Since 1995, landings of Atlantic Thread Herring ( Opisthonema oglinum ) on the Florida Panhandle averaged 124 mt each spring (April–June) but declined to nearly zero in 1996–97 and 2006. To elucidate causes of recurring periods of low landings, we used generalized additive mixed models ( GAMM s) to examine the relationship between Atlantic Thread Herring catch in a trawl survey on the west‐central coast of Florida and four env...