Fish Species: Identification, Habitat and How to Catch

Largemouth bass painted by Duane Raver: dark stripe along a green side, upper jaw reaching past the eye — Illustration: Duane Raver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (public domain)

North America has well over a thousand freshwater fish species alone, and anglers chase a few dozen of them. For each of those, the species pages answer the same five questions: how to tell it from the fish it gets confused with, where it lives, when it feeds and spawns, what it eats, and what to tie on. Each page gives its numbers with their source, so a spawning temperature or a record weight can be checked against where it came from. Water temperature runs most of that year. The water temperature thermometer takes your reading and sorts 26 species into the ones spawning, feeding and too warm.

Largemouth bass spawn at about 60 °F, channel catfish at about 75. Read a thermometer and you know which fish is on the bank this week before you make a cast.

Which fish are you after?

Bass: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Alabama and Guadalupe bass. The most fished-for freshwater fish in the United States, and the fish most lures were designed for.
Catfish: channel, blue and flathead catfish and the bullheads. The biggest fish most anglers will ever catch from a bank, and 8.1 million anglers went after catfish and bullheads in the 2016 federal survey.
Trout: rainbow, brown, brook and lake trout, steelhead and splake. Cold-water fish that tell you a river is healthy.
Panfish: bluegill, yellow perch, white perch and the other sunfish. The first fish most anglers catch, and the best on a plate.
Pike and muskie: northern pike, muskellunge, tiger muskie and pickerel. The toothy ambush hunters, and how to tell one from another.
Walleye: walleye, sauger and the saugeye hybrid, told apart by the dorsal fin and the white tail tip. Prized at the table, and biggest in the southern reservoirs.
Striped bass: striper and rockfish are one fish, at home in both salt and fresh water. The tongue test sorts it from white, hybrid and yellow bass.
Salmon: chinook, coho, sockeye, pink, chum and Atlantic salmon, told apart by gum line and tail.
Carp: common, mirror and grass carp, the invasive bighead, silver and black carp, and the native buffalo mistaken for them. Barbels at the mouth settle it.
Other freshwater fish: burbot, sturgeon, gar, bowfin, drum and the rest of the fish outside the big families.
Fish facts: how fish sleep, breathe, hear and feel, and what each answer means when you hook and release one.
Endangered fish: the listed fish you could hook, and what to do when you do.

Pick the fish, then the lure, then the tackle. The lure section explains each lure type once, how it moves and when it wins. The gear section does the same for rods, reels, line, hooks and electronics, so a species page can say “a 7 ft medium-heavy and a Texas rig” and send you to the page that explains both.

The names, if you want them

A few fish carry more than one common name, and a few names cover more than one fish. Texas Parks and Wildlife lists “yellow cat”, “mud cat” and “shovelhead cat” among the other names of one fish, the flathead catfish. Each species page uses the agency’s accepted common name in its title and lists the regional names where it shows how to tell the fish apart. The names anglers use at the ramp, bucketmouth, slab, gator, hammer handle, are decoded in the slang list of the fishing terms.

Taxonomy moves too. The 2022 genomic revision of the black basses renamed the largemouth Micropterus nigricans and split the Florida bass off as its own species. The IGFA followed in 2024: seven more black bass species became eligible for records, and any new all-tackle largemouth record needs a genetic test. Records move as well: many earlier “spotted bass” records turned out to be Alabama bass, so the IGFA moved them in 2024, and the spotted bass all-tackle record now belongs to a 2 lb 8 oz fish caught in 2025. The species pages give the current name with the older one in brackets and date every record, so they stay right when the next revision comes.

Topics

Bass Fishing: Where the Bass Are, What to Throw, and the Three Bass You Will Meet
Bass fishing by water temperature: where largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass sit from 48 to 90 °F, what to throw first, and how to tell them apart.
Carp: Common, Grass and Asian Carp, How to Tell Them Apart and Catch Them
Carp fish in US waters: common, mirror, grass and the invasive Asian carp told apart, where and when they feed, baits and rigs, records, laws and eating.
Catfish: Species Identification, Baits, Seasons and Records
The catfish species anglers catch most, channel, blue and flathead first: how to tell them apart by the anal fin, when they spawn, what bait each wants.
Crappie: Black or White, Where They Are Each Season, How to Catch Them
Crappie fish, black and white: how to tell them apart, where they hold each season, the spawn by water temperature, how to catch them, the limits.
Fish Facts: The Questions Kids Ask About Fish, Answered With the Science
Fish facts with a number and a source for each: how fish sleep, breathe, hear and feel, and what every answer means when you hook and release one.
Freshwater Fish Species Outside the Big Families: Sturgeon, Gar, Bowfin, Burbot
The freshwater fish species outside the bass, trout, catfish and pike families: sturgeon, gar, bowfin, burbot, drum, eel and paddlefish, with records.
Panfish: Which Fish Count and How to Tell Them Apart
Panfish are bluegill, the sunfish, crappie and yellow perch. Tell 9 sunfish apart by the ear flap, plus records and limits from 50 a day to none in Texas.
Pike Fish: Northern Pike, Muskie and Pickerel, and How to Catch Them
Pike fish of North America: northern pike, muskie, tiger muskie and pickerel told apart, where they live, when they spawn and how to catch one.
Striped Bass: The Striper, Its Kin and the 2026 Stock
Striped bass, striper, rockfish: one fish. The tongue test that sorts it from white, hybrid and yellow bass, its age by weight, and the 2026 stock.
Trout: The Fish, Where They Live, When They Bite and How to Catch Them
Trout are cold-water fish of the salmon family. The five you'll catch, the 68 °F line, when each spawns and how to catch them; every type on its own page.
Types of Salmon: The Five Pacific Species and the Atlantic, Told Apart
The six types of salmon a North American angler meets: chinook, coho, sockeye, pink, chum and Atlantic, by gum line, tail spots, size and record.
Walleye: The Fish, Its Look-Alikes, the Record and How to Catch One
The walleye: how to tell it from sauger and saugeye, where it lives, when it spawns, how fast it grows, the 25 lb record and the rules anglers ask about.

All articles

Endangered Fish in the United States: Which Ones You Might Hook, and What to Do
The US lists 167 fish, 90 endangered and 77 threatened. Which ones anglers hook, what to do when you do, what keeping one costs, and the comebacks.

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