plan.
The ASMFC notes that recreational catch history has reflected the commercial harvest, with the take peaking at 16 million pounds in 1980 and dropping to a low of one million pounds in 1990. Over the last 14 years, the sportsmen’s share fluctuated between one and two million pounds due to harvest restrictions. The breakdown of the recreational share shows private boats taking 80 percent of the catch with another 15 percent coming from charter and party boats. Shore fishermen account for the last five percent of our weakfish total.
In 2002, the ASMFC approved Amendment 4 to the fishery management plan for northern weakfish. This means new regulations for recreational anglers along the East Coast. Before heading out check your local regs at a tackle shop or at the ASMFC at (202) 289-6400 or www.asmfc.org. —T.M.
Although weakfish are willing feeders, finding them is the challenge. They like shallow, sandy areas that are broken up with vegetation, rocks, pilings or similar structure. The best flats have a channel nearby. If you find a beach beyond an estuary mouth that has eelgrass patches and a dropoff, you’ve just located great weakfish habitat. Like bass, weakfish, especially large ones, are light sensitive and will ghost from the shallows to deeper waters during bright, midday hours. So plan your beach forays around first and last light or at dark. A high, ebbing tide further increases your odds of success because it flushes forage from the estuaries.
Weakfish love long, flashy flies, especially those with flowing materials that can be retrieved with a jigging or twitching motion. Try tying patterns with trailing marabou, rabbit strips, bucktail or hackles. Shrimp and crab patterns are also effective along beaches and eelgrass beds, but tie in a mono weed guard for the grass.
Sometimes weakfish whack a fly and run like a striper; at other times they’ll inhale your offering and swim toward you. Therefore, don’t hesitate to strike when you feel any sudden change in line pressure. It may be just grass, or it could be that trophy tiderunner getting ready to boogie down the beach.
Ideal shallow-water tackle for weakies consists of a 7- or 8-weight outfit with intermediate-sinking line, which will provide plenty of fun on smaller fish. The light rod helps you land more fish because hooks tear easily from their delicate mouth tissue. When working deep channels, rips and reefs a 9-weight with fast-sinking line is needed to throw bigger, heavier flies, and to turn a tiderunner heading for the rocks. Plus there’s always a good chance of hooking a striped bass or slammer blue, which I consider a bonus. But if you find lots of bluefish nailing your flies it’s time to find another spot. Schools of ferocious blues will chase away the less-competitive weakfish.
Grass shrimp flies appeal to smaller fish.
Although weakfish have a couple of large canine teeth, wire bite tippet isn’t necessary. I always use fluorocarbon leader material for these keen-eyed fish. For smaller weakfish in the shallows, go with 12- to 15-pound line but jump to 20- to 25-pound when fishing rock-studded reefs.
Another effective fly-fishing technique is to sink a big bunker, butterfish or herring pattern beneath menhaden schools. But blues eat weakfish, and if blues are blitzing a bunker school you should hang back and wait for the blitz to pass. That’s when weakfish leave the rips and reefs to scavenge the leftovers near the bottom. It was near one of those types of reefs that Al and I found our trophy weakfish that hot July day. It was the first of four tiderunners we dredged up on that sultry afternoon ranging from about 11 to 14 pounds. After 20 years, we learned trout really are back in town.
