fish · The Trophy Room
Ladyfish
The "poor man's tarpon" — a slender chrome rocket of the warm-water surf. Caught right off the South Padre beach in the Gulf, ladyfish are all speed and jumps, hammering a lure in the shallows and going airborne the second they feel the hook. Bony on the plate and mostly released for the pure fun of them, they're a beach-fishing blast.
Identifying
- long, slender, bright silver body with a small pointed head
- large eyes, terminal mouth, deeply forked tail
- a single soft dorsal fin set mid-body; fine smooth scales
- built like a miniature tarpon — and in fact a distant relative
Facts
- they leap repeatedly when hooked, which is the entire appeal
- the larvae are a strange transparent ribbon-like "leptocephalus," the same larval form as eels and tarpon
- catch-and-release for most anglers — great sport, tricky eating
