Species Guides

26 targets: 12 inshore and close-shore fish from Texas around the Gulf and up to Maryland — starting with the two that built this site, speckled trout and redfish — plus 8 West Coast saltwater fish (San Diego to Monterey) and 6 freshwater fish for the Western lakes (Brite Lake and Lake Isabella). Every guide covers habitat and structure, preferred water temperature, a season-by-season bait and lure table, how light and cloud cover change the bite, and which of our covered waters they’re biting in.

The inshore stars — two fish run this coast

• Speckled Trout (Cynoscion nebulosus) — The signature light-tackle fish of the Gulf and Southeast. Aggressive, schooling, and honest about conditions — when tide, temp and light line up, specks eat. Ideal water temp 65–75°F; active from 58°F to 82°F.
• Redfish (Red Drum) (Sciaenops ocellatus) — The people’s champion of inshore fishing — tailing in inches of water, crushing topwaters, and pulling like a truck from CA transplants’ dreams to the Chesapeake. Ideal water temp 62–78°F; active from 52°F to 88°F.

The full lineup — 10 more worth chasing

• Southern Flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) — The ambush specialist. Slow, methodical bottom presentations near current and structure. Ideal temp 65–74°F.
• Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) — Human-toothed structure bandit. The classic cold-month inshore target. Ideal temp 58–68°F.
• Black Drum (Pogonias cromis) — Redfish’s bottom-feeding cousin. Puppies eat great; giants pull hard and get released. Ideal temp 60–75°F.
• Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) — The glamour fish of Florida inshore — ambush predator with a drag-melting first run. Ideal temp 72–84°F.
• Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) — A 100 lb fish that jumps like a bass. The Gulf beach migration is a bucket-list bite. Ideal temp 76–84°F.
• Gag Grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis) — Yes, a grouper on the inshore list — juveniles prowl Gulf grass flats and rock edges within sight of land. Ideal temp 66–75°F.
• Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) — The mid-Atlantic icon — and a genuine West Coast surf target in Monterey Bay. Ideal temp 55–68°F.
• Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) — Speed in a yellow-spotted wrapper. Find diving birds, cast anything shiny, retrieve fast. Ideal temp 70–80°F.
• Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) — Pound for pound the surf’s hardest fighter, and arguably its best dinner. Ideal temp 68–75°F.
• Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) — The brown bomber of the spring beach run — sight-fished from towers, hooked within sight of the sand. Ideal temp 70–78°F.

West Coast — 8 saltwater targets, San Diego to Monterey

The Pacific side fishes nothing like the Gulf — kelp stringers instead of marsh grass, eelgrass flats instead of oyster bars, and a swimbait-and-iron game all its own. These 8 run the lineup from the bay bass grind to the yo-yo iron bite.

• Calico Bass (Paralabrax clathratus) — The West Coast's resident light-tackle king. Calicos live in the kelp their whole lives, hit like fish twice their size, and reward the angler who can put a swimbait a foot off the stringers without hanging up. Ideal temp 62–70°F.
• California Halibut (Paralichthys californicus) — The West Coast's answer to the flounder — bigger, meaner and worth planning around. A legal halibut off the sand is a trophy anywhere; the record-class water off Santa Barbara grows genuine barn doors. Ideal temp 60–68°F.
• California Yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis) — The fish SoCal builds its summer around. A yellowtail on the surface iron is the West Coast's signature moment — brutal first run, no quit, and a bite that lives and dies with the warm water. Ideal temp 66–74°F.
• Spotted Bay Bass (Paralabrax maculatofasciatus) — The year-round heartbeat of the SoCal bays. Spotties eat every month, fight over their weight class, and turn an hour of dock-and-eelgrass fishing into the West Coast's most reliable bite. Ideal temp 62–72°F.
• Barred Sand Bass (Paralabrax nebulifer) — The summer structure fish of the SoCal coast. Sand bass gang up on hard bottom and artificial reefs by the hundreds in the spawn months — when the bite is on, it is the easiest quality fishing on the coast. Ideal temp 64–72°F.
• White Seabass (Atractoscion nobilis) — The ghost of the kelp. White seabass follow the squid, bite for twenty minutes a day, and haunt the anglers who chase them — which is exactly why a 40-pounder in gray light is the West Coast inshore fish of a lifetime. Ideal temp 58–66°F.
• Pacific Bonito (Sarda chiliensis) — The everyman's tuna. Bonito crash bait in schools, eat anything shiny retrieved fast, and pull like fish twice their size — the West Coast's best light-tackle arm-burner and the fish that hooks kids for life. Ideal temp 64–72°F.
• Rockfish (Sebastes spp.) — Not one fish but a family — vermilion, copper, bocaccio and a dozen more — that turns West Coast hard bottom into the most dependable meat fishing on the coast. Check the seasonal closure dates before every trip; they change. Ideal temp 50–58°F.

Western Lakes — 6 freshwater targets

Brite Lake and Lake Isabella fish a different game — no tides, no salt, and a lure box of their own. These 6 run the stocked-trout program, the bass banks and the after-dark catfish bite.

• Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) — The stocked-lake staple of the West — hatchery rainbows planted when the water is cool, plus holdovers that grow smart and fat. The fish that teaches most Western kids to fish. Ideal temp 52–62°F.
• Largemouth Bass (Micropterus nigricans) — America's fish. An ambush predator that lives on cover — tules, flooded brush, dock shade — and eats anything it can fit in a mouth the size of a coffee can. Ideal temp 65–78°F.
• Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) — Pound for pound the hardest-pulling black bass — a rock-and-current fish that hits like it's twice its size and jumps like it's mad about it. Ideal temp 60–72°F.
• Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) — The night shift. Channel cats feed by smell and taste in the dark, pull hard and honest, and turn a warm summer evening on the bank into a fish fry. Ideal temp 70–85°F.
• Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) — The schooling panfish worth planning a trip around — find the timber, find one crappie, and you've usually found fifty. Isabella's spring run is the stuff of coolers. Ideal temp 60–70°F.
• Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) — The first fish, the kids' fish, and — on light tackle — a genuinely great fish. Aggressive, everywhere, and willing all day, which is exactly why it hooks people on fishing for life. Ideal temp 65–80°F.

Match the fish to the water

Once you know what you’re after, the smart lure toolreads live water temperature, wind, cloud cover and light for your water and ranks the lures that fit right now. Or browse the whole box in thelure & bait database, and seewhere they’re biting across all 31 covered fisheries.