What fish is this? Upload a photo to identify it

What fish is this? How to identify a fish from a photo

Upload or take one photo and this fish identifier names the three species it most likely shows, with the scientific name of each and how sure the model is. The photo is shrunk on your phone first, so even on a weak signal at the lake the answer takes a few seconds. You do not need an app or an account, and the first five scans every day are free.

When a guide is available, it lists fish that may be confused with the candidate. Some guides include reviewed distinguishing features and credited photos. Others link to iNaturalist community confusion records and clearly mark features that are not yet reviewed. If the answer looks wrong, tap Not right?: a second, different AI model looks at the same photo and its answer appears next to the first, without using another free scan. When the first model is unsure, the second one is asked automatically.

Before AI, anglers identified fish the same way biologists do: the shape of the body and tail, how many spines sit in the back fin, where the jaw ends against the eye, and the pattern of spots, bars and stripes. Those features still decide the close calls, which is why the look-alike notes point you to them.

Fish that are easy to confuse

Most wrong answers, from people and from AI alike, are not wild guesses but a close relative. These are the pairs that trip people up most often, and the quickest way to tell each apart:

• Largemouth Bass vs Smallmouth Bass: A largemouth's upper jaw reaches past the back of the eye; a smallmouth's stops below the middle of the eye.
• Bluegill vs Pumpkinseed: A bluegill's ear flap is all black; a pumpkinseed's has a bright orange-red spot at its tip.
• Black Crappie vs White Crappie: Count the hard spines in the back fin: a black crappie has 7 or 8, a white crappie 5 or 6.
• Rainbow Trout vs Brown Trout: A rainbow has a pink band down the side and small black spots all over its tail; a brown has red or orange spots in pale rings and few spots on the tail.
• Walleye vs Sauger: A walleye has a white tip on the lower lobe of its tail and a dark blotch at the back of the first dorsal fin; a sauger has rows of black spots on that fin and no white tip.
• Yellow Perch vs Walleye: A perch has bold dark bars on a yellow body and a small mouth without fangs; a walleye has large canine teeth and a white tip on its lower tail lobe.
• Northern Pike vs Muskellunge: A pike has light, bean-shaped spots on a dark body; a muskie has dark spots or bars on a light body.
• Channel Catfish vs Blue Catfish: A blue catfish's anal fin has a straight edge (30 to 35 rays); a channel catfish's is rounded (24 to 29). Young channel cats have dark spots, blues never do.
• Striped Bass vs White Bass: A white bass is deep-bodied with faint, broken stripes; a striped bass is longer with seven or eight bold, unbroken stripes.
• Bowfin vs Northern Snakehead: A bowfin's anal fin is short; a snakehead's anal fin runs along most of the belly, nearly as long as its back fin.
• Red Drum vs Black Drum: A black drum has barbels on its chin and a high, arched back; a red drum has no barbels and one or more black spots near the tail.
• Common Snook vs Fat Snook: A fat snook is short and deep-bodied and seldom tops 20 inches; a common snook is long and slim with a sloping forehead and grows past 3 feet.

How to take a photo for an accurate ID

The model can only use what the photo shows. A fish held at an angle, half out of the frame or shining with glare hides exactly the details that separate look-alikes. A few seconds before you release a fish is enough for a good shot:

• Lay or hold the fish side-on, level with the camera, and get the whole body from snout to tail in the frame.
• Spread the back fin and the tail so their shape, spines and spots show; on bass and sunfish the ear flap and the jaw matter too.
• Keep the sun behind you or shade the fish; wet scales reflect light and wash out color.
• Keep fish you will release wet and photograph them quickly, ideally in or just above the water.
• Underwater, get close, shoot from the side and avoid a blue haze by using natural light near the surface.

How accurate is it?

No photo identifier is always right, and we would rather say so. In our own test of 41 photos covering 24 common North American freshwater and saltwater species, the right fish was usually the first candidate, and most of the misses were a close relative of the right one. That is a small test, so we don't quote a percentage; it is why you always get three candidates and the look-alike notes, and why the second opinion exists.

Treat the result as a strong hint, not a verdict. Before you keep, release or eat a fish based on its species, check the features in the look-alike notes and your state's official fishing regulations. Never rely on a photo identifier to decide whether a fish is safe to eat.

Your fish collection

Tap Save to my collection on any candidate to keep the fish and a small thumbnail of your photo. Your collection lives only in this browser on this device: there is no account and nothing is uploaded. Open My collection to see every species you have found and remove any you saved by mistake. Clearing your browser data clears the collection too.