The origin of its name is based on the weakness of the mouth muscles, which often cause a hook to tear free, allowing the fish to escape.

It is found along the eastern coast of North America from Nova Scotia, Canada to northern Florida, where it is fished both commercially and recreationally.

[6] Cynoscion regalis stocks have been generally low in recent years due to fishing and natural mortality increasing.

Cynoscion regalis is a salt-water fish native to the mid Atlantic region of the east coast of the United States.

Cynoscion regalis preys on a wide variety of species, including, small schooling fish like anchovies and Atlantic Menhaden, assorted crabs, shrimp, mollusks, and even large zooplankton.

Some examples of fish that prey on weakfish include the bluefish, the striped bass, and the dusky shark (Chesapeake).

Once these fish grow large enough in these areas, they begin to migrate back to the saltier waters to which they were spawned.

They stay in these intertidal bay zone until winter, then join the schooling fish towards deeper offshore waters.

This is because the male's sonic muscles, which are used to produce 'drumming' and 'croaking' sounds, increases three times its usual mass during spawning season" (Gillum).

This study shows that weakfish make use of their drum sound more frequently during the mating season, suggesting that it is used as a process for males to attract females.

Cynoscion regalis are schooling fish, meaning that they spend a large majority of their time swimming together either trying to evade larger predators, or trying to feed more efficiently on prey.

They are very shy and prey selective; making them a harder fish to target recreationally, this provides a good challenge for anglers.