Pompano vs Permit: How to Tell Them Apart (Even Small Ones)

To tell a pompano from a permit, count the soft rays in the second dorsal fin. A Florida pompano has 22 to 27, and a permit has 17 to 21. If you can't count, look at where the dorsal fin starts. On a permit it begins directly above the start of the anal fin. On a pompano it begins a little in front of it. Size settles the rest: FWC lists pompano up to about 8 pounds, and a permit commonly reaches 50.

The trouble is the small permit. A 3-pound permit in a Panhandle surf trough looks a lot like a big pompano, eats the same sand flea, and fights the same way. Those are the fish people get wrong.

Quick-ID table

Fin-ray counts are from the Florida Museum and Fishes of Texas. The other features are from FWC's species profiles.

The features in detail

Counting dorsal rays

The second dorsal fin is the tall, soft fin behind the row of tiny spines on the back. Raise it with a wet thumb and count the rays from front to back, or shoot a sharp photo with the fin up and count later. A count of 21 or fewer points to permit, and 22 or more points to pompano. It's the most reliable check because it doesn't change as the fish grows.

Where the dorsal starts

FWC's own ID tip is to look at the start of the second dorsal fin compared with the start of the anal fin underneath. Hold the fish flat and draw an imaginary vertical line down from the front of the dorsal. On a permit that line hits the front of the anal fin. On a pompano the dorsal starts ahead of the anal fin.

Shape and the hump

Adult permit are built taller, with a high forehead hump, long swept-back fins and a sickle dorsal you can see tailing on a Keys flat. Small permit are even rounder in side view. Pompano are slimmer and have a gently sloped head and short, upright fins. Pompano from dark water show yellow on the throat, pelvic fins and anal fin. Permit from dark water can show golden tints on the belly too, so don't use yellow as a test.

Teeth on the tongue

FWC notes that small permit have teeth on the tongue and pompano don't. It's a handy check when a fish is right on the line, and you can feel it with a fingertip.

The other two in the family

• Palometa: very long black dorsal and anal fins with bluish edges, and four narrow dark bars on each side. Usually under a pound, on clear South Florida beaches. Neither pompano nor permit has the bars or the streamer fins.
• African pompano: a different look entirely. It's a big, flat, offshore fish of wrecks and reefs, and young fish trail long threadlike fin filaments. FWC manages it on the same page as permit and pompano, but with its own rule.

Where each one lives

Florida pompano are inshore and nearshore fish of sandy beaches, passes, oyster bars and grass beds, often in murky water. They run the beaches in spring and fall. Our pompano fishing guide covers the timing on each coast, and the area guides cover the Panhandle, Tampa Bay and the Space Coast.

The Florida Museum lists permit from Massachusetts to Brazil but most abundant in southern Florida. Adults work the flats, channels and wrecks of the Keys and Biscayne Bay, and the deep wrecks off both coasts. Smaller permit turn up in the same surf and passes as pompano, which is where the confusion starts.

The mistakes we see most

"It's on the beach, so it's a pompano"

Small permit run the same surf troughs and passes as pompano, especially in spring and fall, and eat the same sand fleas and jigs. A fish in the 2- to 5-pound range from the surf is the one to check every time. Count the rays.

Judging by depth from a held photo

Body depth is a good field mark, but only in a flat side-on shot. A fish held toward the camera at arm's length looks deeper and rounder than it is. That can turn a big pompano into a "permit" in the photo, or the reverse. Lay it flat to compare.

Using yellow as the test

Pompano from murky water can be bright yellow on the throat and belly. Permit from dark water can show gold on the belly too. Color tells you more about the water than the fish.

Mixing up the "pompanos"

"African pompano" and "palometa" both carry the pompano name, but neither is easily confused with a Florida pompano once you know them. The African is a big offshore fish of wrecks and reefs, and the palometa wears long black streamer fins and narrow bars. Each has its own rule, so name the fish correctly before you look up the limit.

Size as the only test

Size works at the extremes. A 15-pound "pompano" is a permit, and a 1-pound fish with short upright fins is almost certainly a pompano. The middle, between about 2 and 6 pounds, is where you need the dorsal fin.

Why it matters: separate rules, a special zone

In Florida, Florida pompano, permit and African pompano each have their own size, bag and gear rules. Permit rules also differ inside FWC's Special Permit Zone in South Florida and outside it. A 3-pound permit kept as a pompano can easily break the permit rule. All three are measured in fork length in Florida. We don't print the numbers because they change. Check before you keep one:

• Florida: FWC permit, Florida pompano and African pompano, and FWC's permit and pompano ID sheet
• Other Gulf and Atlantic states: Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina

Photograph it right

Lay the fish flat and side on, with the second dorsal fin raised and the anal fin spread in the same frame. That one photo shows the ray count and the fin start together. Shoot it before the fish dries, then get it back in the water if it's going back. More in how to identify a fish from a photo.

Let Fish Scouter take a look

Pompano vs permit is one of the pairs Fish Scouter's Fish ID is told to separate carefully. It reports the marks it used and how sure it is, and when it's close it tells you what to check, like the dorsal fin start. Your water and the month help break the tie: a fish off a Keys flat and a fish from a Panhandle surf trough in April are not the same bet. Then it opens the pompano or permit card with the season and the current rule. Try Fish Scouter free.