Telling them apart
Crevalle Jack vs Horse-eye Jack
Look at the eye and the tail. A horse-eye jack has a strikingly large eye and a bright yellow tail. A crevalle has a smaller eye, a dusky tail, and a black blotch at the base of the pectoral fin that a horse-eye lacks.
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Side by side
| What to look at | Crevalle Jack | Horse-eye Jack |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Caranx hippos | Caranx latus |
| Eye | Ordinary | Very large for the head |
| Tail | Dusky | Bright yellow |
| Pectoral fin base | A distinct black blotch | No blotch |
| Forehead | Steep and blunt | Gently rounded |
| Where | Beaches, passes, backcountry, into brackish water | Channels, bridges, reefs and wrecks |
Why the difference matters
They school together and are frequently boxed as the same fish. Beyond the limits, the eye is a real clue to behaviour: a horse-eye's oversized eye means it keeps feeding further into darkness than the crevalle it is running with.
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exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
Full entries
Each fish has its own page with every field mark, the rest of its look-alikes, where it holds and the conditions it feeds in: Crevalle Jack and Horse-eye Jack.
Or skip the key entirely — photograph the fish and Global Fishing League names the species, returns the scientific name with it, and files the catch with the tide, pressure, water temperature and everything else it came from.