Fishing Species Guides
Detailed guides for 46 popular freshwater and saltwater species. Each guide includes optimal water temperatures, seasonal patterns, proven techniques, and species-specific forecasts.
Freshwater Species
Largemouth Bass
60–85°F · Ideal 70°F
America's most popular gamefish. Active in warm water, highly responsive to pressure changes.
Smallmouth Bass
55–80°F · Ideal 65°F
Prefers cooler, cleaner water than largemouth. Strong fighters found in rivers and rocky lakes.
Spotted Bass
55–82°F · Ideal 72°F
A schooling black bass of clear, deep, rocky water. Suspends over structure rather than sitting in it, and keeps feeding all winter.
Rainbow Trout
45–65°F · Ideal 55°F
Cold water species. Very temperature sensitive - activity drops sharply above 68°F.
Brown Trout
50–70°F · Ideal 58°F
Nocturnal tendencies. Larger specimens are most active at night and during low-light conditions.
Cutthroat Trout
44–63°F · Ideal 56°F
The native trout of the interior West. Feeds hardest in the middle of the day, and gives up its water to rainbow above 68°F.
Brook Trout
46–65°F · Ideal 58°F
The native trout of the East, and a char rather than a trout. Coldest-water of the family by habitat rather than by preference.
Lake Trout
38–72°F · Ideal 52°F
A char, not a trout, and the deepest-living fish here. Best at ice-out and through the ice; in summer it is below the thermocline.
Kokanee
42–58°F · Ideal 53°F
Landlocked sockeye, and the only plankton grazer here. Found by locating a narrow temperature band rather than by finding structure.
Coho Salmon
46–68°F · Ideal 59°F
Smaller and far more willing than a king, running later and holding higher in the water column. Dies after spawning, like every Pacific salmon.
Chinook Salmon
44–62°F · Ideal 53°F
The largest Pacific salmon, and a fish anglers locate by water temperature. Dies after spawning, so there is no season after the run.
Steelhead
40–60°F · Ideal 52°F
Sea-run rainbow trout. Flow and water temperature decide the day, and the bite comes late morning rather than at first light.
Walleye
50–75°F · Ideal 62°F
Light-sensitive eyes make them most active in low-light. Highly responsive to pressure changes.
Yellow Perch
52–78°F · Ideal 68°F
Strictly diurnal schooling fish. Feeds through the whole daylight period and effectively stops after dark.
Northern Pike
43–75°F · Ideal 60°F
Aggressive ambush predator. Will feed throughout the day in suitable conditions.
Musky
55–78°F · Ideal 68°F
The "fish of 10,000 casts." Highly selective feeder, very sensitive to conditions.
Channel Catfish
50–90°F · Ideal 80°F
Scent-driven feeder most active at night. Tolerant of warm water and varied conditions.
Flathead Catfish
58–88°F · Ideal 77°F
The one catfish that will not touch a dead bait. A nocturnal ambush predator that eats live fish and stops eating entirely in cold water.
Blue Catfish
45–88°F · Ideal 76°F
A big-river open-water predator that follows shad. Keeps feeding through winter, when the largest fish of the year are caught.
Crappie
55–80°F · Ideal 68°F
Schooling fish highly sensitive to pressure. Best in low-light conditions around structure.
Bluegill
60–85°F · Ideal 72°F
Adaptable panfish active throughout the day. Great for beginners.
White Bass
50–88°F · Ideal 72°F
A schooling river-runner with two seasons: the spring run below dams, and summer surface jumps on shad.
Peacock Bass
72–92°F · Ideal 82°F
A tropical cichlid living in South Florida canals, hunting by sight in bright midday light. Held to two counties by its own intolerance of cold.
Landlocked Salmon
36–64°F · Ideal 52°F
The signature inland gamefish of northern New England, chasing smelt in the top ten feet at ice-out. Native to four Maine watersheds and stocked across the region.
White Sturgeon
42–78°F · Ideal 72°F
The largest freshwater fish in North America, hunting by smell along the bottom of big western rivers. Almost entirely a catch-and-release fishery.
Saltwater Species
Redfish (Red Drum)
65–85°F · Ideal 75°F
Inshore favorite. Feeds heavily on incoming tides as bait moves into shallows.
Spotted Seatrout
60–88°F · Ideal 77°F
The most-targeted inshore fish on the Gulf coast. Tide-driven, low-light, and the first species to feel a hard freeze.
Snook
70–90°F · Ideal 80°F
Ambush predator preferring outgoing tides. Most active in low-light near structure.
Tarpon
75–95°F · Ideal 82°F
The "Silver King." Requires warm water, active during any tidal movement.
Flounder
55–75°F · Ideal 65°F
Bottom-dwelling ambush predator. Best on outgoing tides as bait flushes from marshes.
Red Snapper
64–90°F · Ideal 80°F
The Gulf reef fish, tied absolutely to structure and almost never found without it. Feeds around the clock, and has one of the shortest legal seasons in American fishing.
Wahoo
68–86°F · Ideal 76°F
The fastest fish in the ocean over a short burst. Hunts blue-water temperature and color breaks along steep structure, and is caught by trolling faster than seems reasonable.
Yellowfin Tuna
66–88°F · Ideal 79°F
A fast-growing offshore tuna that holds near the surface at night and dives deep by day. The one blue-water species here with a genuine night fishery.
Mahi-Mahi
70–88°F · Ideal 81°F
A fast-growing blue-water pelagic that lives on weed lines and temperature breaks. Found by reading sea surface temperature rather than structure.
Blacktip Shark
70–88°F · Ideal 79°F
A fast coastal shark that follows warm water up the Atlantic beaches in summer and back to Florida in autumn. The one species here a shore angler meets after dark on heavy tackle, and the fastest thing in the surf.
Sheepshead
55–90°F · Ideal 78°F
A barnacle-grazing structure specialist with human-looking teeth and a famously delicate bite. The season is late winter, when they stack on nearshore reefs.
Tautog
42–70°F · Ideal 54°F
A crab-crushing structure specialist that holds a home rock for years. Strictly daytime, and it sleeps on that rock at night.
Bluefish
55–82°F · Ideal 70°F
A migratory schooling predator that arrives with the warm water and leaves with it. Feeds in a frenzy, and prefers rough water to calm.
Lingcod
38–58°F · Ideal 48°F
The ambush predator of the same reefs rockfish live on, and colder. Males guard nests for two months over winter, which is why most of the coast closes the season.
Rockfish
42–60°F · Ideal 50°F
A genus rather than a species, and the West Coast bottom fishery. Long-lived, livebearing, and the reason a descending device belongs on every boat.
Pacific Halibut
36–60°F · Ideal 50°F
A deep-water bottom fish that finds bait by scent. Catch rate on baited gear tracks water temperature more closely than almost any species here.
Black Sea Bass
40–78°F · Ideal 60°F
Structure-oriented bottomfish, hermaphroditic and opportunistic. Bimodal seasonal pattern with spring and fall peaks as fish migrate inshore over nearshore structure.
Black Drum
50–90°F · Ideal 72°F
A bottom-feeding drum that finds clams and crabs by feel and crushes them with teeth in its throat. The run is late winter and spring in the passes, and it is the fish of the Gulf winter.
California Halibut
54–76°F · Ideal 65°F
An ambush flatfish lying buried on sand from the surf line to a hundred feet, eating anchovy and sardine. The fishery is spring and summer, when the adults are inshore to spawn.
Barred Surfperch
50–76°F · Ideal 65°F
The surf fish of California beaches: a livebearer that eats almost nothing but sand crabs and schools in the wash from late fall to early summer.
Fresh & Saltwater Species
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