please identify this fish

[antoine rokomura]

I caught this today on the beach, here in Broward county. It is about a foot long, and by general size, shape and color I thought it might be a Florida Pompano. But there are several obvious differences: It has scales, it is less diamond shaped through the middle, and those fish lips are something different. It also has blotches of color in the middle that almost want to make a vertical bar pattern. I see these all the time following the bait fish, and catch them once in a while when going for pompano or whiting.

And since this is a forum for sharing info... I caught it using a mole crab (about an inch, and it had very a noticeable orange egg sack). It was a regular fish finder rig, with a smallish (#4?) hook attached to a fluorocarbon leader. It was just around high tide, and I threw it to the back of the trough, just before the sand bar. There were plenty of bait fish in the water (some greenback minnows, and some of those ones with a small orange dot near the gill plate).

[lkatze2]

did not need all the details of when ,where, how. It is a mojarra, very common and good to eat.

[BEOWULF]

Wow, a foot long mojarra, that's a beast!

[killakimdr]

looks like a Irish Pompano (Sand Perch) very good meat

[Leadslinger]

Warsaw

[k5523915]

they are good eating and large size (like a 10-12" mangrove) ones are common during the summer.. catch more

[antoine rokomura]

Hmm.. From a quick google image search, it seem like Irish Pompano, Irish Mojarra, and Sand Perch are all names commonly given to the same fish. I have caught other mojarra before, but none that looked like that. The others I caught were smaller, more uniformly silvery, without the speckling, and with a more pronounced hump between the nose and dorsal.

I did eat eat, and it was pretty good. The fillets were nice but small because I am a mediocre fisherman and a worse cook. I was too lazy to scale and gut it.

Thanks a lot for the info. I have to remember to check this forum more often, and I'll let you know if I catch anything interesting.

[BEOWULF]

Forgot to mention, welcome aboard Antoine.

[Kingofthesea]

..........and a worse cook. I was too lazy to scale and gut it

tell me you're lying son because cook will be a word never again associated with your name. Maybe try throwing the next one in a blender and making a smoothie with some ice and a couple of cans of anchovies to grease the scales going down. I'm not sure if your culinary skill level requires heat at this point.

[baseball4life702]

Yea dude never eat/cook with the guts unless you want to be best friends with the toilet for a few days. Scales I believe are actually healthy for you but still would be worse to eat them still there.

[WetWillie]

Longjaw Mud Snapper!

[Rare]

Silver Jenny

[Leadslinger]

Them had to be some tiny filets. Hope it was a sandwich with lots of toppings.

[LINESIDER]

next time put it on a hook and send it back down for a real fish.

[kblue]

next time put it on a hook and send it back down for a real fish.

lol

.

[regulator70]

..........and a worse cook. I was too lazy to scale and gut it

tell me you're lying son because cook will be a word never again associated with your name. Maybe try throwing the next one in a blender and making a smoothie with some ice and a couple of cans of anchovies to grease the scales going down. I'm not sure if your culinary skill level requires heat at this point.