Fish ID please

Hi,

Went on a fishing trip while on holiday in southern Brittany. I went on a charter and rented the gera. It was good fun. We were out for a bout 4 hours. I only caught about 5 fish; two of these, 2 pollack and a 'launce'. More on that later.

The chap fishing beside me was the only one with his own gear and he was using a flowing trace with a single hook, using frozen crab and mussles as bait. He faired far better than anyone else. The rest of us were using feathers (later I used the launce as bait on the feather and had some success).

The fish I caught is called a Tacaud in French. It doesn't show very well but he has distinct zebra like stripes on his body. Others were caught with far more prominent stripes than this one. I'm assuming it's nothing more than a Pouting? He was a good size as was his mate and they tasted delicious on the BBQ!

Also, I assume the launce, which is what the French chap beside me called it, is called a lance here. Is that correct? He was small and skinny and black. He was about 3 times the size of the sandeels you buy as bait and looked very similar only he was black. He ended up as bait because I foul hooked him. There's very little of him to foul hook but I managed it. As you can imagine a hook in the side of a lance is not going to do him any major favours so he didn't survive. A chunk of him caught me the chap below.

So, Pouting & Lance, yes??

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[immunecfg]

Deff a pouting

As the start of the anal Vent is in line with the Dorsal fin, while on a Poor Cod the Anal Vent is in line with the end of the dorsal fin.

Last edited by immunecfg on Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it is a pouting too.

yes definitly a pouting

Thanks lads,

And the lance? Do I have that spelt correctly?

Almost there, just need a u in there Launce

Ok now I'm confused.

I googled 'Lance Fish' and got plenty of photos of similar if not exactly like the fish I caught (as well as a photo of 'Lance Fish & parents' ) But if I google 'Launce fish' I get nothing of note.

I assumed Launce was the French spelling and that it's Lance in English.

Are they two different types of fish??

Lance fish never heard of it, But the pic above is deff a Pouting!

That Will teach me to actually read your post lol, could well be lance in french

Ok. No wonder I was confused.

It looked a lot like this:

http://research.usm.maine.edu/gulfofmaine-census/education/media-gallery/illustrated-taxonomy-for-the-gulf-of-maine/list-of-species/detail-page/?id=193

So I'm assuming it was indeed a 'lance'.

Of course instead of going to all the hassle of posting the photo and garnering opinion here I could have just typed 'Tacaud' into an online french/ english translator which I have just done and got this:

'n. pout, type of fish that lives in colder northern waters'

thats defo a launce,or "greater sandeel". never knew it was called a lance tho...

Ok. No wonder I was confused.

It looked a lot like this:

http://research.usm.maine.edu/gulfofmaine-census/education/media-gallery/illustrated-taxonomy-for-the-gulf-of-maine/list-of-species/detail-page/?id=193

So I'm assuming it was indeed a 'lance'.

Not the same family but similar, launce or greater sandeel here - http://www.planetseafishing.com/species ... l-Greater/

Thanks David. That top one is preceisly what I caught. Launce it is. It sounds a bit more exotic than 'Greater Sandeel'!