The roundtail chub Gila robusta is a cyprinid fish of the Colorado River and Rio Yaqui in western North America.

The body is significantly larger forward of the dorsal fin, and posteriorly it is tapered towards the tail. The forehead area is concave. The mouth is largish, but does not reach as far as the pupil of the eye, and is overhung by the snout. The tail is deeply forked. Color is a grayish brown above, and a lighter shade below. It has been recorded at up to 43 cm in length. It is a voracious predator and very prolific in nature, consuming large amounts of fish, crayfish, frogs, and insects.

Despite this voracious nature, the roundtail chub is not a popular fish with anglers and is considered extremely poor on the table due to its bony and slimy nature. It is generally considered a rough or trash fish in most areas because it often takes angler's baits who are fishing for more desirable species such as catfish or bass.

It is widespread in the Colorado drainage, being found from the headwaters down to the mouth, as well as in some rivers of northwestern Mexico.

Bait
Worms
Minnows
Dough Bait

Lures
Flies
Spinners
Rapalas

The bigmouth buffalo, Ictiobus cyprinellus, also known as the gourd head, redmouth buffalo, buffalo fish roundhead, or brown buffalo, is a large species of the Catostomidae or "sucker" family.

The bigmouth buffalo is a dull brownish olive color with dusky fins. Like other suckers it has a long dorsal fin, but unlike others it has a large oblique and terminal mouth. It is the largest of the buffalo fish and reaches a length of more than 4 ft (1.2 m) and 65 lb (29 kg) in weight.

It is distributed from the Red River of the North Canada to the Ohio River and south in the Mississippi River system to Texas and Alabama in the United States. It lives in sluggish areas of large rivers and shallow lakes.

The bigmouth buffalo migrates upstream to spawn in the spring, usually April to June where it lays its eggs on plants to which they adhere. Bigmouth buffalo, unlike its close relatives the black and smallmouth buffalos, is a filter-feeder, using its very fine gill rakers to strain crustacean zooplankton from the water. It sometimes feeds near the bottom, using short up-and down movements to swirl the water and thus be able to filter from the water the plants and animals that hover near the bottom or rest lightly on it (Pflieger 1997).

The fish is vulnerable in shallow water and is often captured by spearing. It is commercially caught on trot lines, setlines, hoop and trammel nets, and seines. Though it has numerous small bones, its good flavor makes it one of the most valuable of the non-game freshwater fish.

Bait
Worms
Minnows
Dough Bait

The Apache trout or Arizona trout, Oncorhynchus gilae apache, is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae) of order Salmoniformes. It is one of the trouts.

The Apache trout measures in length from 6 to 24 inches, and weighs between 6 ounces and 6 pounds. It is a yellowish-gold color and has medium-sized dark spots that are evenly spaced and that may extend below the lateral line and onto the dorsal and tail fins. The top of its head and back are dark olive in color, and it has the appearance of having a black stripe through each of its eyes, due to two small black dots on either side of the pupil. There is a cutthroat mark below the lower jaw, ranging in color from yellow to gold.

The Apache trout is the state fish of Arizona, and is one of only two species of trout native to that state (the other being the gila trout). It natively lives in clear, cool streams in the White Mountains that flow through coniferous forests and marshes, but has been introduced into several lakes in the area. Apache trout stocked in the Pinaleno Mountains and on Mount Graham, farther west in Arizona, are reproducing. Apache trout are now stocked on a regular basis in the Black River and the Little Colorado River. Bag limits have been set at six fish per day as with all other trout species in Arizona.

Bait
Worms
Minnows
Power Bait

Lures
Spinners
Flies
Rapalas

The longnose gar ranges in length from 60–100 cm (24–40 inches) and weighs 0.5–3.5 kg (1–7 pounds); FishBase reports a maximum size of 2 m. The snout is elongated into a narrow beak containing many large teeth. The gar has a long, cylindrical (fusiform) body covered with diamond-shape.

Bait
Cut Bait
Minnows

Lures
Jigs
Spoons

Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.

Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus and Mycteroperca. In addition, the species classified in the small genera Anyperidon, Cromileptes, Dermatolepis, Gracila, Saloptia and Triso are also called groupers. Fish classified in the genus Plectropomus are referred to as coral groupers. These genera are all classified in the subfamily Epiphelinae. However, some of the hamlets (genus Alphestes), the hinds (genus Cephalopholis), the lyretails (genus Variola) and some other small genera (Gonioplectrus, Niphon, Paranthias) are also in this subfamily, and occasional species in other serranid genera have common names involving the word "grouper". Nonetheless, the word "groupers" on its own is usually taken as meaning the subfamily Epinephelinae.

Bait
Small Fish
Cut Bait

Lures
Jigs

Flounder (rarely: flukes) are flatfish that live in ocean waters ie., Northern Atlantic and waters along the east coast of the United States and Canada, and the Pacific Ocean, as well. The name "flounder" refers to several geographically and taxonomically distinct species. In Europe, the name flounder refers to Platichthys flesus, in the Western Atlantic there are the summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus, southern flounder Paralichthys lethostigma, and the winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus, among other species. In Japan, the Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus is common.

While flounders have both eyes situated on one side of the head, flukes are not born this way. Their life involves metamorphosis. During metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the other side of the body so that both eyes are situated on the upward-facing side of its body. After metamorphosis, flounder lie on one side on the ocean floor; either the left or right side might face upward depending on the species. Flounder sizes typically vary from five to fifteen inches, though they sometimes grow as large as three feet in length. Their breadth is about one-half of their length. Flounder are ambush predators and their feeding ground is the soft mud of the sea bottom, near bridge piles, docks, and other bottom incumbrances; they are sometimes found on bass grounds as well. Their diet consists mainly of fish spawn, crustaceans, polychaetes and small fish.

Bait
Fish Eggs
Small Fish
Crustaceans
Polychaetes

Lures
Jig's
Spoons

The grayling (Thymallus thymallus) is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae) of order Salmoniformes. It is the type species of its genus. Native to the Palearctic ecozone, the grayling is widespread throughout northern Europe, from the United Kingdom and France to the Ural Mountains in Russia. While it was introduced to Morocco in 1948, it does not appear to have become established there.

The grayling grows to a maximum recorded length of 60 cm (24 in) and a maximum recorded weight of 6.7 kg (15 lb). Of typical Thymallus appearance, the grayling proper is distinguished from the similar Arctic grayling (T. arcticus arcticus) by the presence of 5–8 dorsal and 3–4 anal spines, which are absent in the other species; T. thymallus also has a smaller number of soft rays in these fins. Individuals of the species have been recorded as reaching an age of 14 years.

The grayling prefers cold, running riverine waters, but also occurs in lakes and, exceptionally, in brackish waters around the Baltic Sea. Omnivorous, the fish feeds on vegetable matter as well as crustaceans, insects and spiders, molluscs, zooplankton, and smaller fishes, including Eurasian minnows and yellow perch. Graylings are also prey for larger fish, including the huchen (Hucho hucho).

Bait
Worms
Small Insects

Lures
Flies

Lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis, are freshwater whitefish of North America; members of the salmon family. They are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States of Minnesota and Michigan, including the Great Lakes. A valuable commercial fish, whitefish are also occasionally taken by sport fishermen.

Their colouration is olive-green to blue on the back, with silvery sides. They have a small mouth below a rounded snout, and a deeply forked tail. On average, they reach 18". They are found in freshwater lakes where they prefer deep, cool water.

Lake whitefish spawn from September through January in water two to four metres in depth. A large spawning migration enters the Athabasca Delta in late summer, moving upstream in the Athabasca River. The longest single movement of a tagged whitefish ever recorded was 388 km (240 miles), from Fort McMurray to the north shore of Lake Athabasca in Alberta Canada.

The Lake whitefish is considered LC(Least Concern) on the conservation list. However, the distinct stock called Lake Simcoe whitefish is considered T(Threatened) on the conservation list. Natural predators include burbot, lake trout and northern pike.

Bait
Worms
Minnows

Lures
Flies
Small Spinners

The common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae). It is the type species of its genus.

This fish is very common in Russian Arctic lakes, where it is known as sig (Russian: сиг).

The gwyniad (C. pennantii) is sometimes considered to be a subspecies or population of C. lavaretus. The common whitefish is also sometimes called the lavaret or the powan, although the latter refers more properly to C. clupeoides.

Bait
Worms
Minnows

Lures
Spin Baits
Flies

The white sucker, Catostomus commersonii, is a bottom-feeding freshwater fish inhabiting North America from Labrador in the north to Georgia and New Mexico in the south. It is a long, round-bodied fish with a dark green, grey, copper, brown, or black back and sides and a light underbelly. When fullgrown, it is between 12 and 20 inches long and weighs between 2 and 4 lb. It will eat almost anything it can, but most commonly small invertebrates and plant matter. Larger predatory fish species such as walleye, trout, bass, northern pike, muskellunge, and sauger prey on the white sucker.

A very common fish, the white sucker is usually not fished for food, though it is considered good to eat. It is most often used as bait; the young are sold as sucker minnows. When it is eaten by humans, it is usually processed and sold under the name of mullet. Other common names for the white sucker include bay fish, brook sucker, common sucker, and mullet. The white sucker is often confused with the longnose sucker, Catostomus catostomus, since they look very similar.

Bait
Power Bait
Worms
Minnows

Lures
Small Spinners

The Walleye (Sander vitreus vitreus, formerly Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch. The walleye is sometimes also called the yellow walleye to distinguish it from the extinct blue walleye.

In some parts of its range, the walleye is also known as the walleyed pike, yellow pike or pickerel (esp. in English-speaking Canada), although the fish is related neither to the pikes nor to the pickerels, both of which are members of the family Esocidae.

Genetically, walleyes show a fair amount of variation across watersheds. In general, fish within a watershed are quite similar and are genetically distinct from those of nearby watersheds. The species has been artificially propagated for over a century and has been planted on top of existing populations or introduced into waters naturally devoid of the species, sometimes reducing the overall genetic distinctiveness of populations.

Bait
Worms
Leeches

Lures
Rapala's
Blue Fox

Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They occur in all tropical and temperate seas. Most live offshore in the oceanic environment but a few, like the Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus), enter bays and can be caught near bridges and piers. The largest species called "mackerel" is the king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) which can grow to 66 inches (1.68 m). Common features of mackerels are a slim, cylindrical shape (as opposed to the tunas which are deeper bodied) and numerous finlets on the dorsal and ventral sides behind the dorsal and anal fins. The scales are extremely small, if present. A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at a time.

Shearwater, tuna, dolphins, whales, orca, seagulls, marlins, sharks, and humans may hunt mackerels. Mackerels are prized (and are highly harvested) for their meat, which is often very oily. They are known for their fighting ability, and are an important recreational and commercial fishery. The meat can spoil quickly, especially in the tropics, causing scombroid food poisoning - it must be eaten on the day of capture, unless cured. For this reason, mackerel is the only common salt-cured sushi. This fish is highly valued by fisheries. Mackerel fishery is well established in India, the species caught is usually Rastrelliger kanagurta.

Bait
Tray Herring
Ballyhoo
Sardines
Anchovies

Lures
Lazer Lures
Yo-Zuri
Rapala's

A hybrid striped bass or a wiper is a hybrid between the striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and the white bass (M. chrysops). It can be distinguished from the striped bass by broken rather than solid horizontal stripes on the body. Wipers are considered better suited for culture in ponds than either parent species because they are more resilient to extremes of temperature and to low dissolved oxygen.

Wipers became part of aquaculture in the United States in the late 1980s. Most producers purchase the fish young (as fry or fingerlings) and raise them in freshwater ponds. Currently about 10 million pounds (4.5 million kg) are produced annually in that country. Wipers are used both as a gamefish and a food fish.

Most wipers are produced by fertilizing eggs from white bass with sperm from striped bass; the resulting fish are also called sunshine bass or reciprocal cross hybrid striped bass.

Bait
Worm's
Minnow's

Lures
Crank Baits
Spinner's
Rapala's

The wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) is a dark blue scombrid fish found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. Some say that the name "Wahoo" derives from the exclamation of some fishermen, "Wahoo!" who have hooked into the extremely fast running fish. In Hawaii, the fish is known as Ono, after the Native word for "delicious". Hispanic areas of the Caribbean and Central America call it Peto.

The body is elongated and covered with small, scarcely visible scales; the back is an iridescent blue-green, while the sides are silvery, with a pattern of vertical blue bars. These colors fade rapidly at death. The mouth is large, and both the upper and lower jaws have a somewhat sharper appearance than those of king or Spanish mackerel. Specimens have been recorded at up to 2.5 m (8 ft) in length, and weighing up to 83 kg (180 lb). Growth can be rapid. One specimen tagged at 5 kg (11 lb) grew to 15 kg (33 lb) in one year. Wahoo can swim up to 75 km/h (47 mph).

Bait
Live Bait's
Cut Bait's

Lures
Plug's
Rapala's
Magnum's

The tarpons (Spanish: sábalos) are large coastal fish prized by anglers. They grow up to 8 feet in length and sometimes weigh 200 pounds. When swimming in oxygen-poor water, tarpons can breathe air from the surface. There are two species in a single genus Megalops in the family Megalopidae[2], one native to the Atlantic, and the other to the Indo-Pacific oceans.

The genus name derives from the Greek adjective megalo meaning 'large', and the noun opsi, meaning 'face'.

Bait
Pinfish
Mullet
Squirrel Fish
Menhaden
Spot
Blue Crab's

Lures
Spoon's
Plug's
Jig's
Flies

Marlins are a family, Istiophoridae, of large marine fishes, of which several are popular in big-game fishing. They have an elongated body that in the larger species can exceed 4 m (13 ft) in length, a spear-like snout, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forwards to form a crest. The common name is thought to derive from its notional resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Marlin are fast swimmers, occurring in all oceans and hunting small and large fish.

The larger species include the Atlantic blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, which have been reliably recorded in excess of 2 m (7 ft) in length and 120 kg (250 lb) in weight, and the Black marlin, Makaira indica, which have been reliably recorded in excess of 5 m (16 ft) in length and 670 kg (1,470 lb) in weight. Marlins are very fast and can swim 100 m (330 ft) in about 4 seconds (approximately 56 mph). They are popular sporting fish in certain tropical areas and are also commercially important as a food fish.

Marlin are rarely table fare. Most modern sport fishermen release marlin after unhooking. Some marlin that are top record setting fish are taken and weighed on shore. Those records are most often recorded in the IGFA World Record Game Fish books. Marlin is also a main charecter in the book "Mythotical" were he is Merlin's Twin.

Bait
mullet
mackerel
ballyhoo
strip baits
squid

Lures
Giant Killa
Spoon's

Sailfish are two species of fishes in the genus Istiophorus, living in warmer sections of all the oceans of the world. They are blue to gray in color and have a characteristic sail (dorsal fin) which often stretches the entire length of the back. Another notable characteristic is the elongated bill, resembling that of the swordfish and marlins.

Both species of sailfishes grow quickly, reaching 1.2-1.5 m (4-5 ft) in length in a single year, and feed on the surface or at mid-depths on smaller pelagic fishes and squid. Individuals have been clocked at speeds of up to 110 km/h (68 mph), which is the highest speed reliably reported in a fish. Generally, sailfish do not grow to more than 3 m (10 ft) in length and rarely weigh over 90 kg (200 lb), although larger specimens have been seen off the shores of Costa Rica.

The sail is normally kept folded down and to the side when swimming, but it may be raised when the sailfish feels threatened or excited, making the fish appear much larger than it actually is. This tactic has also been observed during feeding, when a group of sailfish use their sails to "herd" a school of fish or squid.

Sailfish are highly prized game fish and are known for their incredible jumps.

Bait
Squid
Shinner's

Lures
Spoon's

The lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus, is a fish of the greenling family Hexagrammidae. It is the only member of the genus Ophiodon.

It is native to the North American west coast from Shumagin Islands in the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California, Mexico. It has been observed up to a size of 152 cm and a weight of 59 kg.[1] It is spotted in various shades of grey. The lingcod is a popular eating fish, and is thus prized by anglers. Though not closely related to either ling or cod, the name lingcod originated because it somewhat resembles those fish.

Bait
Dead Fish
Cut Bait
Shinner's
Fish Meat

Lures
Jig's

The red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, is a reef fish found off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of The Americas and the Gulf of Mexico. The original name in Latin American Spanish is Huachinango or Pargo.

The red snapper commonly inhabits waters from 30 to 200 ft (10 to 60 m), but can be caught as deep as 300 ft (100 m) or more on occasion. They stay relatively close to the bottom, and inhabit rocky bottom, ledges, ridges, and artificial reefs, including offshore oil rigs and shipwrecks.

The red snapper's body is very similar in shape to other snappers, such as the mangrove snapper, mutton snapper, lane snapper, and dog snapper. All feature a sloped profile, medium-to-large scales, a spiny dorsal fin and a laterally compressed body. Red snappers have short, sharp, needle-like teeth, however they lack the prominent upper canine teeth found on the mutton, dog, and mangrove snappers.

Coloration of the red snapper is light red, with more intense pigment on the back. Juvenile fish can also have a dark spot on their side which fades with age.

Like most other snappers, red snappers are gregarious and will form large schools around wrecks and reefs. These schools are usually made up of fish of very similar size.

Red snapper are a prized food fish and are caught commercially, as well as recreationally. Commercially, they are caught on multi-hook gear with electric reels, as gill netting has been banned in the Gulf of Mexico, from which most of the commercial harvest comes.

Genetic studies have shown, however, that many fish sold as red snapper in the USA are not actually L. campechanus, but other species in the family.[1][2] This kind of seafood mislabeling is probably common with species that suffer from heavy overfishing, and whose stocks are depleted to the point that supply cannot keep up with demand.

Red snapper will eat almost anything, but prefer small fish and crustaceans. They can be caught on live bait as well as cut bait, and will also take artificial lures, but with less vigor. They are commonly caught up to 10 lb (4.5 kg) and 20 inches (50 cm) in length, however there have been fish taken over 40 lb (18 kg).

Bait
Cut Bait
Shinner's

Lures
Jig's
Squid tube's