Telling them apart
Tautog vs Cunner
Look at the mouth. A tautog has thick rubbery lips on a blunt, steeply sloped head. A cunner has a pointed snout with thin lips and small forward-pointing teeth, and stays much smaller.
Last updated
Side by side
| What to look at | Tautog | Cunner |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Tautoga onitis | Tautogolabrus adspersus |
| Lips | Thick and rubbery | Thin |
| Snout | Blunt and steep | Pointed |
| Size | Heavy and compact, grows large | Small at every age |
| Chin | White patch on large males | Never a white patch |
| Teeth | Conical front teeth and crushing plates | Small forward-pointing teeth |
| Where | Rock, wrecks, jetties and mussel beds | The same structure, in far greater numbers |
Why the difference matters
Cunner are the reason a tautog trip feels like it is going badly — they swarm the same rocks and strip a crab before a tog ever reaches it. Recognising which fish is stealing your bait is genuinely useful: constant small taps and bare hooks means cunner, and it is a reason to move rather than to keep re-baiting.
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exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.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: Tautog and Cunner.
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.