White croaker (''Genyonemus lineatus'') is a species of croaker occurring in the Eastern Pacific. White croakers have been taken from

Magdalena Bay Magdalena Bay ( es, Bahía Magdalena) is a long bay in Comondú Municipality along the western coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. It is protected from the Pacific Ocean by the unpopulated sandy barrier islands of Isla Magdalen ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, to

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, but are not abundant north of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. White croakers swim in loose schools at or near the bottom of sandy areas. Sometimes they aggregate in the surf zone or in shallow

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

s and

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

s. Most of the time they are found in offshore areas at depths of . On rare occasions they are fairly abundant at depths as great as . The white croaker is the only species of in the genus ''Genyonemus''. Other common names for the fish include Pasadena trout, tommy croaker, and little bass.

Description

The body of the white croaker is elongate and somewhat compressed. The head is oblong and bluntly rounded, with a mouth that is somewhat underneath the head. The color is incandescent brownish to yellowish on the back becoming silvery below. The fins are yellow to white. The white croaker is one of five California croakers that have mouths located under their heads ( subterminal). They can be distinguished from the

California corbina The California corbina (''Menticirrhus undulatus'') is marine demersal fish in the croaker family. It can often be found along sandy beaches and in shallow bays. This species travels in small groups along the surf zone in a few inches of water ...

and

yellowfin croaker The yellowfin croaker (''Umbrina roncador'') is a species of croaker occurring from the Gulf of California, Mexico, to Point Conception, California. They frequent bays, channels, harbors and other nearshore waters over sandy bottoms. These croak ...

by the absence of a single fleshy projection, or

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

, at the tip of the lower jaw. The 12 to 15 spines in the first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

serve to distinguish white croakers from all the other croakers with sub-terminal mouths, since none of these has more than 11 spines in this fin. White croakers eat a variety of fishes,

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

s, small

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two she ...

s and other items, either living or dead. While the ages of white croakers have not been determined conclusively, it is thought that some live as long as 15 or more years. Some

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: Ar ...

for the first time when they are between 2 and 3 years old. At this age they are only long and weigh less than . Also have barbels on the lower lip. The largest recorded specimen was , no weight recorded; however, a white croaker weighed 640 grams (1 lb 6½ oz).

Fishing information

These fish can be caught on almost any kind of animal bait that is fished from

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

s or jetties in sandy or sandy mud areas. In fact, they are so easily hooked that most anglers consider them a nuisance of the worst sort. If a person desires to fish specifically for white croakers a tough, difficult-to-steal bait, such as

, is recommended. When hooked, they put up little or no fight. Fishing and catching is good throughout the year.

Cuisine

White croaker meat has been used as a co-ingredient in creating

Crab stick Crab sticks, krab sticks, imitation crab (meat), or seafood sticks (originally known as ''kanikama'' in Japan) are a type of seafood made of starch and finely pulverized white fish ('' surimi'') that has been shaped and cured to resemble the l ...

References

*Much of this article is copied fro
California Marine Sportfish
by the California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Region; a public domain resource

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q692905 Sciaenidae Western North American coastal fauna Fish described in 1855