Fish I.D

Saltwater Inshore Discussion
1

Fishing Sunday on bridge structure in the Ashley river I snagged this little guy. What is it? A juvenile gray tile fish?

2

Looks like a goby

Olde Man Charters

3

Some kind of blenny, maybe a lawnmower blenny?

4

He had a good weight for being tiny and skin like a grouper.

5

fishguy has the family, doesn’t look like the lawnmower variety to me… could probably narrow it down to species with a field guide

6

I’m guessing those are fiddler crab legs by the fish’s mouth? or is that possibly why they call that one a “lawnmower” variety?

The Morris Island Lighthouse www.savethelight.org

7

Southern Hake

Robert Olsen

8

sorry capt, that’s a blenny- its “eyebrows” are laid down across the top of its head and it has a continuous dorsal.

this is a hake that I caught and posted a couple years back, they have barbels and 2 dorsals:

9

and the things in the picture are modified pelvic fins, barbel is blocked by my thumb

10

You are definitely right… There have been some 1 to 3 lb. hakes caught at the jetties in the last couple of years…I catch quite a few small ones while deep holing…

Robert Olsen

11

Cool, I’d love to see one that big- I’ve heard hake are very good eating as they are cousins to cod. Always wanted to catch a decent hake and tautog here, since they are winter transients. The summer transients such as tripletail and pompano interest me too since we are on the edge of their range.

12

edit

13

It’s a blenny for sure. I caught one in a minnow trap years ago and kept it in my saltwater aquarium. It was a very entertaining little guy.

oc

14
quote:
Originally posted by barbawang

Cool, I’d love to see one that big- I’ve heard hake are very good eating as they are cousins to cod. Always wanted to catch a decent hake and tautog here, since they are winter transients. The summer transients such as tripletail and pompano interest me too since we are on the edge of their range.

Actually hakes (1-3 lb range) are VERY common on live bottoms in 100'. There are usually a few on a reef, but they normally hunker up in the rocks kind of like eels. I've never seen one swimming out in the open, so that's probably why nobody catches them on R&R. They don't seem to show any interest in coming out. It's like they are "sleeping" up in the rocks.

As far as tautog, I’ve seen them out there. I don’t dive in 60’ much, but I’ve seen a few of them on a reef in 60’. Their mouth looks a lot like a sheepshead and they were comingled with sheepshead when I saw them, so I guess they prefer similar habitat. We’ve also seen Togs in 100’ as well…

15

I’ve caught 2 to 3 lb togs in the harbor. Always while sheepshead fishing

Mayhem
Pioneer 197

16

The photos don’t match. Look at the dorsals. I’m gonna guess a wrasse. If it is, that dog will bite you