A squat, scaleless, mottled brown ambush fish with a huge flat head, a projecting lower jaw, fleshy
tabs on the chin and tentacles over the eyes. The Florida Museum gives a maximum of about 12.8 inches.
It lives in seagrass, sand and rock in bays and lagoons, buries itself or hides in weed, and eats
gobies, shrimp, crabs, worms and molluscs. Males nest in shells and sponges in February and March,
calling for females with toad-like grunts for as long as fifteen minutes at a stretch and a short
high-pitched note likened to a boat whistle, then guard and fan the eggs. In the UTRGV survey the gulf
toadfish turned up in every quarter at Holly Beach — one of the lagoon's genuinely resident fish.
Source-backed field notes
- Other 'less common' species with Lower Laguna Madre water-body records include great barracuda (1.08 lb, 16.00 in, Dec 22 2002), houndfish (2.69 lb, 37.50 in, Jul 9 2005), Atlantic needlefish (1.25 lb, 29.75 in, Jun 1 2015), gulf toadfish (0.95 lb, Oct 12 2018), southern stargazer (1.39 lb, Sep 26 1992), Atlantic midshipman (3.50 lb, Nov 1 1999), bigmouth sleeper (1.88 lb, Aug 18 1996) and mojarra (0.88 lb, Aug 1 1981). (All-Tackle Records for Lower Laguna Madre — TPWD)
Observe responsibly
Wildlife, tides and access conditions change. Keep a respectful distance, do not feed wildlife, stay out of dunes and marked nesting areas, and use current official rules before fishing or handling any catch.