Permit
Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: a very deep, flat, disc-shaped silver body with a high forehead. The look-alike to rule out is Florida Pompano: pompano are smaller and shallower-bodied with a more rounded forehead and no dark flank blotch. Permit have a much deeper body and longer fin lobes.
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| Scientific name | Trachinotus falcatus |
|---|---|
| Also called | great pompano |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Jack |
| Temperature | Prefers 75 to 88 °F and leaves shallow flats below about 70 °F. |
How to identify a Permit
- A very deep, flat, disc-shaped silver body with a high forehead.
- Long sickle-shaped dorsal and anal fin lobes, often black-tipped.
- An orange to yellow patch on the belly in front of the anal fin, and usually a dark blotch on the flank.
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 |
|---|---|
| Florida Pompano | Pompano are smaller and shallower-bodied with a more rounded forehead and no dark flank blotch. Permit have a much deeper body and longer fin lobes. |
| Palometa | Palometa have four narrow dark bars on the flank and extremely long trailing fin lobes. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Where it lives
Florida, the Keys, the Gulf and the Caribbean. Adults hold on wrecks and reefs; the fish anglers pursue tail on shallow flats hunting crabs.
Temperature
Prefers 75 to 88 °F and leaves shallow flats below about 70 °F.
The conditions that matter
Permit on a flat are tide-driven like bonefish but far more sensitive to conditions: they push up on a strong flooding tide, and both cloud cover and wind decide whether the shot happens. Water temperature governs whether the flat fishery is on at all. Very few fish reward a detailed log more, because the number of shots per season is so small.
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 permit 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.