Need Assistance ID'ing fish!

[Nick Bennett]

Hi People,

I've been hunting unsuccessfully for a picture of a fish I saw snorkelling
off Grand Cayman. Various suggestions haven't matched yet...

I was only maybe 100yrds off the coast, snorkelling around some coral and
enjoying the usual little fish when this mammoth thing caught my eye.
The water was only about 8-10ft deep, but I got the impression he was
wandering around and was on the way out. It was maybe 10-20 ft in front
of me (visibility being superb), and judging by the stingray that also
wandered into the field of view (the second brown-pants moment) it must
have been 4-5 ft long.

It was silver scaled, "normal" fish shaped in my amateur opinion (i.e. no
lumpy head, stumpy body, long fins or jutting jaw) with the exception that
I remember the eyes looked especially large. Maybe 2 inches across? It
was alone and seemed to take note of me but only so as to swim nonchlantly
in the other direction! Thankfully.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Barracuda (too "tall") or tuna (too thin,
width wise). It may have been a large Tarpon but I'm not convinced it had
a down-sloping mouth (it was more horizontal) and the eye was more central
in the head, not as far forward or high. Some pictures of Jewfish look
close but again te mouth doesn't look right. The Tarpon is the closest
match so far though.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Tarpon/Tarpon.html

If anyone can come up with some options and pictures I'd be most grateful
:o) I've gone through entire lists of fish that are supposed to be around
Grand Cayman and not found it yet. It was damned impressive though, not
something I'm going to forget in a hurry! I'd just like to be able to
give it a name. I have no memory of fin size/shape/location sadly. Not
being a fisherman I wasn't looking to ID it that way...but I'm pretty sure
I'd recognise it from a picture/video. It's quite likely to be a
deeper-water fish, since there is quite a steep drop-off from the shores
of the island.

Cheers

Bennett

[licker]

Try Atlantic Goldeye Tilefish, Horse-eye Jack, Bonito, Jack Crevalle, Great
northern tilefish, Rough scad, Tomtate (Grunt), Bullet Mackerel. Try this
location to see if any of the above come close
http://www.thejump.net/fishing/fishing.html click on strange fish ID.


Sarge

[Pepperoni]

There are so many species that it would be difficult to guess from your
description. Try looking through these pictures:
http://www.marinefisheries.org/photo.htm
http://indian-river.fl.us/fishing/fish/


"Nick Bennett" > wrote in message
. cam.ac.uk...
>
> Hi People,
>
> I've been hunting unsuccessfully for a picture of a fish I saw snorkelling
> off Grand Cayman. Various suggestions haven't matched yet...
>
> I was only maybe 100yrds off the coast, snorkelling around some coral and
> enjoying the usual little fish when this mammoth thing caught my eye.
> The water was only about 8-10ft deep, but I got the impression he was
> wandering around and was on the way out. It was maybe 10-20 ft in front
> of me (visibility being superb), and judging by the stingray that also
> wandered into the field of view (the second brown-pants moment) it must
> have been 4-5 ft long.
>
> It was silver scaled, "normal" fish shaped in my amateur opinion (i.e. no
> lumpy head, stumpy body, long fins or jutting jaw) with the exception that
> I remember the eyes looked especially large. Maybe 2 inches across? It
> was alone and seemed to take note of me but only so as to swim nonchlantly
> in the other direction! Thankfully.
>
> I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Barracuda (too "tall") or tuna (too thin,
> width wise). It may have been a large Tarpon but I'm not convinced it had
> a down-sloping mouth (it was more horizontal) and the eye was more central
> in the head, not as far forward or high. Some pictures of Jewfish look
> close but again te mouth doesn't look right. The Tarpon is the closest
> match so far though.
>
> http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Tarpon/Tarpon.html
http://indian-river.fl.us/fishing/fish/

>
> If anyone can come up with some options and pictures I'd be most grateful
> :o) I've gone through entire lists of fish that are supposed to be around
> Grand Cayman and not found it yet. It was damned impressive though, not
> something I'm going to forget in a hurry! I'd just like to be able to
> give it a name. I have no memory of fin size/shape/location sadly. Not
> being a fisherman I wasn't looking to ID it that way...but I'm pretty sure
> I'd recognise it from a picture/video. It's quite likely to be a
> deeper-water fish, since there is quite a steep drop-off from the shores
> of the island.
>
> Cheers
>
> Bennett

[David H. Lipman]

Not even close to being a Jack or Bonita.

Dave



"licker" > wrote in message ...
| Try Atlantic Goldeye Tilefish, Horse-eye Jack, Bonito, Jack Crevalle, Great
| northern tilefish, Rough scad, Tomtate (Grunt), Bullet Mackerel. Try this
| location to see if any of the above come close
| http://www.thejump.net/fishing/fishing.html click on strange fish ID.
|
|
| Sarge
|
|

[Short Wave Sportfishing]

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 17:29:06 +0100, Nick Bennett >
wrote:

>
>Hi People,
>
>I've been hunting unsuccessfully for a picture of a fish I saw snorkelling
>off Grand Cayman. Various suggestions haven't matched yet...

~~ snippity do da ~~

Was the fish on or near the surface? Where you looking down on the
fish when you sighted it?

It was probably a tarpon. Snook is a possibility, but I'd bet a
tarpon.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
-----------
"Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt..."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler", 1653

[Nick Bennett]

Thanks for the help so far...

....no luck as yet finding The One. Hmm. The piccy of Crevalle Jack at
http://indian-river.fl.us/fishing/fish/jackcre.html is close, if the thing
can grow to 4 or 5ft in length... It was also fairly grey/silvery in
colour. I didn't notice any distinguishing markings/colours.


I guess the fish I saw was something the colour of the tarpon link I
posted but more like the body shape of the Crevalle Jack, if not more
"tall" in the water and longer (i.e. the head was less big proportionally)


Still got some links to check out. If when and ever I find it I'll let
you know :o)

Bennett

[Nick Bennett]

For what it's worth, I've drawn a badly-portrayed piccy of the fish as I
roughly remember it, for those who was interested. I won't post it up
here for fear of upsetting those who are rightly anti-binary! If you
fancy helping just drop me a line and I'll email it.

I also found plenty of pictures that show the southern stingray I also had
in the same field of view. These things seem awfully big, and the fish
was bigger than the stingray. The mask I know foreshorterned my vision
(judging by looking at my own arm and the depth of the water) which
probably means that this thing might have been over 6ft long... The ray I
saw looked the same (maybe slightly smaller) as the one in:

http://www.cayman.org/divesite/stingray.htm But the only other thing in
frame for scale for me was this mofo fish.

It was in fairly shallow water (naybe twice the depth of the water in the
photo above), but I got the impression it was lost because it wandered out
to the deeper trench which was only a few yards away. The beach I was at
in Grand Cayman went from ankle-deep to waist-deep over about 100 yards,
then dropped suddenly down to 8-10 foot or so, and then dropped again to a
depth I couldn't accurately tell - 20ft or more probably.

Cheers

Bennett (not obsesseed yet, but getting there)