THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

POUTING Trisopterus luscus
Bucket List status – result
Pouting bottom, Poor Cod top
Another of those cod family members with three dorsal and two anal fins. In this case, the fins are so
close to each other that they appear to slightly overlap. The eye is quite large, the snout blunt, and there
is a prominent chin barbel below its shorter lower jaw.
A deep bodied, often 'dirty' looking fish due to its dark bronze brown colouration on the back and upper
flanks, and grubby white below, with broad darker vertical bars, though this won't always be the case
as they can also be much lighter and un-marked with a pinkish-purplish sheen.
Quite a straight forward fish to pin a name to, especially when weighing in at a pound and more. The
only similar fish which can cause problems in the smaller size bracket is the poor cod, though misidentification
usually works the other way round, with poor cod being labelled as small pouting.
A true pouting will have the start of its anal fin situated underneath the mid point of the first dorsal fin,
whereas in the poor cod, it's pretty much at the end of the first dorsal.
Both species have a dark spot at the upper base of their pectoral fins. In the pouting this spot is at least
as big as the pupil of the eye, while that of the poor cod is noticeably smaller.
Or you could just handle the fish, which can be a dead give away. Invariably, poor cod leave lots of tiny
pearly-silvery scales stuck to your hand, whereas pouting don't.
Other than anglers fishing species competitions and big conger addicts, I can think of few people who
would deliberately target pouting.
A fish frequently caught by boat anglers, but hardly an angler's fish. At worst, a relentless bait robber;
for most a nominal distraction or perhaps a day saver when there is little else about, and for wreck
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