Pompano
Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: a compact, deep silver body with a blunt, rounded forehead and a small mouth. The look-alike to rule out is Permit: permit are far deeper-bodied, grow much larger, and carry long sickle fin lobes and usually a dark flank blotch.
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| Scientific name | Trachinotus carolinus |
|---|---|
| Also called | Florida pompano, common pompano |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Jack |
| Temperature | Migrates with the 68 to 85 °F band, moving north in spring and south in autumn. |
How to identify a Pompano
- A compact, deep silver body with a blunt, rounded forehead and a small mouth.
- Yellow wash on the throat, belly and anal fin.
- Short dorsal and anal lobes and no dark flank blotch.
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 |
|---|---|
| Permit | Permit are far deeper-bodied, grow much larger, and carry long sickle fin lobes and usually a dark flank blotch. |
| African Pompano | African pompano juveniles have long trailing dorsal filaments and a much steeper head profile. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Read the full entry for Permit.
Where it lives
Atlantic and Gulf surf zones from the mid-Atlantic to Brazil. Runs the trough just behind the first bar, feeding on sand fleas and coquina in moving water.
Temperature
Migrates with the 68 to 85 °F band, moving north in spring and south in autumn.
The conditions that matter
Pompano are a surf and temperature fish. They follow the warming water up the coast, so water temperature logged against catches predicts the run's arrival within days. On the beach the bite tracks tide and swell — a moving tide over a defined trough with modest wave action stirs the sand fleas they feed on.
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 pompano 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.