Fun Fishing for Pompano

The warmer the water gets, the more surf and pier anglers on the southern Atlantic Coast look to the sleek, silver-yellow pompano to provide them with sport and great eating. The trusty, easy to reach pompano journey up from the hot waters of the south in the spring chasing food into the suds of the Georgia and Carolina beaches. They stick around for an extended stay that will end only when the waters grow cold again in the fall.

Even now pompano are cruising up our beaches and a more fun-in-the-sun fish you’ve never met. This neon glow, multi-colored hipster fish looks like it just cruised in off the interstate from Ft. Lauderdale and is at any moment prepared to leap from the water and check out the action down at the Myrtle Beach strip.

With a body that combines silver, green, and sun-yellow, along with streamlined fins to help it jet through the water, a pompano flashes under the waves and on the hook, and you can even see one on occasion skipping over top of the water, leaping joyously on its side only to belly-flop back down so fast you’ll wonder if you actually saw it at all.

One great thing about pompano is they are a fish of the surf, often turning their bodies sideways to get into very shallow water, and so available to any surf or pier fisherman casting a plain old bottom rig. Another great thing is pompano are among the very best fish in saltwater to eat. Anglers who don’t want to do all of the work fishing for blues and Spanish requires, or who lack the patience for flounder fishing, find the perfect solution in the quick-hitting, hard-fighting pompano, who grab their baits on a dead run that will jerk them awake quickly on a warm, lazy day.

The key to catching a lot of pompano is to know why they are here. It is to eat sand fleas. Give a pompano a beach swarming with sand fleas and he will flash and leap about all day. It is no coincidence that folks start feeling sand fleas beneath their feet about the same time pompano really start hitting in the surf. If your kids are catching sand fleas and bringing them to you on the beach, it is time to go fishing.

Pompano, like children, are built to catch sand fleas. When viewed from the front they are a very flat fish, and the reason they have the natural ability to turn over and glide on their sides is so they can sweep into the very shallow water, no more than a few inches deep, where sand fleas scurry about the suds. Sand fleas bury themselves fast, so pompano are built fast too, and when they are after a meal, they slash and zag around, snapping out at their prey.

Because their primary food source is in the surf, those who catch a lot of pompano are invariably fishing in the ocean suds or just beyond. Surf fishermen who want to catch pompano have to forget those extra-long poles and mega-casts, unless there is an outer sand bar out there where the suds are reforming. Fish close to the beach. Pier fishermen should not go too far out on the planks.

The best bait for pompano is, of course, sand fleas themselves, but few people use them. You have to gather them from the surf, which puts an extra step in your fishing. Those who do use them do very well. Angling lore tells us if you find the pregnant sand fleas with the orange roe underneath them, the pompano can’t resist. Others say to always use two on one hook. Basically, if pompano are around and you are using sand fleas any old way, you are probably going to catch some.

Most of the pompano caught from the surf and piers here are pulled in by anglers using shrimp for bait. Pompano hit shrimp very well, although they are one fish that strike fresh, ready-to-eat shrimp much quicker than old, frozen shrimp. Really fresh shrimp fished right in the suds is a terrific pompano bait.

Don’t worry about the rig moving around in the surf. For pompano that is exactly what you want, as more often than not the fish probably thinks the bit of shrimp looks and smells like a sand flea. Sometimes pompano will also hit other baits like bloodworms and earthworms, squid, and even cut bait such as pinfish.

Your hooks should not be too large, probably around size 4 or 2. Don’t use too much weight (two ounces is probably plenty) or any bottom rigs made with wire. Move your rig a bit from time to time, as movement attracts, rather than scaring, a pompano.

Another popular fishing legend says that pompano are attracted to the shine of gold hooks; so you should always use them when after pompano. It sounds reasonable, and it can’t hurt, but I have caught enough pompano on plain hooks to know that a hungry pompano wants his meal shiny or not.

Occasionally, big pompano will be caught farther out into the water. For a fish often thought of as a panfish, pompano get to a very respectable size and many in the 3-4 pound range are caught on piers each year. The species can get up to 8 pounds, although they are dwarfed by their cousins the permit, a much bigger fish that looks very much like them but occurs mainly to the south of our waters and is rarely seen here. A report of a “giant pompano” catch probably means that someone has managed to somehow snag a northern-ranging permit.

Pompano can actually be caught with a wide variety of small lures, particularly yellow and orange jigs fished on the bottom with a bit of shrimp added on to the hook. Even fly fishermen sometimes get into the act, with patterns meant to imitate a sand flea.

After you have your pompano, I have one word of warning. Don’t fry it! Pompano are respected world-wide as a highly-prize food fish, but unlike many panfish they are not at their best when fried. Pompano should be baked or broiled whole.

Spring and summer are prime time for the coolest looking fish in the surf, and you could do a lot worse that a warm southern night, a little summer breeze, and a couple of baked pompano on the menu.

Reference:

• Cast Nets Useful To Saltwater Anglers
• Frenzied Bluefish Prime Target For Fishermen