Courtesy Salty101 (edited)
Welcome to our “How to Catch Florida Pompano Fish Guide”! We tell you where, how, and when to catch this small but delicious fish giving you tips on baits, lures, and gear to use. These are tiny Florida inshore fish that are absolutely delicious on a plate. No, they don’t fight all that hard because they really don’t grow to a large size, but they’re well worth targeting.
Appearance: These are short thin fish that resemble the “silver dollars” some of us kept in home aquariums for years as we were growing up. Chances are high that some of you reading this may be keeping some now. They do get bigger than silver dollars but look similar.
Pompano are mostly silver with grey and green toward the top half and white/yellow toward the bottom. The belly (ventral surface) has a yellow tint. The dorsal area around the dorsal fin is darker. The other fins are generally yellow.
The head is round where the jaw meets the snout. It very much resembles the Permit fish, which grows much bigger. There are no scutes like Jacks have.
Length: As long as 24 inches.
Weight: 1 to 2 lb. range fish are common. The African Pompano fish gets bigger and 5 lbs. is common. Maximum length for the Florida Pompano is 24 inches.
Range/Distribution: Florida Pompano cover the entire east coast of the United States, Mexico, and all coasts of Cuba. In the southern hemisphere. They can be found on the north and eastern coasts almost to Argentina.
Florida Permit distribution range covers the U.S., Cuba, Mexico, and Northern South America East Coasts.
Habitat: They enjoy water in the 1 foot to 70-meter range. It is one of the fun shore-fishing and wade-fishing targets that many anglers living near a beach fish for. These fish are common in the waves and shallow water as they look for some of their preferred prey like sand fleas, other crabs, and small shrimp.
Why Catch Them?
Catching any fish is fun, sure. Catching this is almost the least fun you can have though! OK, it isn’t that bad, but the bite may be delayed for hours.
The weather may be rainy. It could be cool or even cold during certain months.
Someone 50 yards down the beach from you might be 1-fish away from his limit and you haven’t caught one yet.
In short, nobody is out there targeting these fish for the absolute joy of catching them. Just about any fish is more fun to catch. Pompano fish are targeted because they TASTE SO GOOD! More on that later.
What Do They Eat?
They eat a few different prey items. Sand fleas (mole crabs of the genus Emerita) also known as sand crabs or sand bugs, are the number one bait recommended for decades for this species of fish. They’re the perfect bite-sized meal and they catch the most fish.
Also effective are other small crabs and small shrimp or pieces of shrimp, and cut pieces of clam. Their diet is primarily mollusks and crustaceans.
If you’re trying to catch your own sand fleas, you’ll spend a lot of time doing it. It is probably best to get live sand fleas at a bait shop, or frozen ones at the supermarket. Then, if you can’t do that, you’ll be fine fishing with pieces of shrimp on the hook – they love that too.
When Is the Best Time to Fish?
The fishing heats up when the weather gets warm. Spring and summer are best, but you can still find some in Northern Florida as the fall and winter set in.
Best Fishing Rigs?
Jig color can be important and some captains and guides insist on certain colors working best for their area. Chartreuse and yellow can be good. Try a number of different colors. Whatever you have. Fish on the bottom.
You won’t really feel the strike from this small fish. Twitch the rod tip a bit if you think you’re getting bites. That may prompt a big hit and you can land your fish.
On the artificial side, using small jigs tipped with shrimp can get you a limit of these tasty critters as well. Live bait always works best, but give it a shot to save some money on bait. If you’re on a boat, you can drop a jig like this straight down and pop it up and down a few times to get the fish’s attention.
Tackle? Use a long rod – 8 foot plus when fishing in the surf, and set up a row of rods if you have them. It may take a while for the fish to find your bait.
Alternatively, you could walk out into the sea and fish with a smaller rod. It can be boring though fishing with just one rod, so setting up at least a couple is ideal. Some guys fish with a dozen rods at the same time.
Best Hooks?
The best hooks (at Amazon) for this species is a size 1/0 circle hook from Mustad, Owner, or Gamakatsu. These are not strong fish and their mouth is hard and strong. Circle hooks ensure a hook in the side (front) of the mouth. You’ll get very few swallowed hooks and it is easier on the fish for catch and release using circle hooks.
How to Cook Pompano Fish?
The first thing I’d do if it were my first time tasting this fish is to remove the scales, gut it, and stick it on ice right away and I mean at the beach. You probably have time to do that unless you have 6 rods in at once and they’re all going off at the same time.
When you get home, get out a no-stick frying pan and coat it with butter. Set the entire Pompano fish on the pan and set it on low heat to cook without burning. Pompano are thin and it won’t take very long at all.
I always put a lid from a smaller sized pan over the fish to catch some of the steam and cook the fish faster. You don’t want to use the correct size lid and trap the steam because it seems to make the fish hard when you do that.
Flip it in 5-8 minutes and cook it another 4-5 minutes. Done. If you like onions, throw some of those in with the butter too. Wait! Garlic. OK, that’s all I’d use. Unless some black or white pepper was handy, then I might give it a dash.
The point is to be able to taste Pompano before you do something crazy with it like putting it on fish tacos or something. Taste the natural goodness first. Then, you’ll probably get addicted to them and fish for Pompano the rest of your life.
That’s how it happens.
The BEST WAY to cook this fish? Broil it in a glass pan covered in foil you poke a couple of holes in. Add butter, onions, garlic, and a touch of salt and pepper on top. Lemon if you like. Let it cook on 450 degrees for about 5 minutes.
Preheat the oven of course. This is my favorite way to cook this fish. Head on. Guts out. Peel the skin away easily when cooked. MMMMM. So tasty.
