From inshore to offshore, from fresh to salt, Sport Fishing Expeditions is your gateway to the world’s most sought-after gamefish.

“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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The post Strange Fishes From the Deep — Hookthroat Bass and More appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Deep in the Domain of the Domine

QUESTION:

In the southern Bahamas, while deep-dropping off Little Inagua, we caught this fish on the bottom in 1,800 feet of water. I figured if anyone would know what it is, SF’s Fish Facts experts would. Pretty cool fish, though its white meat was soft. It had fangs very similar to those of a speckled trout.

Capt. Pat Dineen
Destin, Florida

ANSWER:

Pat, your photos make a final identification a bit tricky, but based on those, it appears to be a domine, Epinnula magistralis. This rarely encountered species is quite similar to the American sackfish, Neoepinnula americana; both are members of the family Gempylidae, the snake mackerels. A primary means to distinguish the two is the original (forward area) of their lateral lines, but this is obscured by a pectoral fin here. So, it could be a sackfish. The two species’ geographical ranges overlap in the ­western central Atlantic. The domine is apparently much larger than the American sackfish (with reported maximums of 39 and 9 inches, respectively), and that further suggests your catch is a domine. Little life history is available for the species.

—Ray Waldner

Dolphin Disgorged

QUESTION:

We were trolling small artificial lures and catching blackfin tuna on the Islamorada Hump when one of them coughed up a few of these tiny fish. Looking closer, I noticed the forked tail and body shape. Could these be newborn mahi?

Jeffrey Dupre
Islamorada, Florida

ANSWER:

Good call, Jeffrey. It is a young dolphinfish, Coryphaena hippurus. This species is one of the fastest-growing fish in the ocean; small dolphin, such as the one you found, have the potential to grow nearly an inch every six days, but in reality, their growth rate varies considerably. Even adult dolphinfish can grow rapidly; data collected for fish in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that they can reach lengths approaching 5 feet in two years. This incredibly rapid growth corresponds with a short life span: No dolphinfish survives more than four years, and that’s a rare occurrence. Two years is likely the normal maximum age. All of this goes hand in hand with their reproductive strategy. Dolphinfish reach sexual maturity at lengths of around 20 inches, and large females can release up to 1.5 million eggs per spawn, an activity that commonly occurs multiple times each year, especially in the ­tropics.

—Ray Waldner

Pint-Size Snook

QUESTION:

This small snook was caught on a hand line by a local fisherman in Belize, where I fished the flats recently. I know there are several species of snook in the Caribbean; which one is this, and what can you tell me about it? How much larger than this does it grow? How many species of snook are there in all?

Dave Lewis
Dave Lewis Worldwide Fishing
Wales, United Kingdom

ANSWER:

The fish you photographed is Centropomus ensiferus, the swordspine snook. This species is found throughout the western central Atlantic region, ranging from South Florida to Brazil, including the greater and lesser Antilles. It can sometimes be encountered in coastal waters but prefers low-salinity or freshwater areas associated with islands. Attaining a maximum length of about 15 inches, it is the smallest of the four snook species reported from Belize and of the five species of snook known to occur in Florida. Twelve species of snook, all belonging to the genus Centropomus, are generally recognized from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas.

—Ray Waldner

Glam Grouper

QUESTION:

My son caught this deep-dropping Hawaiian waters with cut opelu for bait on the opakapaka grounds just north of Hilo in 80 to 90 fathoms. We’ve never seen one before. Its mouth resembles a grouper’s, and the top teeth are long and curve inward. We plan to donate it to the University of Hawaii at Hilo. What did we catch?

Craig Severance
Hilo, Hawaii

ANSWER:

That, Craig, is a very interesting ­little fish. Because of the barotrauma from being brought up from such a depth, I found this one a little hard to identify, only being able to suggest it appears to be a member of the subfamily Anthiadinae in the family Serranidae (groupers). But when the specimen was indeed donated to the University of Hawaii, Jim Beets and Jack Randall identified it as a threadfin perchlet (Plectranthias kelloggi). This deep-sea grouper species is recorded to grow to only around 8 inches long, so your capture is pretty much as big as they get. Randall considers these fish “not rare,” but admits they’re “not often caught” by recreational anglers due to their relatively small size and the depths at which they occur. Perchlets are distinguishable from other members of the family Anthiadinae by the pale vertical stripe down the midbody, as well as the ­distinctive ­filaments on the rear of the dorsal and caudal fins. This species is known to occur in about 700 to 1,200 feet of water over rocky or sandy bottoms in several areas of the tropical central and western Pacific Ocean, including off Japan, New Caledonia and Hawaii. The fish in each of these areas are thought to be different subspecies. Stomach-content analyses suggest they feed mainly on small benthic crustaceans and finfish.

—Ben Diggles

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

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The post Strange Fishes From the Deep — Rare Domine and More appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

QUESTION:

Have you seen one of these, mate? If so, what is it?

Riley Tolmay, Sydney, Australia

ANSWER:

What you’ve caught there, Riley, is a longfinned bigeye (Cookeolus japonicus), one of the more notable members of the family Priacanthidae (bigeyes). This species occurs worldwide on deep rocky reefs in coastal waters between 120 and 1,200 feet deep. Like other priacanthids, C. japonicus prefers low-light conditions (hence the bigeye’s big eyes) and is commonly found inside caves and holes, usually venturing from these areas only to feed at night. It mainly eats planktonic shrimp, crabs and other small prey, including squid and octopuses. Because of this, it is encountered occasionally by anglers who are lucky enough to put their bait right next to — or into — the hole or ledge in the reef where a bigeye is hiding. In the Caribbean, this species is thought to spawn during the summer months. It’s one of the larger priacanthids, growing to around 28 inches long and 10 or so pounds. You could enter the next one you catch to qualify for the IGFA all-tackle world record as, to date, no one has entered a longfinned

— Ben Diggles

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New Guinea Grouper

QUESTION:

We run sport-fishing tours out of the remote rivers in the New Britain province of Papua New Guinea. Besides catching the notorious PNG black bass (our main target), we also catch these interesting grouper on lures while casting at snags or other structure in lower rivers. I’ve always wondered what they are. Some have white dots, and others are just black. Are those the same species? I have caught them more than 2 feet long in the fresh water of rivers from the middle reaches down to the river mouth.

Richard Reimann, Baia Wilderness Fishing Lodge, Papua New Guinea

ANSWER:

What you have been catching there, Riccard, are white-dotted grouper (Epinephelus polystigma). Also known as white-spotted rock cod, this species occurs in estuaries and rivers from the Philippines south through eastern Indonesia, PNG and the Solomon Islands to northern Queensland, Australia. It appears to have two main forms, either with white dots or a dark-brown or black blotchy color pattern. In some parts of their range, white-dotted grouper are known by natives as “lazy fish,” easy to spear when they aggregate near mangroves in shallow water at night, resting on the bottom with their backs out of the water. Because of this behavior, the species quickly becomes rare around areas inhabited by humans. E. polystigma is a reasonably small grouper, growing only to 20 inches or so; thus, the biggest ones you have been catching at 24 inches approximate their maximum size, indicating you must be fishing in some remote areas to catch them that big. Scientists know very little about this species, though they’re understood to be solitary usually — the shallow-water aggregations are probably spawning behavior, as they occur mainly on new-moon phases and the fish taken during this time are running ripe. White-dotted grouper sampled between 8 and 15 inches long proved to be mature females, and all fish above 18 inches long were mature males, suggesting that these fish may, like other serranids (groupers), mature first as females before changing sex into males.

— Ben Diggles
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Very Long Spine from the Socal Brine

QUESTION:

We were fishing in about 100 feet of water off of San Pedro, California when I caught this cute little guy. Actually snagged him with a stinger-style jig. He didn’t want to lay flat for a picture, but I got one shot before he curled up again. It looks to me like a cross between a lizardfish and a goby. After a nearly a lifetime of fishing SoCal, I’m stumped. What is this?

Peter Corselli, La Habra Heights, California

ANSWER:

Peter, that little bitty mouth and those long dorsal spines make this a longspine combfish, Zaniolepis latipinnis — a quite-distant cousin of the toothy lingcod. Longspines are a dwarf species, topping out at about 12 inches long and found along the west coast of North America from Vancouver Island to southern Baja California at depths of about 50 to 1,000 feet. When I conduct fish surveys in manned submarines off California, I usually see longspines on cobble, or occasionally muddy sea floors, often resting right on the bottom (they rise up to feed on krill and the like), and often sitting in a little divot that they likely dig for themselves. This is a short-lived species — a 7-year-old is a veritable Methuselah. By the way, you mention that when you landed your combfish, it curled up; for some reason, every combfish I have ever captured did the same thing, though I have no idea why.

— Milton Love
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My Heart Bleeds

QUESTION:

On a Baja Web forum, I posted that an angler should bleed almost every fish he catches. Another poster in the thread challenged me to document my reasoning. Can a fish-facts expert provide evidence for why this practice should be done?

James Hamada, Los Angeles, California

ANSWER:

Contrary to one widely held belief, blood doesn’t normally carry bacteria that would be involved in spoilage — if it did, fish would have chronic infections throughout their lives. However, blood might give fishes’ flesh a strong, “gamy” flavor if it’s allowed to remain in their muscles after death. This is especially true of strongly swimming fishes that have large amounts of highly vascularized red muscle. Thus, in most species, the reason for draining blood is to prevent the blood from altering the taste of a fish’s flesh.

Some fish such as the tunas are heterothermic, meaning that their body temperatures are well above that of the surrounding seawater but still vary as the water temperature varies. The physiological basis for the elevated body temperatures involves the arrangement of blood vessels that allows heat transfer between vessels, allowing more heat to remain inside the fishes’ bodies. In these species, removing the blood allows a fish to cool down more rapidly and helps prevent it from spoiling or “cooking” from its own body-generated heat.

Finally, blood can serve as a growth medium for bacteria, so once it leaves a fish’s circulatory system, it can promote spoilage — especially if a fish isn’t properly cooled. The best way to ensure having the highest-quality bony fish possible for table fare:

• Open the cavity that contains the heart (the pericardial cavity, located in the fleshy space below the back part of a fish’s gill covers) and cut the large vessel coming out of the front of the heart.
• Let the blood drain from the circulatory system.
• Remove the fish’s gills and viscera.
• Lightly rinse the fish in saltwater to remove as much remaining blood as possible. • Then pack the fish in ice.

With tuna, it’s also a good idea to sever the spinal cord behind the head to prevent nerve impulses from reaching the fish’s muscles, which can generate additional heat and help promote spoilage

— Ray Waldner
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What Lurks Behind Bars

QUESTION:

An angler fishing with my partner, Capt. Matt Tusa, caught this funny-looking thing while fishing around some structure in Chandeleur Sound, about 20 miles south of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The water depth was 10 to 12 feet, and they were fishing with live shrimp on bottom rigs. Over the years, we’ve seen some strange critters come out of these waters, but this one takes the cake. We think it might be some sort of grunt or pigfish? They released the fish unharmed, not knowing the species and not wanting to break any laws. Any ideas?

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

ANSWER:

Well, Sonny, you had us stumped for a while, and in our defense, for good reason. The fish you nailed is a barred grunt, Conodon nobilis. I didn’t suspect this at first because these guys tend to be more tropical, and aren’t known from the northern Gulf. Also, your specimen was unusually vivid in its markings. But a little digging, and some photos of similarly marked specimens from Texas, confirmed the ID. Grunts get their name from the sound they make by grinding the teeth on bones located in the back of the throat called pharyngeal bones. Most grunts are small, topping off at about a foot or so, as with your barred grunt. Although grunts are extremely abundant along most temperate and tropical areas, they are not a prized food fish. Barred grunts are known as far north as Texas, but are most common in the Caribbean and south to Brazil.

— Bob Shipp
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Far From Home

QUESTION:
In September, while cast-netting for finger mullet off a New Jersey beach, I noticed this fish in the net as well. It was approximately 4 inches long. Any idea what it is?

Darren Tremmel, Brick, New Jersey

ANSWER:

Darren, this juvenile fish is none other than a Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus, family Carangidae (jacks and trevallies). Among the key characters are the detached spines forward of the dorsal and anal fins, and the slightly higher counts of fin rays in those fins. Juveniles of permit (T. falcatus) are similar, but have fewer fin rays. I assume you were cast-netting in the surf zone off New Jersey; that’s a habitat where juvenile pompano are not uncommon. The species spawns off the coast of the U.S. Southeast, but young stages of several carangid species drift north as they develop, and find themselves in agitated surf-zone waters off sandy beaches, such as those found along the New Jersey coast. Some of these southern “waifs” find themselves stranded so far north with the onset of cooler waters in the fall that they might not survive the winter. Others, however, use these surf-zone habitats as nurseries and, after a season of growth, are able to migrate back to coastal waters south of Cape Hatteras, where they rejoin members of their year class

— Mike Fahay
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Snared a Drum

QUESTION:

I caught this guy in the Indian River Lagoon near Fort Pierce, Florida, while fishing for live baits. I’m guessing it’s a silver seatrout or a white perch. What does the expert say?

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

ANSWER:

Nice photo as usual, Tim. Your catch is a silver perch, Bairdiella chrysoura. This member of the drum family ranges from New York to South Florida, as well as portions of the Gulf of Mexico south to Mexico. It’s commonly found in coastal areas over sandy, muddy and grassy bottoms, and is even known to enter fresh water. Most commonly used as bait, silver perch are purportedly excellent eating. However, their small size — usually well under 12 inches — prevents a single individual from providing much in the way of nourishment!

— Ray Waldner

The post Strange Fishes From the Deep: Guess These Oddballs appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

QUESTION 1:

On the ride home from Hudson Canyon, we found this guy in the fish box along with mahi and yellowfin. Could it be a juvenile billfish? Or some sort of pipefish?

Chris Darrah, Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania

QUESTION 2:

I was fishing for squid near Southern California’s Catalina Island with a Hydro Glow in the water to draw up the squid. This little guy showed up; we netted it, took a couple of photos and let him go. What might it be?

Erik Anthony, Brea, California

ANSWER:

These cute little cartoonish guys are longspine snipefish, Macroramphosus scolopax. Longspines are found throughout the world (on the Pacific Coast as far north as Southern California) from the surface waters to depths of almost 2,000 feet. At one time it was thought Atlantic and Pacific snipefish were different species, but it appears now that there is only M. scolopax. When folks do see them, it can be in schools of thousands. The snipefish is a small species, reaching maybe 9 inches long and living to perhaps six years, so you are probably holding an adult fish. When in the water column, they eat plankton; when rooting around in sandy seafloors, they prey on shrimp and other crustaceans. In turn, a wide range of fish eats them. Parenthetically, I had not heard that they were attracted to lights, so that is pretty cool.

— Milton Love

Brilliant Solution

QUESTION:

While jigging north of Sabah, Malaysia, at Royal Charlotte Reef along a steep ledge where it dropped from about 200 feet to at least 750 feet, we caught this. I felt a bump at around 190 feet, but I kept letting out line. When I engaged the reel’s spool, the bait was down at around 300 feet. I suddenly felt tension and hooked this fish. But — what is it?

Wing Chong

ANSWER:

That fairly sizable beast is called a brilliant pomfret (Eumegistus illustris). Also known as lustrous pomfret (or monchong in Hawaii), this species is known to occur along reef drop-offs in waters as deep as 1,500 or more feet throughout the tropical Pacific and Western Indian oceans. University of Hawaii fish guru Jack Randall reports that brilliant pomfret grow to a maximum length of over 31 inches, and the world-record weight is 17 pounds, taken off Kona, Hawaii, in 2005. Your fish was taken in water relatively shallow for the species; as other pomfrets in the family Bramidae, E. illustris are usually encountered between 900 and 1,200 feet, where they’re most often taken on tuna longlines or deep bottom drops. They feed mainly at night on a diet of squid, crustaceans and smaller fishes, and are reputed to be excellent eating, with a high oil content.

— Ben Diggles

Whippersnapper Warsaw

QUESTION:

This grouper was caught aboard my boat in about 80 feet of water. We were fishing off the Alabama coast, near Orange Beach. It would have weighed between 5 and 10 pounds. No one I’ve shown the picture to can ID it.

Laura Pearce

ANSWER:

Laura, that handsome fish is a juvenile Warsaw grouper, Epinephelus nigritus. A couple of key characteristics that give the ID away are visible in the photo, starting with the color. Juvenile Warsaws, like many groupers, sport colors as juveniles quite different from their adult colors: Adults are tan or brown, while juvies are black with a few small white spots. The very young ones also have a saddle pattern on their back, just in front of the tail fin (caudal peduncle). But your catch has outgrown that. Also, characteristic of Warsaws, the second dorsal spine is the longest, and the tail fin has a squared-off margin.

Warsaws get really big, sometimes well over 500 pounds. They favor deeper water, to depths of 1,000 feet, around rocky bottoms. But juveniles, like this one, are often found shallower. Warsaws range from Massachusetts to Brazil but favor continental waters, and are rare or absent from islands. The young are sometimes confused with juvenile snowy grouper, but the latter have much more distinctive white spots, arranged in neat rows.

A number of years ago, I witnessed the catch of a Warsaw of nearly 400 pounds. In its jaws were 13 abandoned hooks, the evidence of many battles won.

— Bob Shipp

The Fish Who Shall Not Be Named

QUESTION:

I was deep-drop fishing off Tokyo and caught this little guy in about 2,000 feet of water. It’s about 8 inches; I’ve never seen one more than 10 inches. Their very tasty white meat is excellent for sashimi or in a stewed broth. We often catch them with golden-eye snapper and Sebastes matsuarae (I can’t find an English name for either). My best guess is Hozukiu embremarius. If not, what is this, and what is it called (in English)?

Ralph Nunez, Tokyo, Japan

ANSWER:

When I first saw your photograph, Ralph, I was reasonably sure your fish was a species of rockfish, genus Sebastes. Unfortunately, about 30 species of rockfishes live in the northwestern Pacific, and most of them inhabit the waters off Japan. There’s no guide to these fishes (either published or Web-based), and some “species” actually turn out to be composed of two or three unrecognized species. So, I did what any good biologist would do, I punted, and emailed Makoto Okamoto, a fish expert in Japan.

It turns out that your fish is a newly described deepwater species (recognized in 2004) called Sebastes kiyomatsui. It has no English name, but if you want to impress your fishing buddies in Japan, call it by its Japanese name Kataboshi-aka-mebaru. A good way to tell this species from other local rockfishes is the black blotch on the cheek and the irregular crimson blotches on the body. By the way, the largest Kataboshi known appears to be about 10 inches long, so you are catching maximum-size fish.

— Milton Love

If Looks Could Killifish

QUESTION:

I caught this little fish in brackish shallow water in Charleston, South Carolina, using a very small fly. Although I know what this is and catch it often, it has always stumped my friends. Can your experts identify this fish?

Jason A. Schall, Charleston, South Carolina

ANSWER:

Jason, the fish you caught is a sheepshead minnow, Cyprinodon variegatus. This widely distributed species ranges from Massachusetts to northern Mexico and along a portion of the northern coast of South America; it’s also found in the West Indies. The sheepshead minnow is mainly a coastal species, though it also occurs in some freshwater rivers and lakes, reaching about 3 inches in length. Some ichthyologists call members of the family Cyprinodontidae — which includes fishes belonging to the genus Cyprinodon — “pupfishes.” They place killifishes in a separate, closely related family: Fundulidae. However, many others continue to include members of Fundulus and Cyprinodon together in the family Cyprinodontidae, and refer to all members of this family as killifishes, despite differences in their common names. Given the confusion surrounding the sheepshead minnow’s systematic classification, I’d be very hesitant to state that it’s not a killifish.

The post Strange Fishes From the Deep: Do You Know Them? appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.