is a dominant species in the fish assemblage of the Yellow River estuary and adjacent waters and is important in the estuarine ecosystem and the local fishery. Sustainable exploitation and fishery management of this species requires knowledge of its spatiotemporal distribution and the influencing environmental factors. Bottom trawl surveys were conducted and environmental factors including sea bottom temperature (SBT), sea bottom salinity (SBS), and depth were concurrently measured in June, August, and October of 2013 and in February, April, and May of 2014. A generalized additive model (GAM) was used to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of distribution of and the relationship between its abundance and spatiotemporal variation in environmental factors. was found to mainly inhabit waters north of 37.80°N and west of 119.00°E. The spatial distribution of differed distinctly among months. In June, August, and October of 2013, the goby was mainly distributed in inshore areas of the Yellow River estuary, while abundance was higher in offshore waters in February 2014.The average abundance as catch per haul per hour varied monthly. At 862 g/h, abundance was highest in August, followed by June with 521 g/h, and abundance was lowest in May. The environmental variables explained 34.8% of the variation in abundance of , and sea bottom temperature and salinity significantly influenced the spatiotemporal distribution. GAM indicated that the abundance of was high when bottom temperature was 17–22; thus temperature was a major factor driving patterns of distribution and abundance of . Abundance was highest in areas with salinity of 18–27 ppt where marine and fresh waters mixed. Abundances were low in offshore waters with high salinity and in low salinity estuarine waters. The abundance of was not correlated with depth, likely because of the relatively shallow waters in the Yellow River estuary and the limited survey region. Water temperature and salinity in the Yellow River estuary showed large spatiotemporal variation, and appeared well adapted to the environmental variation.