312 5^55, Pike, and Perch 



shore-loving organisms. I consider the pompano 

 to be the best food-fish in either salt or fresh 

 water — the prince of food-fishes, it is incom- 

 parable. It is caught principally in haul seines 

 by the fishermen on the flood tide. On the 

 Atlantic coast it is abundant at Jupiter inlet 

 and at Lake Worth, but not so plentiful as about 

 the outside and inside beaches of the islands 

 about Charlotte Harbor on the Gulf coast. In 

 the summer it strays northward to the Carolina 

 coasts. Its usual weight is a pound or two, 

 rarely exceeding eighteen inches in length or 

 four pounds in weight. It is often confounded 

 with several other species, as the permit {Tra- 

 ckinotus goodei), which reaches three feet in 

 length and twenty-five or thirty pounds in 

 weight; also with the gaff top-sail pompano 

 (Trachinotus glaucus), and the round pompano 

 {Trachinotus falcatus), both of which grow larger 

 than the true pompano and are often sold for the 

 genuine article by dealers; but no one who has 

 eaten a true pompano can be deceived by these 

 other species. It spawns in the summer. 



It is difficult to take the pompano with the 

 hook except on the flood tide, when it is running 

 in schools, feeding along the shores, though it is 



