Cut & Retie podcast episode this week: https://sites.libsyn.com/441516/ep-164-the-unsinkable-speckled-urine-bag

“We get the gray trout/weakfish (whatever) rarely do you get any size. Normally they’re in a massive school on top of, you know, a wreck or a rock pile or something, kind of early fall/late summer, and rarely do they get > 10 in. Last year I caught a couple that were like in that 20 in. range and that was awesome, that was like a nice bonus there, but I’ve always seen those photos of the massive ones and I’m really jealous, especially now that I’m so into the speckled trout thing. Seeing a weakfish that’s that big makes me like…I’ve gotta do that.” – Kevin Patrick Hughes (13:09)

Joe Cermele talking about a fish he took in Atlantic City

“The weakfish tended to be northern and yea dude back before stripers came back as a kid, that is what I targeted all summer long and it’s the same tactics as used for speckled seatrout: finesse fish, flukes, rattle traps and all that stuff…but yeah that was my jam for years…the biggest weakfish I ever caught in my life was 32.5 in. just a dinosaur on a white Mister Twister grub on monofilament at the end of the dock where my dad kept his boat when I was a kid.” (14:17)

“But at the time I was like, ‘there are so many of these big weakfish around, it’s OK, I’ll catch another one.’ And then they just went away to the point where like they’re not factored in as one of the common fish: everybody listening to this knows what a flounder is, knows what a tuna is, knows what a striped bass is; weakfish fell off so hard that now you say that to some people and they’re like ‘a what?’ like they don’t even know what that is, but it was such a standard thing throughout the northeast for so long.” (16:46)

“All of this to say that like now I joke about catching them off the end of the dock at noon you know, sunny day no idea what the tide was, boat traffic and jet skis whizzing around all over…but now, if you really want to catch a weakfish that big, that is like a vision quest, you have to be all in and as hardcore as possible…I grew up with those fish and have always loved them…” (17:31)

Kevin’s reflections on weakfish

“The thing that draws you to them is the inability to ever truly dial them in that way, that’s like, with trout….the guys who really are good at getting the big ones, there are so many factors, yes the lures are fun, and it’s cool…but ultimately the thing that matters is being in the right spot at the right time when they want to eat, where the right fish are…”(15:30)

“Yeah I mean in fairness I didn’t really understand, I knew of them but I had no clue about the size or fishery that was there; seeing the photos of big ones from the past is like sorta the first time I ever knew about them.” (17:14)

Joe on weakfish…

“We talked about weakfish, same kinda deal…stripers, for the most part, we love to glorify those fish…weakfish always took a lot more calculation. Like, as an example, moon phase I think matters more than it does with flounder. They’re a lot more finnicky, mysterious, they light switch more…I’ve never had a weakfish bite that was like all day; it’s always ‘this time for a half hour’ and then not again until that same tide cycle occurs.” (54:10)

“I actually caught not a lot, 2 weakfish this year myself in the New England surf, which is more than I catch in 5 years combined unfortunately most years, but there’s been a lot of weakfish in southern New England late summer. How has the New Jersey weakfish bite been this year?” – Toby Lapinski (8:04)

“Poor, exceptionally poor; I didn’t see 1 and back in the…70s-90s, I would catch 200-300 a season on a fly rod up to 11 lb. This year [2025] I heard of 1 caught. I saw the picture of it but physically I didn’t see any taken at all and…I do a lot of fluke fishing in the summer…in the spring we’re using bucktails and…soft baits and you would catch them by accident but this year almost nonexistent from what I’m hearing…I’m hoping it’s cyclical. Growing up, I think the 1st ones I started catching were in the late ’60s and it peaked in the ’80s-’90s and then they kinda disappeared. The regulations were really bad on it. Back then, it was 14 fish at 14 in. which was a bad regulation…now we’re down to 1…that’s almost like a moratorium, that 1 fish, because they’re almost not around, and really nobody’s really trying to target them. You would only catch them by accident right now.” – ShellE Caris (8:23)

“Yeah I was just wondering because just in general, it’s generally better… [for] weakfish down in your area on an average season of late. Maybe, hopefully the body of them just moved up here and they’re doing a little better than we think?” – Toby (9:40)

“Hopefully it will be a good spawn, but…also the netters, not to pick on a commercial fishery but they’re a vulnerable fish, and when they leave the back bays, they school up in these gigantic schools and the netters just wipe them out. So, that happened back then. I think that’s another factor for the decline.” – ShellE (9:51)

It has been an honor to come onboard for the technical/stock assessment subcommittee for weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) which is currently managed by NJ at the genus level, but may be separated out to species giving spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) its own independent regulation. I’m also serving as the NJ representative for the latter, though we are currently in de minimis status and thus are not required to take action for this species.