Sport Fishing USA — January 2018

18 JANUARY 2018

Based on color, body

shape and the relative

sizes of the fish’s fins, your

catch is a tropical pomfret,

Eumegistus brevorti, one

of nine pomfret species

known to occur in the west-

ern central Atlantic. You

asked if it might be a sickle

pomfret (Taractichthys

steindachneri), but that spe-

cies inhabits the Indo-Pacific

and eastern tropical Pacific

regions and has never been

reported from the Atlantic.

The anal fin of the sickle

pomfret is considerably lon-

ger than that of comparably

sized tropical pomfret, but

both species share a white

posterior margin on their

caudal fins. The tropical

pomfret is found throughout

JANUARY 2018 / VOL 33 — ISSUE 1

COLOR SWAP

My buddy Dan and I were
fishing off the lava rocks in
Kona, Hawaii, this summer
and caught all kinds of dif-
ferent reef fish that we were
able to identify after looking
at pictures online and local
fish-identification charts
available on the island. But
this one we couldn’t find any-
where. It looks like some type
of triggerfish or unicornfish,
but none of them were this
color nor had the spike point-
ing straight up. I saw one that
looked like this washed up on
the Pacific shore in Cabo San
Lucas many years ago. Can
you tell us what it is?
Frank Gouveia
Pleasanton, California

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SENDSENDSENDSENDININININYOURYOURYOURYOURQUESTIONQUESTIONQUESTIONQUESTION

of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’of your mysterious catch or observation for our experts’

ID and feedback. If we publish your question and youID and feedback. If we publish your question and youID and feedback. If we publish your question and you

CHALLENGECHALLENGE

It’s no surprise you found

this one hard to identify,

Frank, because it appears

you were lucky enough to

catch an unusually pale,

color-reversed specimen of

barred filefish, Cantherhines

dumerilii, also known as the

yelloweye filefish. The more

colorful adult males of this

species are usually a dark-

gray color in the body, with

several lighter vertical bars

along the flanks that contrast

with their translucent yellow

dorsal and anal fins and the

striking yellow or orange

tail. On the other hand, juve-

niles of this species can be

almost black but are cov-

ered in many small white

dots. Barred filefish grow to

only around 15 inches long.

GAME PLAN + FISH FACTS + GEAR GUIDE + NEW PRODUCTS

Barred fi lefi sh

Tropical

pomfret

They occur widely through-

out the tropical Indo-Pacific,

from Mauritius in the Indian

Ocean and across the Pacific

from Hawaii to Japan, and

as far east as the west coasts

of Colombia and Panama.

They’re bottom grazers usu-

ally encountered in pairs

(one male, one female)

at depths of 12 to 100 feet

around tropical islands. The

species feeds mainly on the

tips of branching corals when

available, but lucky anglers

have a chance of encounter-

ing them when these switch

to other invertebrate prey

such as mollusks (as well

as sponges and bryozoans).

ÑBen Diggles

DEEPWATER

DELICACY

While deep-dropping in

about 1,000 feet of water off

Exuma, Bahamas, we caught

pomfret on two successive

drops. Both times they came

off the bottom easily, but

about midway up, there was

violent action on the rod as if

it had been hit by a shark. It

was the pomfret making its

last run — strong! They came

up dead. We thought this

might be a sickle pomfret.

Can you identify the species?

Tim Thompson

Via email