Fish Species Encyclopedia

A structure-loving bottom fish with a genuinely unusual life history: NOAA describes black sea bass as protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning most start out as females and become males as they grow.

Typical size: Most keepers are 1-3 lb

One of the most commonly encountered coastal sharks for US surf and inshore anglers, and a fishery with real federal paperwork attached. NOAA requires an HMS permit with a shark endorsement before you may fish for sharks recreationally.

Typical size: Commonly 4-5 ft

The largest catfish in North American fresh water, and the one whose spawning is least well documented — the figures agencies publish for it are usually borrowed from channel catfish.

Typical size: 5–30 lb

A fast, aggressive schooling predator with genuinely dangerous teeth. NOAA describes the bluefish blitz, where large schools attack baitfish near the surface and churn the water like a washing machine.

Typical size: Most rod-caught fish are 2-10 lb

The most widely distributed panfish in North America, and a colonial nester whose beds are the most reliably findable spawning structure of any freshwater gamefish.

Typical size: 15–23 cm (6–9 in), 100–250 g

The grey ghost of the flats, and one of the few US saltwater fish you may not keep at all. FWC has managed bonefish as a catch-and-release fishery since 1 September 2013.

Typical size: Most fish are 3-5 lb

Not a trout at all but a char, and the native coldwater fish of eastern North America. Brook trout spawn over groundwater upwelling rather than at a particular date, which is what makes their redds findable.

Typical size: 15–30 cm (6–12 in), often much smaller in headwater streams

An autumn-spawning salmonid, wary and structure-oriented, and the species most likely to produce a genuinely large stream trout in North America.

Typical size: 0.3–2 kg (1–4 lb), 25–50 cm

The most widely stocked catfish in North America, and the one that spawns first — roughly a month ahead of flathead, which is why a single “catfish spawn” date is always wrong somewhere.

Typical size: 1–5 lb, 12–24 in

A powerful, intelligent, widely distributed coarse fish — the backbone of European sport angling.

Typical size: 2–7 kg (4–15 lb)

A summer spawner that aggregates in passes and river mouths on the new and full moon — which is exactly what makes it easy to overharvest, and why Florida closes the season through the spawn.

Typical size: 24–32 in, 5–12 lb

Two species under one name, and the fish whose spawning temperature state agencies disagree about more than any other — published figures span 55°F to 68°F, and they do not all mean the same thing.

Typical size: 20–30 cm (8–12 in), 250–500 g

The live-bait specialist of the family, and the last of the three to spawn. Flatheads stop feeding while actively spawning, which makes the early-July lull biological rather than bad luck.

Typical size: 5–30 lb

A flatfish that lies on the bottom with both eyes on its left side, ambushing prey that passes overhead. Florida regulates several flounder species together — Gulf, Southern, summer and fringed — under one set of rules.

Typical size: 14–18 in, 1–3 lb

A top reef predator built entirely for speed, and one of the few sport fish that comes with a genuine food-safety warning attached.

Typical size: Most fish encountered are 5-20 lb

A powerful reef and wreck predator that fights straight back down into structure. NOAA records them up to 6 feet and 17 years old.

Typical size: Adults commonly to about 40 lb

A heavy-bodied reef predator that lives on structure and tries to get back into it the moment it is hooked. Florida manages more than a dozen grouper species together under aggregate bag limits that differ between the Atlantic and the Gulf.

Typical size: 24–34 in, 8–20 lb for gag and red grouper

The most sought-after freshwater game fish in North America — an ambush predator that lives in cover.

Typical size: 0.5–2 kg (1–4 lb), 30–45 cm

One of the fastest-growing fish in the ocean and among the most spectacular to look at. NOAA notes the brilliant colouring fades almost immediately after harvest.

Typical size: Most rod-caught fish are 5-25 lb

A toothy, ambush-hunting apex predator of northern waters.

Typical size: 1–4 kg (2–9 lb), 45–75 cm

Five species that share a river and a name but not a calendar. In a single Southeast Alaska creek the runs are months apart, which is why one answer to "when do salmon spawn" is always wrong for four of them.

Typical size: Pink 2–6 lb (3 lb average); coho 3–20 lb (8–10 lb average)

The hardest of the flats species to fool and the one with the most complicated rulebook. In the Special Permit Zone, which includes all of the Florida Keys, harvest is closed 1 April to 31 July to protect spawning aggregations.

Typical size: Flats fish are commonly 5-20 lb

A hard-fighting, acrobatic salmonid and the world's most widely stocked trout.

Typical size: 0.3–2 kg (1–4 lb)

A copper-flanked inshore bruiser and the darling of the flats and marsh.

Typical size: 1–4 kg (2–8 lb) inshore 'slot' fish

Pound for pound one of the hardest-fighting freshwater gamefish.

Typical size: 0.3–1.5 kg (0.7–3 lb)

A fast, schooling coastal mackerel that hunts baitfish near the surface and cuts through light leader with genuinely sharp teeth. Measured by FORK length in Florida, unlike most species there.

Typical size: 14–20 in, 1–3 lb

The defining inshore gamefish of the Gulf coast — an estuarine drum, not a true trout, that holds over grass and along drop-offs and feeds on shrimp and small baitfish.

Typical size: 14–20 in, 1–3 lb

The migratory form of the rainbow trout. Steelhead run rivers in autumn and spawn the following spring, and the gap between those two events — up to six months — is why almost every account of their timing contradicts the next one.

Typical size: 25–28 in, 6–8 lb

A migratory, hard-pulling gamefish and the premier inshore target of the US East Coast.

Typical size: 2–9 kg (5–20 lb)

The 'Silver King' — a giant, prehistoric, air-gulping gamefish famous for blistering runs and spectacular leaps.

Typical size: 18–36 kg (40–80 lb)

A prized cool-water gamefish famous for low-light feeding and superb table quality.

Typical size: 0.5–2 kg (1–4 lb)

Europe's largest freshwater fish and the reason anglers travel to the Ebro. USGS records the largest specimen at 2.73 m and 130 kg — roughly 9 feet and 287 pounds. US Fish and Wildlife classifies it as HIGH RISK for American waters.

Typical size: Ebro fish of 40-100 lb are the draw

Oklahoma's state fish, and the species with the narrowest spawning window of any covered here — Missouri's agency records spawning completed in five to ten days in any one locality.

Typical size: 0.5–2 lb, 10–15 in

A powerful pelagic speedster prized by offshore anglers for blistering runs and deep, dogged fights.

Typical size: 10–40 kg (20–90 lb)