Name/Relations || Range/Sizes || Habitat & Habits ||  Notes

Common Name:   Pinfish
Other Common Names:  Perch, pinny, choafer
Scientific name:Lagodon rhomboides
Family:   Sparidae (Porgies)
Related Species:   Sheepshead, Spottail Pinfish, Jolthead Porgy, Scup

Sizes:  To 4 lbs maximum, common up to 1/2lb
 
 

Habitat:Juvenilles in bays and estruaries around structure, vegitation, and reefs, adults in deeper water (40 feet- 180 feet) in bays, passes, and on offshore reefs.

Spawning Habits:  Adults spawn offshore in schools in early spring, abandoning the eggs to the current.  As young hatch, they swim into bays and estruaries where they grow and mature.  Mature fish (over 8") head to deep water reefs.

Feeding Habits: Omnivourous.  Largely minnows, crustaceans, and molluscs, but will occasionally eat seaweed and organic debris.  An aggressive feeder, it will eat anywhere it is swimming, especially around docks.
 
 

Notes: Similar in shape and habit to the freshwater sunfishes (i.e. Bluegill) it is a common catch for inshore anglers and a popular baitfish, as well as the food source for many inshore predators.  It has small flat teeth like other members of the Porgy family (Sparidae) and has sharp spines on the dorsal, ventral, and pectoral fins, earning it the name 'pinfish'.  It is easily persued using a small hook (#10-#6) with squid or shrimp and either a bobber or spit-shot around docks, bridges, rocks, and grass beads.  It will inhabit very shallow water in the spring,summer, and fall, but will retreat to deeper water in the winter. Larger adults are often caught by bottom fishers seeking snappers on offshore reefs.