Bluefish
Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: a mouthful of large, flat, triangular cutting teeth — no other common inshore fish has anything like them. The look-alike to rule out is Atlantic Bonito: bonito have dark oblique stripes on the back and small conical teeth, not cutting blades.
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| Scientific name | Pomatomus saltatrix |
|---|---|
| Also called | blues, chopper, snapper blue, tailor |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Bluefish |
| Temperature | Migrates with the 60 to 75 °F band, arriving inshore in spring and pushing south in autumn. |
How to identify a Bluefish
- A mouthful of large, flat, triangular cutting teeth — no other common inshore fish has anything like them.
- Blue-green above shading to silver, with a dark blotch at the base of the pectoral fin.
- A forked tail and two dorsal fins, the first short and spiny.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Bonito | Bonito have dark oblique stripes on the back and small conical teeth, not cutting blades. |
| Little Tunny | False albacore have wavy dorsal markings, spots below the pectoral, and a scaleless body. |
Read the full entry for Atlantic Bonito and Little Tunny.
Where it lives
Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida and the Gulf, plus much of the world's temperate ocean. Roams in schools through the surf, inlets, bays and open water chasing bait.
Temperature
Migrates with the 60 to 75 °F band, arriving inshore in spring and pushing south in autumn.
The conditions that matter
Blues follow bait, and bait follows water temperature and current. The most reliable inshore trigger is a moving tide through an inlet with bait stacked in it; the autumn blitz along a beach is a temperature-driven migration you can predict from your own catch record year on year.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about bluefish into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.