Ken,
I have to agree with you.  I grew up fishing near the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans, and lived and fished Tampa for a year and a half.  I've never seen a saltwater fish with the combination of the red eye and the green mottled pattern.  I wish the photo had the fins and tail flared out as this helps immensely in ID.
 
My conclusions:
    Newly discovered species- color patterns matching floating debris such as seaweed.
    Hybrid red-eye bass & pompano- liking colder northern waters than a pompano would.
    Mutant- swam here from Chernobyl
    Extreme example of variation within a species- a juvenile of some species.
    A species imported for an aquarium from another part of the globe- grew too big- and was released.
    A trick photo from my photo lab.
 
It doesn't look like a rudderfish, and the coloration definetly looks freshwater.  The build of the body is not hard and slablike muscle like a pompano, but more round and flexible like a bass.  The pompano has a hard sickle tail, more like a jack, and this fish has a soft bass-like tail. 
 
New Latin name- enigmapompabassimus
 
DonO
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 12:00 PM
Subject: [VFB] New Englanders: need help with fish id

Hello,

There is a long debate going on over the identification of a mystery fish on the florida sportsman forums. It was caught off of Martha's Vineyard. To me it looks like a cross between a bass and a pompano (which I know doesn't exist).

Anybody have any ideas? Here's the link:

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=256605&page=1

Thanks,

Ken

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