When it comes to sharks, anglers just can’t seem to get enough of ’em. Somewhere between 400 and 500 different species of shark swim in our oceans, in depths from mere inches, over shallow flats, to thousands of feet; from the hottest equatorial seas to freezing waters over the poles. Some never grow to a foot in length, while some man-eaters exceed 20 feet.

This gallery offers a look at 15 shark species important to sport fishermen — most of them likely to be encountered and/or targeted. Some are wild on the hook — offering a performance as exciting as any species of game fish in the world. Many are unspectacular but dogged fighters. But no matter how they fight, bringing a big one boatside offers one of fishing’s more dramatic moments.

I’ve included the all-tackle world record for each species. Some species are part of the International Game Fish Association’s line-class-record system.

BLACKTIP AND SPINNER SHARKS

• Blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) world record: 270 pounds, 9 ounces, 8 feet long (Kenya, 1984)
• Spinner (Carcharhinus brevipinna) world record: 208 pounds, 9 ounces (Texas, 2009)

Blacktip sharks and the closely related, very similar spinner shark, are among the most widespread and cosmopolitan of “sporting” sharks, found in all the world’s temperate and tropical waters and ranging from flats they share with bonefish to deeper offshore waters. These active and agile predators are popular with anglers who at times catch them casting topwater lures and flies and enjoy their spirited fight and, often, their repeated leaps. These species are responsible for most of the annual shark bites reported by Florida beach-goers when they follow mullet runs into the murky waters near shore, and the flash of an arm or foot may attract their attention.

BLUE SHARK

• Blue (Prionace glauca) world record: 528 pounds — 10 feet long (New York, 2001)

The long, slender and aptly named blue shark is nowhere a stranger, being circum-global in tropical and temperate waters. The wide-ranging sharks of offshore waters can be a nuisance. Their fight is less than spectacular, though bringing a big one to the boat can get exciting. Arguably one of the least-desirable sharks for eating. While attacks on humans are rare, blues are in the “potentially dangerous” category.

BONNETHEAD SHARK

• Bonnethead (Sphyrna tiburo) world record: 32 pounds — 3½ feet long (Florida, 2013)

In essence a small, inshore hammerhead, the bonnethead prefers estuaries, flats and bays in tropical and temperate waters of the New World, along both western Atlantic and eastern Pacific coasts of North and South America. Flats anglers can sight-cast to them as they search the sand with zigzag turns looking for anything edible. Agile little bonnetheads will hit lures and flies, and offer great light-tackle sport.

BULL SHARK

• Bull (Carcharhinus leucas) world record: 697 pounds, 12 ounces — 8½ feet long (Kenya, 2001)

Unquestionably one of the most dangerous of the world’s sharks, the bull is also one of the most ubiquitous: Anywhere in the world there’s a tropical or temperate coastline, there are bull sharks. Bulls move freely far up rivers and into lakes. The thick-bodied, powerful sharks when hooked offer a reasonably stubborn but unspectacular fight (though the release might be lively).

GREENLAND SHARK

• Greenland (Somniosus microcephalus) world record: 1,708 pounds, 9 ounces — 13-plus feet long (Norway, 1987)

Unlike other sharks on this list, the Greenland shark is restricted to the far-north reaches of both sides of the Atlantic and up into the most northern Arctic waters. These sharks have been aged up to 392 years; sexual maturity occurs at around 150 years. Very limited sport fisheries in fjords, sometimes through the ice, have offered a handful of anglers the unique chance to land one of these monsters, which they do more for the novelty than any sort of real fight. Given this species’ habitat, humans are safe from Greenland sharks.

GREAT HAMMERHEAD SHARK

• Great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) world record: 1,280 pounds — 11 ½ feet long (Florida, 2006)

Anglers may catch any of several hammerhead species besides the great hammerhead including the smooth and scalloped varieties, but S. mokarran is the largest. It roams the world’s oceans, ranging from shallow nearshore waters to offshore. Attacks on people are exceedingly rare. A fair opponent when hooked, though studies have shown that hammerheads are particularly prone to mortality when released, even if they appear healthy. Note that all three of these hammerhead species are widely illegal to harvest, with the scalloped hammerhead added in 2014 to the federal Endangered Species List.

LEMON SHARK

• Lemon (Negaprion brevirostris) world record: 405 pounds — nearly 8 feet long (North Carolina, 1988)

Widely distributed, lemons prefer shallower coastal waters, and they’re definitely the big dog of the flats. Lemon sharks can be chummed near a skiff in a couple of feet of water on the right tides, and sight-casting to them and hooking up in such clear water is explosive action. Although Lemon attacks on humans are rare, they’re not unheard of. By law, lemons must be released in the waters of most coastal states where they occur.

MAKO SHARK

• Shortfin mako (Isurus paucus ) world record: 1,221 pounds — 11 feet long (Massachusetts, 2001)

Found in most of the world’s temperate and tropical seas, the mako shark is truly one of the ocean’s great game fishes. This fastest of all sharks often goes ballistic when hooked, repeatedly making memorable sky-high somersaulting leaps. They’ve been known to jump into boats, and frequently chomp on outboards’ lower units. Makos will devour live baits but also track down marlin lures trolled at high speeds. Makos are also considered excellent eating. The species certainly has the potential to present a danger to people. The longfin mako, I. paucus, is less common and stays farther offshore.

OCEANIC WHITETIP SHARK

• Oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) world record: 369 pounds — 7 feet (Bahamas, 1998)

Common in tropical, temperate and cool-temperate seas worldwide, the whitetip is one of the requiem sharks; its close relatives include the bull, bronze whaler, dusky, silky and tiger. These open-ocean hunters are fast and aggressive, and many’s the offshore angler who has lost a prize to them. At the same time, when hooked, they’re quick, tough opponents. Whitetips definitely present a danger to humans.

PORBEAGLE SHARK

• Porbeagle (Lamna nasus) world record: 507 pounds — 8 feet long (Scotland, 1993)

Sometimes call “fat makos,” the porbeagle is indeed closely related to and more robust than the mako. They also inhabit cooler waters, in the entire North Atlantic and southern hemisphere. Like the mako, the porbeagle is an outstanding game fish, though far less common, and is also fine eating. A limited targeted sport fishery off the U.K. has resulted in some fine catches in recent years. It is also valued as a food fish. The cool waters that porbeagles inhabit preclude much contact with humans, hence they’re not a likely threat.

SALMON SHARK

• Salmon (Lamna ditropis) world record: 461 pounds, 9 ounces — 7 ½ feet long (Alaska, 2009)

Basically the north Pacific’s version of the north Atlantic porbeagle, the very similar salmon shark is a cold-water version of the mako. Like many large-shark species, the salmon shark is warm-blooded, heating its blood well above ambient water temps. Targeted fisheries are limited, mostly to areas where the sharks follow runs of salmon in close to the coasts of Alaska. Salmon sharks offer exciting, sometimes aerial, action for northern anglers.

THRESHER SHARK

• Thresher (Alopias vulpinis) world record: 767 pounds, 3 ounces — 9 feet long (to fork of tail) (New Zealand, 1983)

The common thresher shark is found in nearly all seas tropical, temperate and cool-temperate around the world. It ranges from bluewater to nearshore shallows in some areas, such as Southern California beaches, seasonally. The long tail is used to herd and stun small fish. Threshers are excellent eating and tough opponents when hooked; they often leap wildly. The less common bigeye thresher (A. superciliosus) may get slightly larger: The world record is 802 pounds from New Zealand in 1981. Threshers are not considered aggressive to humans.

TIGER SHARK

• Tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier) world record: 1,780 pounds, 14 feet (South Carolina, 1964) AND 1,785 pounds, 11 ounces (Australia, 2004)

One of the largest active shark species, tigers sharks inhabit nearshore and even inshore coastal waters worldwide. They’re not a true pelagic, open-ocean species. Tigers of well over 6,000 pounds have been reported. While impressive for their size, tigers are not terribly unpredictable or flashy fighters when hooked. They’re known to ingest just about anything edible and many things not, and they’re widely implicated in many attack on humans.

TOPE SHARK

• Tope (Galeorhinus galeus) world record: 72 pounds, 12 ounces — 5 feet (New Zealand, 1986)

Tope range from shore to deeper ocean waters in all oceans, particularly in temperate and cold waters. As sport fish, these sharks are particularly valued in areas where cool waters preclude a great variety of game fish species, notably the British Isles as well as South Africa and southern Australia. Anglers in these areas target tope for their quite-respectable fighting qualities.

The post Shark Fishing: A Guide to Popular Species appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

For decades, the cobia migration along the Florida Panhandle in the spring brought Chris Wagner, of Fort Walton Beach, the most incredible fishing of his life. “Up in the tower of our Hatteras, the wind at our backs, the sun in my eyes, spotting those fish, that’s what I loved,” he said. “When I saw one, it was like an electrical shock went through my body.”

Wagner, a retired HVAC contractor, had those spring days for more than 30 years. He started fishing for cobia in 1989, and he got his own boat in ’90. “All through the ‘90s we had double-digit sightings, days when we saw 60 to 70 fish,” Wagner told me recently. “From ’97 through the early 2000s we’d get 100-pounders, routinely.”

Tournaments grew big, big cash and big crowds. Wagner and his team took first place in many of them. Some they won repeatedly. Now it’s all gone. The cobia are not dependable. And the big tournaments stopped. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Last year we went out a few times. Some days we didn’t even see a fish. We kept one cobia all season.”

Anglers started seeing a slowdown in cobia numbers about 10 years ago, in 2013 and ’14.

“To me,” Wagner says, “it boils down to one thing: overfishing. I’m as guilty as anybody, too. It’s not one person’s fault. I got to the point where I felt like whatever needs to be done to bring them back should be done. Regulations can help. I still wish that they would go for a Gulf-wide closure on cobia,” he says. “Any regulation changes have to be Gulf-wide.”

Cobia Regulations Reconsidered

“We first heard about a potential problem in 2016 or 2017,” says Emily Muehlstein, Public Information Officer for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. “Commenters from the Panhandle region of Florida and from Texas expressed concern about cobia’s decline. Simultaneously folks in Louisiana and South Florida indicated that the stock was doing fine.

“Then we received a surge in comments expressing concern for cobia starting in 2018 when we were working on Framework Amendment 7, which increased the Gulf cobia size limit to 36 inches fork length,” Muehlstein said.

In 2022, the Gulf Council reduced the annual catch limit for cobia of 4,500,000 pounds down to 2,600,000 for 2023—a sizeable reduction. The Council also reduced the bag and vessel limit to one cobia per person, two per vessel. The next Gulf-wide stock assessment is scheduled for 2025. In the interim, Muehlstein said, the Council has embarked on efforts to learn more from fishing communities about how the fisheries for cobia and other coastal migratory pelagics have changed in recent years in hopes of informing proactive management decisions.

Where Did the Cobia Go?

If the biggest cobia in the Gulf were fished out of the stock, the species would need time and protection to recover. Other factors, however, might also be at play. The Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 is sometimes cited, the suggestion being that its pollutants destroyed cobia’s spawn. Changing sea surface temperatures might also have a role.

Anglers like Wagner who observe their regional waters over decades point out another possible factor—cyclical shifts in migration patterns of pelagic and coastal pelagic species. Wagner, and other anglers on the Gulf and the Atlantic coasts, say that while Panhandle cobia have declined, catches along certain Atlantic coast locations have increased.

“In the last 5 to 10 years, they’ve actually crushed them up in North Carolina,” Wagner says. “We know that Gulf cobia go up the East Coast. Some of the fish that we’ve tagged along the Panhandle have shown up in the Chesapeake Bay.”

A Cobia Mystery

Read Hendon is Oceanic and Coastal Pelagics Branch Chief at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. For years, Hendon conducted tagging studies on cobia with Jim Franks at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi. Among other insights, their work suggested that there might be a more western route of seasonal migration for cobia in the Gulf and that some cobia overwintered around deep oil rigs in the north-central Gulf, but he has not seen studies that confirm a shift in migration patterns.

“Based on the most recent stock assessment and lack of any direct research into distributional shifts or changes in migratory patterns,” Hendon says, “the absence is more of a mystery from a scientific perspective at this time.”

Chris Wagner said the idea that they’re still in the Gulf has occurred to him. “If we found out that they were down deeper, out farther, and still going by the Panhandle, I could live with that. But if the cobia returned and I got to catch them with my grandkids, that would make me happy.”

The post What Happened to Florida’s Panhandle Cobia? appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw a hefty increase in new boaters and anglers, many just getting their feet wet in the world of fishing. And sure, well-known fish species are easy to identify, but you better believe there was and continues to be plenty of head-scratching when an odd-ball or nondescript fish gets scooped into the net.

Below, we identified some common fish species you’ll likely catch in Florida Gulf or Atlantic waters. That’s not to say these fish can’t be caught in other southern states — many, in fact, are caught all over the Southeast. Still, these fish can be confusing in their similarities to other species or unfamiliar to the untrained eye. The internet is unforgiving, and asking for fish identification in online fishing groups often leads to plenty of useless, salty comments. So, skip that mess and check this page first to see if the Florida fish you caught is here. As with any fish species you’re not familiar with, play it safe by taking a picture and releasing it. With state and federal seasons and regulations to abide by, you better be able to identify the species in your cooler.

Atlantic Bumper

When trying to catch live bait off the beach, in the bay or near an inlet — mostly when using a sabiki rig or tiny bits of shrimp or squid — you’re likely to catch the Atlantic bumper (Chloroscombrus chrysurus). Unfortunately, the Atlantic bumper and a similar species called the leatherjacket (Oligoplites saurus) have lousy reputations as fish-catchers — whether that’s true or not. For whatever it’s worth, I caught my largest tarpon from a kayak trolling an Atlantic bumper on a circle hook outside the surf near a southeast Florida beach. 

Both baitfish species fall in the Carangidae family of jacks. What’s worse, both baits have the ability to be a real pain in your hand. 

The Atlantic bumper, sometimes called a butterfish or hornbelly, has two small, spiky fins on its belly that will easily tear up your hand to the point of bleeding. The Atlantic bumper is identified by its yellow tinted fins, silver sides, and black spot on its caudal peduncle just before the tail. A bumper’s body is compressed and deep, with mild curves in the forward section at the head. To add confusion to one of the Atlantic bumper’s nicknames, there’s another fish species called the butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus) that’s used to catch striped bass and tuna. 

The silvery leatherjacket is much longer in stature than the Atlantic bumper, growing to a max of about 10 to 11 inches. The leatherjacket, sometimes called a skipjack or leather jack, has dorsal and anal fins that can deliver considerably painful venom, making this species even nastier to handle than Atlantic bumper. Just use your de-hooker and don’t touch the things. The sting from a leatherjacket is said to feel worse than a saltwater catfish. 

A Florida “Bonita”

Probably the most common of the “tuna” caught nearshore Florida, bonita have an absolutely confusing name. Even in Florida they’re called “bonito” or “bonita.” Florida’s bonita (Euthynnus alletteratus) are regularly called different names in other places, including false albacore or little tunny. Bonita are part of the Scombridae family that includes tuna and mackerel, but are not part of the genus Thunnus (true tunas). That makes bonita more closely related to mackerels than well-known tunas such as yellowfin, bluefin or blackfin.

In general, bonita can be identified by wavy, diagonal dark stripes along the back and dark spots under each pectoral fin. Plus, bonita have no teeth like the Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda). And bonita have little value as a food fish, compared to say the albacore (Thunnus alalunga) of the Pacific. The current world record little tunny weighs more than 36 pounds, caught off Spain.

Bonita make up for a lack of taste with great fighting ability. Northeast fly anglers love to target false albacore, and that trend is growing along the Atlantic Coast down to Florida. More and more captains in Florida are now targeting bonita as worthy opponents on light tackle. Still, many Florida anglers currently catch bonita as an accident, and they’ll keep one or two to chunk up as bait or chum, but won’t hang around long near a school before moving on. 

Bonnethead Shark

Most anglers can identify this species as a shark, but they often mistake it for a true hammerhead. The bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo) is the smallest member of the hammerhead family. The maximum length they grow to is about 4 feet, and that’s a large one. The head of a bonnethead is curved and shaped more like a shovel, while a hammerhead’s face has straight lines and sharp corners like a symmetrical double-bit axe. If you’re fishing in an estuary or the surf, chances are a bonnethead is the shark you’re most likely to catch.

Anglers fishing with shrimp catch these fish on the flats, in the surf and off ocean piers. In particular, bonnethead sharks love shrimp, crabs and other mollusks. I remember once fishing with small, live crabs for bonefish and permit on a Florida Keys flat. Well, we didn’t catch any of the target species, but we did see the amazing stalking capabilities of full-size bonnetheads. As soon as that crab hit the water, these sharks could sense it and used side-to-side tracking movements to quickly locate the squirming crab. We watched the action happen in seconds in the clear Keys water.

Lookdown

The first time I ever caught a lookdown, I was fishing around dock lights well after dark. Tarpon, snook and seatrout were my targets, but this weird looking fish shaped like a plate bit my shrimp imitation instead. 

Lookdowns (Selene vomer) have silver and iridescent coloring, with a very steep front head. You might even call it a forehead. A lookdown’s body is thin and compressed, with its second dorsal and anal fins featuring long filaments. Swimming freely in the water, a lookdown does appear to look down toward its delicate mouth, hence the name. Lookdowns are caught in coastal waters on shrimp and other crustaceans, often over sand bottom. They don’t grow particularly large — one-pounders are the usual.

A similar fish with a steep head is called the moonfish (Selene setapinnis). Atlantic moonfish have more of a jack look to them — read that as tougher — and don’t have any long filamented fins. Both species can be mistaken for each other because they feature a distinct steep face with eyes set above the mouth. But the two species are different, even if anglers mistakenly use the names interchangeably. 

Mojarra

The mojarra is a small species of baitfish you might catch in a cast net. The largest ones can be caught on a hook with natural baits, such as shrimp. In particular, surf fishermen catch them when targeting other species such as pompano. And if they’re big enough to fillet, mojarra go right into the cooler for eating too. 

Mojarra, sometimes called sand perch, are great baits for snook fishing. If you’ve ever wanted to know the origin of the fishing meme “Snook Candy,” this was that baitfish trying to be identified. 

In Florida, there are a couple species of mojarra, including tidewater mojarra (Eucinostomus harengulus), Irish mojarra (Diapterus auratus), and striped mojarra (Eugerres plumieri). The most common is the striped mojarra, regularly hanging in large schools far upriver in brackish waters. The striped mojarra features an olive-colored back and silver sides, almost like a metallic sheen look. Black stripes are prominent along the top of the fish, with those stripes trailing off toward the belly. A pointy dorsal fin starts tall, with the fin progressively shortening as it flows along most of the back. The striped mojarra also has three rigid anal spines. 

Palometa

If you’re familiar with permit and pompano, this similar-looking jack species could leave you confused. The palometa (Trachinotus goodei) is in the same genus as Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) and permit (Trachinotus falcatus), but doesn’t grow as big in Florida as the other two species. In fact, newbie surf anglers have a hard-enough time differentiating an 11-inch pompano and permit — because they do look darn similar. One main difference is the permit’s dorsal and anal fins tend be longer and darker black in color.

The palometa species is not all that common. Where it’s most often landed is along the sandy beaches and clear waters of southern Florida. Swimming just inside or outside the breakers, palometa have overly elongated dorsal and anal fins almost to the point of looking sinister. In The Lion King, if Mufasa is a permit and Simba is a pompano, then Scar is a palometa. Palometa also have four narrow bars on their sides, with subtle traces of a fifth bar near the tail section.

Most anglers don’t chase after palometa, but catch them as bycatch when targeting other pompano. Palometa almost never grow larger than 20 inches and don’t weigh more than a pound or two.

Pigfish

The pigfish is one of those hand-size, colorful Florida fish you catch on a chunk of squid while trying to make bait in the morning. Often found over grass flats, near structure such as docks, or even near mangroves or corals, pigfish are pretty enough to live in a fish tank. They also happen to be great bait for fish like snapper, grouper, snook and redfish.

Pigfish (Orthopristis chrysoptera), sometimes called a grunt, make a grunting noise with their pharyngeal teeth. Piggies are light brown or gray in color, usually paired with a bluish tint. And they don’t grow longer than 12 inches usually. The most obvious identifying marks are the small orange and blue dots across their body.

Other species that get mistaken for pigfish are similar-size pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides), although pinfish have yellow and green stripes and a black dot on the gill cover. And then there’s the white grunt (Haemulon plumieri), commonly called a Key West grunt, that makes grunting noises just like a pigfish. But the white grunt has a larger, more lippy mouth almost like a grouper. Its common colors are greys with touches of bronze reds and yellows, plus there are blue stripes on its head. Check inside the mouth of a Key West grunt and you’ll see it is bright reddish orange. 

Some other Florida grunt species you’ll likely catch include sailor’s choice (Haemulon parra), tomtate (Haemulon aurolineatum) and bluestriped grunt (Haemulon sciurus).

Sand Seatrout 

The speckled seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) is the king of the Florida grassflats. But “yellowmouths” aren’t the only trout in town. In fact, there are a number of Florida fish in the genus Cynoscion that fall under the drum and croakers family. 

The trout without the over-abundance of spots is named the sand seatrout (Cynoscion arenarius), or sand trout for short. Sand trout, sometimes called white trout, have a tan yellow body that fades to white at the belly. White trout do have a pair of canine teeth like speckled trout, but lack the dark spots along the back. Sand trout are commonly caught over sand flats where they can school up in large numbers.

Here are some other trout species to look out for:

• Silver seatrout, Cynoscion nothus (These trout are more silver in color and smaller-sized than specks, plus they have an oversized eye and shorter snout that ends abruptly.)
• Weakfish, Cynoscion regalis (Found in the northern sections Florida, a weakfish’s upper sides have wavy lines of small, irregular spots that differentiate them from other Florida trout species. In Atlantic states farther north, weakfish grow much larger than speckled seatrout.) 

Spot

The spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) and Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) are often confused as the same fish species. Although each croaker species is known as a top baitfish, they are tasty to eat if large enough to fillet. The two fish look similar in some ways, with both regularly caught at sizes under 12 inches. Each fish also has lines on the upper portion of the body that sit vertically, although spot tend to have less lines total.

Here’s how the two species are different. The spot has a dark spot behind its gill cover, plus it’s the only drum in Florida with a forked caudal fin. The Atlantic croaker has a strongly serrated preopercle, which means it has a boney spot on the cheek. The Atlantic croaker also has small barbels at the jaw and no large spot.  Both species eat invertebrates such as crabs, shrimp and clams, so you’re not likely to catch them on plugs or live baitfish.

Whiting 

This fish species goes by plenty of names. In Florida, it’s often called a whiting. In North Carolina, they call it a sea mullet. Just about anywhere it swims, you might hear scientists refer to the fish as a kingfish (although it’s not a king mackerel). Whatever you call it, the whiting is a prized surf species to eat, probably only second to pompano. You mostly catch them on heavy surf tackle, so the fight isn’t great, but whiting are not a species you target for catch and release sport. The largest whiting I ever caught was in a deep creek on a soft plastic near St. Augustine. So, the surf isn’t the only place to catch them. Other hot spots include sandy areas just inside inlets and passes.

In total, the general whiting name covers a couple different species, including Gulf kingfish (Menticirrhus littoralis), northern kingfish (Menticirrhus saxatilis), and southern kingfish (Menticirrhus americanus). The three species mostly look the same, but have different coloring and slight differences. In general, all whiting species have a dorsal fin that stands tall like a proud acute triangle, plus barbels on the lower chin. Their mouth is underslung like a redfish, ready to chew up crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp. And all whitings have a similar body shape, growing to a max length of 18 to 19 inches and not heavier than 3 pounds. 

The post What Fish is This? Florida Saltwater Edition appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

“Patient anglers are prevailing,” reported Capt. Kane Bounds. Bounds fishes out of Ocean City, Maryland, for trophy tautog throughout the winter. Recently, angler Jen Zuppe caught a 23.4-pound tog aboard his boat, the Fish Bound IV. Zuppe’s catch has a great shot to be the next IGFA Women’s World Record in the 30- or 50-pound line class. 

Bounds says Zuppe played the game perfectly and was rewarded with a trophy tog. “She had just moved closer to the bow,” Bounds remembered. “While the rest of the crew fished from the stern, Zuppe took her bait rig away from the crowd.” 

The record-breaking tautog gave up a good fight, but Zuppe is an accomplished angler who knows how to beat a big fish. “Last year, she caught a 13-pounder with me,” Bounds said.

Have Patience When Tautog Fishing

Bounds says if fishing is slow, he moves the boat several times during a typical trip. Anglers who fish hard and pay attention will be rewarded with trophy blackfish. “Find a little structure, keep the bait on the bottom, don’t move it, and wait,” Bounds recommends.

Fish Bound IV has been fishing 10 to 30 miles offshore, between 60 and 120 feet of water. “If the wind has been blowing — and the wind always seems to blow in the winter — go farther offshore in search of clear water when the wind is more manageable,” Bounds says.

Really windy days keep the boat closer to shore or at the dock.

Even when a tog bites, Bounds warns against acting too quickly. “Quit trying to set the hook prematurely; let the fish eat,” he says. Cold water blackfish move slowly and suspiciously. “I was just fussing at people today about setting the hook too soon,” Bounds laughs.

Tog fishing should remain steady off Mid-Atlantic states, as long as the water temperature is above 42 degrees.

Tautog Fishing Tackle

For tautog tackle, Bounds recommends a medium-heavy rod with a soft tip and considerable backbone. “Most of the anglers are using a Jigging World Night Ranger rod,” Bounds says. 

The rod is matched to a conventional reel spooled with 50-pound braided line. “A slower reel, 3:1 to 5:1 retrieve ratio, brings the tog to the surface slowly, improving chances of survival after being released,” Bounds explains. 

To the end of the braided line, Bounds adds six feet of 50 pound monofilament for abrasion resistance and stretch. He ties a three-way rig with a 5/0 octopus hook and 6- to 12-ounce bank sinker. “Switch sinkers to match the current,” Bounds suggests. Adding weight as the current increases ensures the bait stays in the structure directly under the boat.

When the current drops, anglers switch to lighter spinning gear and a 2-ounce jig with a short-shank hook. The jig makes it possible to place the bait directly on the bottom, even in heavy structure. 

Top Baits for Blackfish

The top bait for Mid-Atlantic anglers is green crabs. “Sometimes the fish want a big crab, sometimes a small one,” Bounds adds. He says blackfish are picky and will prefer a whole crab or half, legs or no legs. “I keep experimenting until I find what works that day,” he says.  

The post Best Bets for Winter Blackfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

QUESTION:

We caught some African pompano while kayak-fishing off Panama. This isn’t that, though I’d guess it to be in the same family (jacks and trevally). What exactly did I catch?

Mitchell Roffer
Melbourne, Florida

ANSWER:

This is likely the paloma pompano, Trachinotus paitensis, Mitch. These are particularly abundant in lagoons where they may be one of the most important predatory fishes. However, anglers often encounter larger individuals along the open coast, mostly in schools along sandy beaches, but ­occasionally down to depths of more than 300 feet. Palomas grow to 20 inches long and occur from Redondo Beach, Southern California, to Chile, including the Gulf of California and Islas Galapagos. There is no world record established at this point. I have found such invertebrates as snails, shrimp and crabs, along with the occasional small fish, in their stomachs. In some areas, this species forms a substantial part of the commercial artisanal fishery. Arguably, this is one of the best tasting of the pompanolike species.

—Milton Love

Checker This Out

QUESTION:

I caught this fish on light tackle close to Cambodian territorial waters, in the Gulf of Siam. The bait was a piece of squid offered on the bottom. It must be some sort of snapper, but what type?

Capt. Jean-Francois Helias
anglingthailand.com
Bangkok

ANSWER:

What you have there is a ­checkered snapper, Lutjanus decussatus, a ­member of the Lutjanidae family. This species occurs throughout tropical western Indo-Pacific waters, from the Ryuku Islands near Japan, down to northern Australia, and as far west as India and Sri Lanka. The checkered is one of the smaller lutjanids, growing to only around 14 inches. Its name comes from its distinctive color pattern, which includes the “checker board” on the upper half of the body, plus five to six horizontal brown stripes along the flanks, and a prominent black spot at the base of the tail. Like other small tropical snappers, adult checkered snapper inhabit structures around inshore and offshore coral reefs to depths of 100 feet, often occurring in schools, while the juveniles frequent coral patches on shallow reef flats. They are aggressive feeders, preying on smaller fishes and benthic crustaceans such as shrimps and crabs.

—Ben Diggles

Count Your Lucky Stargazers

QUESTION:

I caught this fish at night while casting from a pier in the Chesapeake Bay. The water was about 3 feet deep. I believe it is a northern stargazer, but no one around here has ever seen one. Is this normally a shallow-water fish?

Steve Loomis
Cape Charles, Virginia

ANSWER:

Steve, that is indeed a ­northern ­stargazer, Astroscopus guttatus. Its range is from New York to North Carolina, occurring in bays, coastal waters and the continental shelf as deep as 600 feet. It’s one of the few truly endemic fish ­species in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Not only is your specimen a shallow-water fish, it spends so much time buried in the substrate that you might say it’s a below-shallow-water fish. Its eyes are situated on top of the head, protruding only when the fish buries itself in sand, mud or any soft substrate. The species can exceed 10 pounds (the all-tackle world record stands at 10 pounds, 12 ounces, caught off New Jersey in 1998).

This species is most often seen when there are local oxygen-­depletion events with resulting fish kills, at which time they make up a large percentage of affected fish, in areas where local folks don’t even know they exist. They’re seldom collected in trawl samples. Reproduction occurs in summer, and the larvae and early juveniles are seen (by biologists) more often than the adult stages. Winter is apparently spent on the bottom near the edge of the continental shelf, but data on their winter distribution is ­incomplete.

—Mike Fahay

Hawaiian Tuna Shows Its Stripes

QUESTION:

We caught this small tuna, held for a photo by my deckhand Britt McCurdy, off Kona. We’re accustomed to various small tunas here — such as skipjacks, kawakawa and frigate mackerel — but we don’t see many striped bonito like this. What is it exactly?

Capt. Shawn Rotella
Night Runner Sportfishing
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

ANSWER:

You’re exactly right, Shawn: It’s a striped bonito, otherwise known as the oriental bonito, Sarda orientalis. Of the five recognized species of bonitos, this is the most widely distributed, found throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the entire western Indo-Pacific region, from the Pacific coast of the United States and Central America, west through the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands (where they’re reportedly rare), and throughout the western Pacific to Japan, northern Australia and across the Indian Ocean to eastern Africa.

The oriental can be distinguished from the other four bonito species by various minor morphological features such as differences in finlets, teeth and vertebral counts, and the arrangement of the distinctive longitudinal stripes, which are quite thin and straight on this species and do not extend onto the belly. In contrast, the Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda) has slightly diagonal stripes at a more oblique downward angle, while the stripes on the Australian bonito (Sarda ­australis) are much broader and extend far below the lateral line and onto the belly. The other two species of bonito occur only in the Eastern Pacific, including the aptly named east Pacific bonito (Sarda ­chilensis), which occurs along the coasts of Chile and central America, and the Pacific bonito (Sarda ­lineolata), found along the West Coast of the United States from Alaska to Baja California. Both of the latter ­species are closely related and, compared with the oriental bonito, have fewer stripes that tend to be slightly wavy and more widely spaced.

Like its other close relatives, the oriental bonito is an epipelagic species that schools by size (­including with other similar-size tunas) and spends most of its time feeding voraciously on smaller fishes, squids and shrimp. With a life span of less than 10 years, it matures in its second year, growing quickly to a maximum size of around 40 inches and 23 pounds.

—Ben Diggles

On the Trail of the Yellow Tail

QUESTION:

One of my customers caught this small fish while bottomfishing for northern kingfish behind the southern point of Assateague Island, Virginia. We were over sandy bottom in less than 10 feet of water. At first I thought it was a Florida pompano, but the head shape is different, so I am going with some other kind of jack. Your thoughts?

Capt. Charlie Koski
Chincoteague Island, Virginia

ANSWER:

Your client caught a juvenile blue runner, Caranx crysos, Charlie. Unlike adults, juveniles of this species have ­yellow median (dorsal, anal and caudal) fins and a series of broad, dark bands on their sides. Although faded, these bands can be seen on the fish in question. Additionally, unlike some other Atlantic members of the family Carangidae (the jacks), blue runners have a dark blotch by the upper posterior margin of each operculum, and this is apparent on the fish in your photographs. Finally, the fish lacks adipose eyelids, which are characteristic of yellow jacks (C. bartholomaei) and bar jacks (C. ruber), similarly shaped species that also have yellow median fins as juveniles. Juvenile blue runners often form schools and are easily caught on sabiki or quill rigs or small jigs or shrimp-tipped hooks. They make excellent live bait for pelagic species including king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) and sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus). Unfortunately, larger individuals are quite strong-tasting, which limits their appeal to many human would-be ­consumers. The maximum size achieved by blue runners is slightly more than 2 feet (the all-tackle record was an 11-pound, 2-ounce fish from the northern Gulf of Mexico in 1997), although the average size is considerably smaller. In the Western Atlantic, the blue runner ranges from Nova Scotia through Brazil, ­including Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

—Ray Waldner

Going Batty

QUESTION:

Last week my nephew, Joseph Sabella, caught a strange-looking fish that I’ve never seen before. I think it’s called a polka-dot batfish. It weighed about 2 pounds. Joe caught it on the Bokeelia Pier in southwest Florida.

Sal Sabella
Coral Springs, Florida

ANSWER:

Sal, indeed what your nephew caught was a polka-dot batfish, Ogcocephalus radiatus, a truly fascinating fish. These guys, along with about a half-dozen other species of batfishes found along our coasts, are quite common but rarely seen. This is because their feeding ­habits generally preclude ­getting hooked: Under that pointed snout is a small cavity that contains a highly ­modified dorsal fin called an illicium, which it can wiggle like a tiny worm. This attracts small prey animals, which it then engulfs. It is also thought that the batfish produces a chemical ­attractant that helps to draw in other living food items. So catching a batfish with a hook is highly unlikely (but ­obviously possible).

These menacing-looking creatures are totally harmless. Divers often encounter batfish on open sandy bottom and can easily pick them up since they’re terrible swimmers because their fins are used more for walking than swimming. They would likely be fascinating aquarium residents except for those difficult feeding habits.

The polka-dot batfish ranges along our coasts from North Carolina around Florida and into the northeastern Gulf. They top off at about a foot and weigh in at about a pound or two. Though most common in shallow depths, they’ve been found to several hundred feet.

—Bob Shipp

Read Next: Strange Fishes from the Deep — Jelly-Eating Prowfish and More

Sport Fishing‘s Prestigious International Panel of Experts

Northeast
Mike Fahay, Sandy Hook Marine Lab, New Jersey

Southeast
Ray Waldner, Ph.D., Palm Beach Atlantic ­University, Florida

Gulf of Mexico
Bob Shipp, Ph.D., ­University of South ­Alabama

West Coast
Milton Love, Ph.D., UCSB, California

Far Pacific
Ben Diggles, Ph.D., Queensland, Australia

Bluewater Pelagics
John Graves, Ph.D., Virginia Institute of Marine Science

CHALLENGE OUR EXPERTS (And Win Up to 10,800 Yards of Line!)

Send in your question and any relevant ­photos of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’ ID and feedback. If we publish your question and you have a shipping address within the United States or Canada, you’ll win a 3‑pound spool of Berkley Pro Spec ocean-blue or fluorescent-yellow monofilament (1,000 to 10,800 yards, depending on line strength) or a 1,500‑yard spool of Spiderwire Stealth braid up to 100‑pound‑test! Send questions and images via email to fish​facts@​sport​fishing.com​ (include your hometown) or via post to Sport Fishing Fish Facts, 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789.

The post Strange Fishes From the Deep: Paloma Pompano and More appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Tropical Tomato

QUESTION:

I caught this grouper on a shallow reef in the Maldives this past January. I believe it to be a tomato cod, Cephalopholis sonnerati, though it seems to be in neither the actual cod nor tomato families. Am I right on this ID, and if so, can you tell me more about this species?

Steve Wozniak
Alamo, California

ANSWER:

I concur with your diagnosis, Steve. It’s Cephalopholis sonnerati, otherwise known as a tomato hind or tomato cod, in fact a pretty coral grouper belonging to the family Serranidae (tropical groupers). This species occurs individually or in small groups on coral reefs throughout most of the Indo-Pacific region from Eastern Africa to the Line Islands and Kiribati in the Central Pacific, north to Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia. Being unrelated to tomatoes, its common name arises from the simple but elegant reddish blotched coloration of adult fish. Juveniles, on the other hand, are dark reddish-brown to black with a gray or white rear edge to the tail, more like an eggplant if we keep with the vegetable theme. This species matures at around 11 inches long as a female, after which some change into males at around 14 to 15 inches, in the typical serranid fashion of protogynus hermaphrodism.

C. sonnerati can be encountered at depths up to 300 feet, and occur mainly around large coral structures, often near cleaning-station areas frequented by cleaner wrasse and shrimp. Like other coral groupers, their diet consists mainly of crustaceans such as shrimps, crabs and stomatopods, as well as occasional smaller fishes. They reportedly grow to a maximum size of around 23 inches and 10 pounds. The all-tackle world record tomato hind, from Japan in 2002, weighed 5 pounds, 2 ounces. That begs the ­question: Was yours larger?

—Ben Diggles

Dark Drum

QUESTION:

This photo came to me from a fellow Fort Pierce (Florida) guide. We may have caught one also while fishing with Patrick Sebile. Can you help with the ID?

Capt. Tim Simos
Bluewater Inshore Guide Service
Fort Pierce, Florida

ANSWER:

Your friend caught a cubbyu, Pareques umbrosus, Tim. This member of the drum family (Sciaenidae) is reported to reach a maximum length of 10 inches, but its average size is much smaller. It ranges from North Carolina south at least as far as Venezuela, including Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles at depths to 300 feet. It is usually found in areas with sandy or muddy bottoms, and is often found in association with coral reefs. It may be taken as bycatch in trawls but is not targeted as a food fish. Juveniles are sometimes displayed in marine aquariums.

—Ray Waldner

Splendiferous Sea Bass

QUESTION:

I believe the fish at the top in this photo is a splittail bass. But what is the fish below it? In Costa Rica, they call these margaritas. We’ve been catching them in 200 to 400 feet of water. They’re tasty, but the meat is very soft.

Cory Craig
Costa Rica

ANSWER:

That bright orange-red fish (lower) with the striking yellow edge to its tail is Pronotogrammus multifasciatus, the threadfin bass. Threadfins are small sea basses of the family Serranidae; the world record is about 14 inches long. They’re found from Southern California south as far as Peru. The species only occasionally ventures into cooler, more temperate waters. Although they’ve been recorded from depths of 45 to 984 feet, I don’t think they like to be shallower than about 150 feet. These are plankton feeders, with small mouths, and unless you’re fishing with sabiki rigs or other small hooks, the chances of connecting with one are low. When we do our manned-submersible surveys on deepwater reefs and oil platforms off Southern California, we see these striking fish on occasion, always tucked away in crevices, and refer to them as “those bathtub-toy fish.”

—Milton Love

Glass Eye for The Straight Guy

QUESTION:

While on my honeymoon last year in Mauritius, I caught this silvery fish with the big eye and have been ­wondering what it is.

Dan Andre Aarsvold
Norway

ANSWER:

That interesting fish is a member of the family Priacanthidae (commonly known as glasseyes or bigeyes), a group of deepwater fishes that frequent tropical-reef systems throughout the Indo-Pacific region. This fish is characterized by its extremely large eyes, upturned mouth and a narrow, laterally compressed body. Nocturnal, they frequent dark caves or crevices during the day, moving out to feed once the sun sets. They feed mainly on zooplankton but also are known to eat small squids and octopuses. Most of the known ­species occur in shallow-reef habitats, but others range to depths as great as 1,500 feet. As for the specific identity of this one, it’s hard to tell because it’s a juvenile (most species grow to 14 to 18 inches long) and the fins are not visible against the background. But it’s most likely a glasseye (Heteropriacanthus cruenatus), which occurs in Mauritius, and grows to around 18 inches.

—Ben Diggles

A Bream, It Would Seem

QUESTION:

A couple of years ago, I started ­catching fish like that at the top. It looks remarkably similar to a pinfish, which I’m sure is the bottom fish. I assumed that’s what these were, until I looked closer. Can you help me identify it?

Tim Simos
Bluewater Inshore Guide Service
Fort Pierce, Florida

ANSWER:

Interesting question, Tim. The photo indeed shows two different species with a few obvious differences between them, besides their pigmentation: • the position of the black shoulder spot relative to the fishes’ lateral lines;
• the pigmentation of the anal fins, the longer second anal spine on the lower fish;
• the upper fish’s greater relative body depth and steeper forehead profile;
• the curved maxillary (upper jaw) on the top fish.

There’s also a difference in the ­number of dorsal-fin spines in the two fishes, the upper having 13 and the lower having fewer, although I can’t get an exact count from the photo.

Based on the differences in these characteristics, I believe you’re dealing with two species, the upper a female sea bream (Archosargus ­rhomboidalis), and the lower individual being a pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides). Although these species are clearly very ­similar and many anglers confuse them, they’re placed taxonomically in different genera. Both have overlapping distributions in Florida; overall, the sea bream ranges from New Jersey through Argentina, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, whereas the pinfish can be found from Massachusetts through the Yucatan Peninsula, including the Gulf of Mexico and Bermuda, but it’s absent from the West Indies, other than a portion of Cuba. Both species are absent from the Bahamas. The pinfish grows slightly larger than the sea bream, reaching a maximum length of around 16 inches. Both are good table fare, widely regarded as panfish due to their small size.

—Ray Waldner

Read Next: Strange Fishes From the Deep — Blood-Red Snapper and More

Sport Fishing‘s Prestigious International Panel of Experts

Northeast
Mike Fahay, Sandy Hook Marine Lab, New Jersey

Southeast
Ray Waldner, Ph.D., Palm Beach Atlantic ­University, Florida

Gulf of Mexico
Bob Shipp, Ph.D., ­University of South ­Alabama

West Coast
Milton Love, Ph.D., UCSB, California

Far Pacific
Ben Diggles, Ph.D., Queensland, Australia

Bluewater Pelagics
John Graves, Ph.D., Virginia Institute of Marine Science

CHALLENGE OUR EXPERTS (And Win Up to 10,800 Yards of Line!)

Send in your question and any relevant ­photos of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’ ID and feedback. If we publish your question and you have a shipping address within the United States or Canada, you’ll win a 3‑pound spool of Berkley Pro Spec ocean-blue or fluorescent-yellow monofilament (1,000 to 10,800 yards, depending on line strength) or a 1,500‑yard spool of Spiderwire Stealth braid up to 100‑pound‑test! Send questions and images via email to fish​facts@​sport​fishing.com​ (include your hometown) or via post to Sport Fishing Fish Facts, 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789.

The post Strange Fishes From the Deep – Tomato Cod and More appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Bloody Beautiful Fish

QUESTION: I caught this beautiful snapper off the coast of Madagascar. I’m anxious to know more about it!

Phillippe Pletincx
France

ANSWER:

What you have there, Phillippe, is a great example of one of the more distinctive tropical snappers: the blood-red, or humphead snapper (Lutjanus sanguineus). This species occurs only along the west coast of Africa from Natal, South Africa, north to the Red Sea, including the waters around Madagascar. Adult blood-red snapper frequent rocky and coral-reef areas to depths of around 300 feet during the day. These fish have been observed by some anglers to prefer slightly silty bottoms, where they forage for crustaceans and mollusks, mainly at night and often in ­relatively shallow water (25 to 40 feet).

Juvenile blood-red snapper are relatively ­colorful, with a broad brown bar stretching from the upper jaw to the dorsal fin and a series of reddish lines along their sides. Adults, such as your fish, however, tend to move to deeper water, where they lose the stripes and become a uniform light to dark blood-red color. They’re reported to grow to around 40 inches (1 meter) in length and up to 50 pounds, and have been aged to at least 13 years. Like many tropical snappers, their growth rate is initially fast but then slows markedly at around 2 feet in length once they mature, when they are three to four years old.

No one has yet submitted this species to the International Game Fish Association for a record; yours could have been the first all-tackle world record for L. sanguineus!

—Ben Diggles

I Dream-A Salema

QUESTION:

A couple of summers ago, I caught this on a sabiki off La Jolla (Southern California) while fishing for mackerel for bait. I hadn’t seen one before, after catching bait here for 17 years. I caught another one this past summer also. What is it?

Morgan Promnitz
Oceanside, California

ANSWER:

Hey, Morgan, that little striped fish is the salema, Haemulon ­californiensis, the most abundant species of grunt in Southern California waters. You can find them in large schools around kelp and rocks, from barely intertidal waters down to perhaps 130 feet. Salema, which grow to only about 12 inches long, have been taken as far north as Monterey Bay in central California and as far south as northern Peru. Salemas feed at night, on larger zooplankton, and folks using tiny hooks catch fair numbers of them from piers and jetties. In bygone days, when U.S. commercial hook-and-line fishing vessels worked the Mexican coast for tuna, salema were often used as chum.

—Milton Love

Scadzooks

QUESTION:

I caught this scad on a sabiki near Doha, Qatar, last year. The place was loaded with them, but none of my fish books seem to have this exact one listed. Can you shed any light on its identity for me?

Steve Wozniak
Alamo, California

ANSWER:

That, Steve, is a nice example of a ­yellowstripe scad (Selaroides ­leptolepis), alternatively named the smooth-tailed trevally. Aside from the relatively small scutes just ahead of its tail, the main giveaways separating this species from other small, yellow-striped Carangids (­trevallies and jacks) such as the oxeye scad (Selar boops) are the relatively small eye and prominent black spot on the upper edge of the operculum. In fact, the genus name Selaroides means “like Selar,” in reference to the similarity between these two fishes. Yellowstripe scad are common throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific region from the Persian Gulf to Northern Australia, Vanuatu and north to Japan. They grow to a maximum length of around 9 inches. Their diet consists of small planktonic crustaceans and fish. S. leptolepis forms large demersal schools in estuaries and inshore areas over soft-bottom habitats at depths shallower than 150 feet, which makes them a common target for inshore trawl fisheries. (Between 100,000 and 200,000 tons of this species are landed annually worldwide!) Like some other carangids, juvenile yellowstripe scad sometimes associate with large jelly­fish, using them for protection and as a foraging base, a sort of biological FAD, if you will.

—Ben Diggles

Goatee Fish

QUESTION:

I have fished off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for more than 20 years. Recently, while fishing a reef in 65 feet of water, I hooked this fish, which I’ve never seen before. I’m sure you can give me some information on it.

John Hill
Homosassa, Florida

ANSWER:

You caught a spotted goatfish, Pseudupeneus maculatus, John. This is one of four goatfish species occurring in the central western Atlantic region; it ranges from New Jersey south to Brazil, including Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Adult spotted goatfish are usually associated with reefs, to depths of approximately 300 feet. Like all goatfishes, this species bears a pair of chemosensory barbels under its chin, which it uses to search for food items that are buried in the substrate. The spotted goatfish is a relatively small species, reaching a maximum length of about a foot. It’s highly prized as food but has also been implicated in cases of ciguatera ­poisoning.

—Ray Waldner

Read Next: Strange Fishes From the Deep — Hookthroat Bass and More

Congrats to our longtime Fish Facts expert, Ben Diggles. Diggles recently received the Ron Dempster Award, cited as the most prestigious award of the Australian National Sportfishing Association Queensland, for outstanding contribution to the ­enhancement of recreational fishing. SF is proud to have Ben on our panel of experts.

Sport Fishing‘s Prestigious International Panel of Experts

Northeast
Mike Fahay, Sandy Hook Marine Lab, New Jersey

Southeast
Ray Waldner, Ph.D., Palm Beach Atlantic ­University, Florida

Gulf of Mexico
Bob Shipp, Ph.D., ­University of South ­Alabama

West Coast
Milton Love, Ph.D., UCSB, California

Far Pacific
Ben Diggles, Ph.D., Queensland, Australia

Bluewater Pelagics
John Graves, Ph.D., Virginia Institute of Marine Science

CHALLENGE OUR EXPERTS (And Win Up to 10,800 Yards of Line!)

Send in your question and any relevant ­photos of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’ ID and feedback. If we publish your question and you have a shipping address within the United States or Canada, you’ll win a 3‑pound spool of Berkley Pro Spec ocean-blue or fluorescent-yellow monofilament (1,000 to 10,800 yards, depending on line strength) or a 1,500‑yard spool of Spiderwire Stealth braid up to 100‑pound‑test! Send questions and images via email to fish​facts@​sport​fishing.com​ (include your hometown) or via post to Sport Fishing Fish Facts, 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789.

The post Strange Fishes From the Deep — Blood-Red Snapper and More appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

QUESTION:

I believe this is a spotted unicornfish. Do I have the ID right? And what is the purpose of the horn?

Steve Wozniak, Alamo, California

ANSWER:

That pointy-nosed fish is indeed a spotted unicornfish, Naso brevirostris. Unicornfishes — a type of surgeonfish — are so named for the prominent rostral horn that projects from the forehead area, though not all unicornfishes have the rostral horn. Most surgeonfishes feed on benthic algae, but adult spotted unicornfish feed mainly on zooplankton, so they might interact with sport-fishing gear. The unicornfish grows to around 2 feet long and is relatively common throughout the coral reefs of the tropical Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea to Hawaii at depths of up to 300 feet. The size of the spotted unicorn’s rostral horn increases once a fish matures into an adult but, interestingly, its function remains unknown. Besides just looking weird, one could imagine it might make predators think twice about trying to consume one of these fish.

—Ben Diggles

Fret Not

QUESTION:

Off Virginia for the September white marlin bite, we drifted for swordfish while waiting for the sun to come up. We landed some of these fish while catching tinker mackerel for bait around the light. We were in about 200 fathoms. Can you tell us what we caught? (We did catch a swordfish, and the white marlin bite proved great.)

Dr. Ken Neill III, Yorktown, Virginia

ANSWER:

Ken, you caught a Caribbean pomfret, Brama caribbea. Pomfrets constitute a circumglobal group of temperate-to-tropical fishes usually found in the upper 3,000 feet of the water column. The Caribbean pomfret can be found from the surface down to nearly 2,700 feet and, in the western Atlantic, ranges from North Carolina through Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico. Pomfrets are related to jacks (family Carangidae). Like certain jacks such as Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus), they’re excellent table fare and commercially fished in some areas such as the eastern Atlantic. Pomfrets vary in maximum size, depending on the species; the largest grows to approximately 3 feet, but the Caribbean pomfret reaches a maximum length of just slightly over 10 inches. Nine species of pomfrets belonging to six genera occur in the western Central Atlantic, with three of these belonging to the genus Brama. The Caribbean pomfret is very similar to the Atlantic pomfret, B. brama, but the upper lobe of its caudal fin is larger than the lower lobe.

—Ray Waldner

Hatchet Job

QUESTION:

A blackbelly rosefish that we caught while deep-dropping off South Florida coughed up this freaking cool little fish. What is it?

Twig Tolle, Miami, Florida

ANSWER:

What a great find, Twig! Your catch is a hatchetfish (family Sternoptychidae) belonging to the genus Argyropelecus, but I can’t determine the species from your photograph. The three genera and several hatchetfish species in the western Central Atlantic are similar in shape (there are also more elongated hatchetfishes belonging to other genera). All hatchetfishes have ­bioluminescent organs (photophores); the arrangement varies between genera and species, but they’re generally located on the lower portion of the fish’s body (visible here along the bottom of this fish as a row of small spheres or dots). The majority of hatchetfishes live in the mesopelagic zone, at depths between 660 and 3,300 feet, but some venture into the bathypelagic zone (3,300 to 13,200 feet). Their maximum length is less than 5 inches. Many are highly reflective, due to the presence of reflective guanine crystals — the same material sometimes incorporated into the coatings on hard plastic lures, such as those bearing a “G-finish.”

I never cease to be amazed by the condition of some fishes’ stomach contents. Your hatchetfish must have been consumed just a very short while before you caught the blackbelly ­rosefish (Helicolenus dactylopterus) that ate it. I’ve seen intact argonauts and ­juvenile broadbill swordfish, along with numerous sea turtles, taken from the stomachs of dolphinfish (Coryphaenus hippurus). One never knows what will be encountered when looking at the stomach contents of deep-feeding fishes!

—Ray Waldner

King of Sting

QUESTION:

This fish was caught in the Gulf of Siam near Koh Kut Island. In Thai, its name is pla baey kanoon. These fish are experts at cleaning a piece of squid from our hooks without getting caught. Once in a while we catch one, though. They’re feared by locals because of the pain they can deliver; their spines contain some bad venom. I’d like to know more about this species.

Francois Helias, Bangkok, Thailand

ANSWER:

That, Francois, is a cracker of a streaked spinefoot (Siganus javus). This species is one of the larger species of the rabbitfishes group, growing to around 20 inches long. They are found in shallow waters (mostly less than 60 feet) over coral and rocky reefs throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific from the Persian Gulf and East Africa throughout Asia to northern Australia and New Caledonia. Streaked ­spinefoots are relatively easy to identify with their distinctive gray background coloration overlaid with yellow highlights on the cheek and mouth, and the numerous white spots on the dorsal part of the body that graduate into irregular wavy stripes on the mid to lower sides. Like other ­rabbitfishes, streaked spinefoots have sharp venomous spines on the ­dorsal and anal fins, so they need to be handled very carefully if captured. If you should get spiked, use water as hot as you can tolerate on the wound to quickly neutralize the toxin. Many authorities consider them primarily herbivorous, feeding mainly on benthic or floating algae. However, you point out they’re known bait stealers, suggesting the fish are actually facultative omnivores that won’t turn down an easy meal. The species was named Java spinefoot when first scientifically described in 1766 (by the pre-eminent naturalist Linnaeus, no less, in his first volume of the famous Systema Naturae) from specimens collected near Java, Indonesia.

—Ben Diggles

The post Strange Fishes from the Deep: Can You Identify These Species? appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Loligo squid will soon pour into the sounds and bays of southern New England. These fascinating and tasty creatures do just that each spring when water temperatures reach 50 degrees.

Squid carpet shallow seaweed and eel-grass beds within a mile of the sandy beaches where they cluster in dense schools to spawn. The loligo migration peaks around the full moon in May, and like a switch, it turns on the recreational-fishing season in the Northeast.

Commercial squid fishing boats trawl federal waters outside the 3-mile line, leaving the prime inshore spawning grounds to rod-and-reel anglers. A fleet of small boats of many shapes and sizes congregates in close proximity in prime areas to jig side by side for squid. If you can’t see the squirts of squid when lifted over gunwales and hear the laughter, you’re too far away.

A six-pack charter fishery works two shifts a day, giving shore-bound anglers a chance to fill their coolers with fresh, tasty squid. Squid fishing in these conditions works perfectly for young anglers, with nonstop action, warm midday sun, easy sea conditions, and a fun time with ink and water flying everywhere.

But wait: There’s more! As the squid run peaks, it ignites two southern New England recreational and charter fisheries: the bottom fishery for scup, fluke and black sea bass, and the top- and midwater fishery for bluefish and striped bass.

Finding and Catching Squid

Locating squid in May is easy. First, find out where the squid draggers are working. Second, locate the small-boat squid fleet. Third, find your own patch and catch ’em.

Squid congregate in water 15 to 30 feet deep off the south coast of New England. A well-known stretch of water between Mashpee and Yarmouth on the south coast of Cape Cod is a red zone for squid. Party boats, six-packs, and private boats cluster around small rock piles and ledges that dot this sandy coast looking for signs of squid both on their fish finders as well as by the bent rods in nearby boats.

This is one fishery where closer is better. It’s usually OK to set up as close as 30 yards to other boats with squid coming over the gunwales. Some boats drift-fish and some anchor; it’s important when joining a recreational squid fleet to match what everyone else is doing.

In bright sunlight, squid hang close to the bottom. On a fish finder, they look like haystacks ascending from the flat bottom. When squid spawn, a group of males surrounds a female, competing to make the connection. The fertilized, naturally sticky egg sacs adhere to grass, seaweed or rocks on the seafloor in large clusters. These aggregations of squid eggs resemble ghostly, orange-tinted fingers, ­clustered together by the dozens.

Once the water temperature reaches 50 degrees, I’m out on the water, prospecting. I prowl water in the 20- to 30-foot-deep range, keeping one eye out for diving gannets or sitting gulls, and the other eye on my fish finder. If I see any sign of squid, I’ll stop the boat and drift for 10 minutes with two rods out, looking for that first squid. If I catch one, I know I’m in the zone. Then, if they start coming over the rail on a regular basis, it’s time to go to work!

If possible, I’ll drift for a mile or two, trying to find the subtle dips or humps that hold the biggest aggregations. The southern coast of Cape Cod is mostly sandy, but the area from New Seabury to Hyannis where the squid swarm features a few small ledges and rock piles that congregate mating squid and attract boats hoping to load up on squid.

If I can’t find them on a blind drift, I’ll visit one rock pile after another, trying to drift them, exploring each in turn for that first bite. Once I get the bite or see another boat pull up a squid, I’ll position the boat down-current of the ledge and drop an anchor.

Rig to Jig

A squid rig reflects fishing at its simplest: a pair of dropper loops, 8 to 10 inches apart, each with a squid jig and, another 8 to 12 inches below them, a 2- to 3-ounce weight on the bottom. You can find almost as many types of squid jigs as fishing lures in Northeast tackle shops in spring.

A double or triple row of steel spikes angled up from the bottom characterize squid jigs. You don’t actually hook squid: When the jig’s action stimulates an attack, the squid’s tentacles become impaled on the spikes.

From my experience, in shallow, clear waters under bright sunlight, the realistic but expensive Japanese jigs out-fish the simpler, traditional, hard-plastic squid jigs. Glow-in-the-dark coloring is unnecessary because this is a daytime fishery.

Lures for squid need to suspend ­horizontally to appear the most lifelike. Neutrally buoyant lures produce best off a dropper loop. At times size seems to matter also, with the 3- and 4-inch jigs outproducing larger jigs of 6 to 8 inches. A couple of final tips: Fish a light leader, nothing more than 20-pound, and keep all weed off the rig. Squid have large eyes and stealth is important.

I fish these rigs off light spinning rods using 8- or 10-pound line. A pair of jetting 12-inch squid will put up a battle on light tackle, and the spinning reel gives you the ability to prospect by casting if needed.

Strategies for Suckers

Fishing the rig is often as simple as putting it on the bottom and waiting for the bite. If that isn’t producing, a slow and short jigging action is best. Remember, you’re fishing in shallow water, so a gentle jigging motion — raising the rig no more than 2 feet off the bottom — is best for keeping the jigs in the strike zone. Rarely do you want “extreme” jigging; if your jig is more than 3 feet from the bottom, you’re probably out of the zone.

I find it productive to have at least one person on the boat casting his rig 20 yards down-current, letting it sink to the bottom, then retrieving slowly while maintaining periodic contact with the bottom. This will move the rig in big arcs along the bottom of the water column. We often have squid jump on the jigs while the rig is being retrieved, while others follow the hooked squid right to the boat.

A final trick worth relating involves ­dropping your jig to the bottom, pointing your rod tip down into the water, and rapidly moving the rod tip in figure eights through the water. This rapid but tight movement can generate strikes when the bite slows. This has worked well for me when we see followers chasing other hooked squid to the boat.

Each spring my loligo goals are simple: Catch a few bucketfuls, with 75 percent earmarked for bait, and the rest for dinners of squid fried or stuffed and baked.

I dry off the bait squid and bag/­vacuum-seal them, graded per intended use. I make four-packs of the best-looking large squid for offshore swordfish and tuna baits, and six-packs of smaller ones for inshore fluke and sea bass baits. I also take a couple of fresh ones with me to some of my favorite striped bass spots that night or the next day.

Target the Fish That Eat the Squid

Catching squid is a fun warm-up for bending rods all summer, but the best part of the loligo migration is what follows afterward. Almost immediately after that May full moon, you start feeling sharp strikes on your squid jigs, ­indicating it’s time to change gears and target the fish that eat the squid.

Two major sets of predators follow hard on the squid spawn — a bottomfish migration of scup, black sea bass and fluke, and a midwater migration of bluefish and striped bass.

The second week in May on Cape Cod brings a cornucopia for anglers; each day they have to decide how they want to fish and what they want to catch. Either squid or artificial lures mimicking squid produce equally well

If it’s calm, I can sight-fish for bluefish in 3 feet of water using artificial squid lures such as Rangers, Atoms or Cotton Cordell poppers. If it’s choppy, I can go to one of the many rips in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds to look for stripers chasing squid out of the water. Poppers and soft plastics are killer there.

In either case, the technique is simple: Toss out something with red, orange or white colors; pop and skip it across the surface to emulate a fleeing squid. This is the place for light tackle because, for the most part, you’re dealing with 8- to 10-pound fish chasing squid.

Another approach for stripers and blues involves taking a bucket of fresh squid down to the beach, along with striper rods, 5/0 circle hooks and 2- to 3-ounce bank sinkers. Enjoy the sunset and wait for the first bite. Most of the stripers will be small — 20- to 24-inch throwbacks — but eventually you’ll end up with a 34-inch, 15-pound keeper.

Blues are great sport, but if I want dinner, I might bottomfish with jigs or cut squid for dinner-plate scup and humphead black sea bass. In that case, I look for either hard bottom in 40 to 50 feet, or one of the many wrecks in Vineyard Sound. Once I have found a likely spot, I want my bait or jig gently working within 3 feet of the bottom. A piece of cut squid or metal dancing in the current is irresistible.

Read Next: Six Favorite Striper Spots

Early in the season, some real monsters — 20-inch sea bass and 16-inch dinner-plate-size scup — will give you a tussle in deeper water. As with fishing for stripers and bluefish, going light on the tackle can make the action memorable. Once you find fish schooled on the bottom, it’s easy to drift the same area again and again.

Finally, I can also use cut-squid strips on a 3-ounce lead-head jig, and drift the sandbars and shoals for early-season fluke. This is lazy and easy fun fishing where we prospect both sides of a shoal for the hope of a doormat.

In May, the fluke have not been picked over as much as in midsummer, increasing your chances of a large one. Fluttering a piece of squid along the sandy bottom using the jig head to kick up sand as you drift along ­generates strike after strike from aggressive, newly arrived fluke looking for an easy meal. It might take 10 throwbacks to get one 18- to 20-inch dinner for two, but if you keep at it, you will be rewarded.

The Strange and Sensational Squid

Loligo squid, also known as longfin squid, are so-called for the genus to which they belonged: Loligo. (Ed. note: Just recently, Loligo pealei has been declared by scientists to be Doryteuthis pealei. But the term “loligo” remains in widespread common use, so it remains in this article.) They can be found worldwide and offer an extremely productive fishery in Northeast waters. They migrate into nearshore waters each spring to spawn, then move back to deeper water when done.

Their arrival in late April is signaled by as many as 30 or more commercial squid draggers working inshore channels and troughs a few miles from shore in Nantucket, Vineyard and Rhode Island sounds. By June, the bulk of squid and the draggers have moved offshore behind Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, providing a boost to the New Bedford and Port Judith economies by catching and selling thousands of metric tons of loligo squid to a worldwide market.

These loligo range from 6 to 12 inches (“tube length”), with eight short arms and two longer tentacles, almost the same length as the body. When you haul up an angry squid gazing with massive eyes, hanging on by its grasping tentacles (waving and reaching out), measuring at least 20 inches from hook to mantle, sporting vivid colors, and jetting a mix of water and ink, it can be a formidable creature, especially for young children. Care must be taken: Inside the maelstrom of writhing arms is a sharp, parrotlike beak that can slice into a careless finger.

Squid belong to the cephalopods and, like octopus and cuttlefish, have pigmented cells called chromatophores in their skin. Squid use these cells to camouflage themselves against their background. Catching squid by day gives the angler a chance to see a squid change its color in an instant to match the white of a deck or a red bucket. Waves of color and iridescence run down a squid’s body after it’s captured.

The best (or worst) part of the squid experience is the ink. Few fishing experiences are more fun for a bunch of 10-year-olds than holding squid and pointing them at each other in a squid-ink fight. Even adult anglers can’t help but laugh when one of them gets a face full of ink from a jetting squid. While squid fishing does make a mess, bleach, a stiff brush and a little elbow grease will clean up the mess.

About the Author: Capt. Larry Backman, a passionate Northeast offshore fisherman, has logged more than 125 canyon trips over the past 20 years. While he fishes recreationally, he also holds a U.S. Coast Guard 50 Ton Masters license. When not fishing, Backman is an executive in the computer-software industry.

The post Spring Squid-Fishing Riot in the Northeast appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Antenna Fish from the Mexican Deep

QUESTION:

My brother was fishing in deep water off La Paz, Mexico — probably in 200 feet or so — trying for red snapper when he caught some of these fish. Can you identify it? The panga captain called it a “radio-antenna fish,” maybe because of the tall dorsal fin. Thanks.

Gary Evans
Santa Ana, California

ANSWER:

Gary, that very long third dorsal spine and the ­yellow fin edges mean that you caught a hookthroat bass, Hemanthias signifer, a schooling reef fish found from Southern California to Peru, including the Gulf of California. Also known as the damsel bass, this species closely resembles the splittail bass, Hemanthias peruanus. However, the tail fin of a splittail has very long upper and lower lobes. Reaching only about 17 inches long, hookthroats are common from the Gulf of California southward to at least Panama. Hookthroats live in just under 100 feet to about 1,000 feet of water, and probably stay right near the bottom, likely near caves and crevices. I occasionally see them in fish markets in southern Baja and along the southern Mexican mainland. And the name hookthroat? If you look on the underside of this species’ head, on the throat, you will see a little divot (this is just visible in the photograph); that’s the “hook” that gives this species its name. The IGFA all-tackle-world-record damsel bass was taken in southern Costa Rica in 1995 and weighed 1½ pounds.

—Milton Love

Little Margot from Mississippi

QUESTION:

We caught this little dude in a minnow trap at our dock this August in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The trap was in only 2 feet of water, over some old oyster shells. I have been throwing cast nets and pulling a seine net in these same waters for decades, but I have never seen anything even remotely similar to this strange creature. It seems to have a face like a hind and a tail like a cusk. It even has a neon-green dot on its dorsal fin. Is this a native species? Does it get larger? Could this possibly be an undiscovered species? If it is, can I name it after my daughter? “Little Margot” has such a nice ring to it.

Capt. Sonny Schindler
Shore Thing Fishing Charters
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

ANSWER:

Sonny, your catch is a striped blenny, Chasmodes bosquianus. Although they top out at about 4 inches, they’re ­voracious predators for their size. They live hidden in oyster shells or barnacle habitat, waiting for prey to swim by. Then they explode from their lair, engulf the morsel and return home. Striped blennies have a strange distribution, abundant in the western Gulf of Mexico but absent in the eastern Gulf. And on the Atlantic side, they’re present from northeast Florida north to New York. Living between the two separated populations is the similar Florida blenny. There are many blenny species in the Gulf and worldwide; blennies are one of the most diverse groups. And though they are not particularly colorful, their interesting habits make them ­fascinating aquarium pets.

—Bob Shipp

A Long Snout Without a Doubt

QUESTION:

I caught this fish off the bottom in 400 feet of water off Jupiter, Florida. It had lots of sharp spines. My fishing partner, who called it an orange roughy, said he has caught several over the years. A Web search told me it’s not an orange roughy, but I couldn’t find anything close to it. Any thoughts as to what this might be?

Stuart Montgomery
Jupiter, Florida

ANSWER:

Stuart, you appear to have caught a longsnout scorpionfish, Pontinus ­castor. This species is known to reach a length of about 1 foot, so your catch is quite large. The ­longsnout can be found on rocky bottoms from Bermuda through southeastern Florida, the Bahamas and islands in the greater Antilles chain, at depths between 150 and 1,350 feet. It’s likely that the species’ range is greater than reported. The longsnout scorpionfish sometimes puts in an appearance at fish markets. Although I haven’t seen a report on the longsnout scorpionfish’s edibility, many scorpionfishes are highly regarded as table fare, and I’m sure this one is no different. Like other scorpionfishes, the longsnout has venom-producing tissue associated with spines in its dorsal, pelvic and anal fins, and can deliver a painful sting if an angler is jabbed.

—Ray Waldner

Hawaii’s Flower Bass

QUESTION:

I got this fish off the coast of Hawaii while bottomfishing in 720 feet. We have many types of deep-sea ­groupers, but I haven’t seen this one on any state-record lists. It measured about 8 inches long and weighed perhaps a half-pound. I caught it using a piece of skipjack for bait on 100-pound leader; we were going for much bigger fish.

Dave Haraguchi
Hilo, Hawaii

Dave, you’ve caught a pretty ­little spotted basslet (Liopropoma ­maculatum), a type of deep-sea ­grouper that occurs around seamounts and over deep tropical reefs from Okinawa, Japan, and Taiwan to the Hawaiian Islands. Known in Japan as hanasuzuki, or “flower bass,” this basslet grows to only around 10 inches long, living at depths of 600 to 800 feet over rocky bottoms. The family Serranidae (which includes groupers) has more than 30 species of basslets in the genus Liopropoma, all of which have roughly similar body shapes. However, the spotted basslet is relatively easy to identify due to its unique coloration pattern of dark-­reddish-brown blotches on its body, which contrast with the strong yellow color of the fin tips.

—Ben Diggles

Salty Dog

QUESTION:

We caught this big snapper in 300 feet of water. I believe it’s a dog snapper but want to confirm that.

Capt. Antonio “Tuba” Amaral
Canavieiras, Brazil

ANSWER:

Nice catch, captain! The fish in ­question looks very much like a southern or Caribbean red snapper, Lutjanus purpureus, but based largely on the location of capture, the fish’s dentition, the oblique scale rows above the lateral line, and the small amount of yellow pigmentation around the mouth and on the fins, I believe it is a dog snapper, L. jocu, as you suggested. The pale patch below the eye is a ­characteristic of dog snapper, but pale suborbital areas sometimes occur in L. purpureus as well. I can’t see the anal fin clearly, due to the way the fish is being held; it’s partially collapsed, which might give it a pointed appearance. Dog snapper characteristically have a blue line or a series of blue dots below their eyes, and a couple of blue dots can be seen on your catch. Both L. jocu and L. purpureus have long pectoral fins, clearly visible in your photo.

Dog snapper have been reported from New England, but they commonly range from Florida south through northeastern Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. This species also occurs in the eastern Atlantic. Dog ­snapper are excellent table fare but have been implicated in cases of ciguatera poisoning, so be wary of eating individuals caught around areas with coral reefs, and especially cautious of consuming large specimens.

—Ray Waldner

Read Next: Strange Fishes From the Deep — Rare Domine and More

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