Based on four bottom trawl surveys conducted in the Bohai Sea from August 2009 to May 2011, 2979 stomach samples of small yellow croaker with body lengths of 38-218 mm were collected. Stomach contents analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis test and the cluster analysis were used to study their feeding habits and ontogenetic, temporal and spatial variations. The results indicated that small yellow croaker fed on more than 40 prey species. Euphausia pacifica, were the dominant prey item. With the increase of fish size, there is a corresponding change in the feeding strategy of the Bohai Sea small yellow croaker. According to the feeding intensity, as indicated by the percentage of empty stomachs (PES) and mean stomach fullness index (MSFI), MSFI was low at the smaller fish size, resulting in the small yellow croaker increasing the feeding intensity as observed by the low PES. With the increase of fish size, the feeding intensity was enhanced by increasing MSFI. According to the prey items, the mean number of prey per fish decreased significantly with the increased fish size, while the mean weight of prey items per fish increased. According to diet compositions, the feeding habits of small yellow croaker had significant ontogenetic variations. Small yellow croaker less than 60 mm in body length mainly fed on the zooplanktivores copepoda, euphausiacea and mysidacea. At 60-99 mm long, it mainly fed on demersal shrimps and copepoda. The frequency of demersal shrimps in the food increased gradually with the increasing fish size, whereas the frequency of copepod decreased. Thus, fish with a 60-99 mm body length belonged to the generalist predators group. At 100-119 mm long, it belonged to shrimp predators group, mainly feeding on demersal shrimps at a frequency of more than 60%, and fish. It still mainly fed on demersal shrimps and fish at greater than 120 mm in body length with the frequency of fish in the food increasing gradually, and ultimately more than the frequency of demersal shrimps (beyond 60%). Thus, fish greater than 120 mm long included shrimp/fish predators and piscivores. The feeding intensity varied significantly across seasons. The feeding intensity of spring was lowest and the feeding intensity of summer and autumn were higher. The difference in the feeding rate was higher (PES was lower) in summer and the feeding amount (MSFI) was higher in autumn. Seasonal variations were also discovered in diet composition. were the dominant preys in spring, were the dominant preys in summer, whereas was the dominant prey in autumn. By analyzing historical data, we found that the feeding habits of small yellow croaker in the Bohai Sea were closely related to the composition and abundance of dominant prey organisms. The temporal and spatial variations in the feeding habits of small yellow croaker is closely related to the fluctuation of dominant prey species in the environment.