Fish Identification Photos: Yelloweye Croaker, Yellow Eye Drum, Odontoscion xanthops: The Yelloweye Croaker is characterized by its overall brown color with silver reflections, large eye, and large mouth with a projecting lower jaw.

The Yelloweye Croaker has narrow stripes on its sides that are oblique above the lateral line. The edges of the gill covers are smooth.

The anal and pelvic fins are black. The Yelloweye Croaker is very similar in size and shape to the California Salema, Xenistius californiensis (overall silver appearance, a deeply notched dorsal fin, and 6 to 7 orange-brown stripes along the sides).

The Yelloweye Croaker is a member of the Sciaenidae or Croaker or Drum Family caught out of the surf. The Yelloweye Croaker is only found in Mexican waters along the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula south of Magdalena Bay, in the lower two-thirds of the Sea of Cortez, and along the coast of mainland Mexico through to Guatemala.

It occurs in bottom dwelling schools in the first 100 feet of the water column and often in the surge zone within the trough. Yelloweye Croakers are reported to reach 11 inches in length and are under a pound in weight.

It is caught primarily on cut bait (clams, squid, mullet, etc.) with small hooks and bottom rigs. It is viewed by locals to be an insignificant catch and is too small to be of interest.

Yelloweye Croaker, Odontoscion xanthops: Caught from shore during the last hour of daylight, in 78-degree water, in November 2003, utilizing a 15-pound test with a fish finder rig (main line, 1.0-ounce barrel sinker, swivel, and Mustad 92553 hook, size #4), on cut squid at Km. 20 (Cabo Real) between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur., Mexico. Size approximately 6 inches and was “scrappy.” Description and photo courtesy John Snow.