Fish Identification Photos: Pilotfish, Naucrates ductor: The Pilotfish is blue in color with a series of five to seven wide dark vertical bands along its sides of which two or three extend down into the anal fin and up into the dorsal fin. The outer margins of the caudal, pectoral and pelvic fins are black, but the caudal fin has white tips.

The body of the Pilotfish is quite slender being 4 times longer than it is wide. The Pilotfish has a blunt rounded nose, a small mouth, and a keeled peduncle. The first dorsal fin is limited to a few very short spines, and the second dorsal is weakly concave, originatlng at mid-body. The anal fin is preceded by two short spines and mirrors the second dorsal but is about half its length. The caudal fin is large and deeply forked and the pectoral and pelvic fins are similar in size.

The Pilotfish is most likely confused with the Rudderfish, Seriola zonata (deeper body 3.5 times longer than deep, well developed first dorsal fin). The Pilotfish reaches a maximum length of 24 inches and is found in all Mexican waters in the first 100 feet of the water column. It is found in open seas traveling in close proximity to large ships, manta rays, and sharks. The Pilotfish is viewed as an excellent live bait but is too rare to be used extensively.

The Pilotfish is a member of the Carangidae or Jack Family and Naucrates Genus.

Pilotfish, Naucrates ductor: Jonathan Roldan had sent this photo of the "zebra fish" that has been used as a hot live bait recently around La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. "It's really pretty," he said, "all neon blue on top with black stripes! They are about 8 inches long. Even the skippers didn't know what to call them so everyone just started calling them 'zebras.' We are jigging them with Sabiki rigs at the buoys. It looks like a slimmer caballito all dressed up for an evening at the disco. We've never ever used them before. Heck...I'd never even seen on before and when I asked our skippers the name, they all laughed and shrugged their shoulders." In recent weeks, Roldan reported the "zebra fish" as the hot ticket for amberjack and tuna. Photo courtesy Jonathan Roldan, Tail Hunter International. Fish identificiation courtesy Peter Langstraat.