Classic Fish Facts: Brown Trout (Salmo Trutta)

The brown trout (Salmo trutta) has earned a reputation as the wariest and wiliest opponent a river angler can face. Whereas a brookie or a cutthroat will often attack flies with gullible abandon, browns are usually more discriminating. The larger specimens, especially, are often. . .

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Fish Facts: Siberian Taimen (Hucho taimen)

A true river monster, the taimen (Hucho taimen)—also known as the Siberian taimen—can grow to proportions that seem incredible to your average trout fishermen. Whereas John Gierach once wrote about “trout as long as your leg,” taimen can . . .

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Fish Facts: Chain Pickerel (Esox niger)

Northern pike are considered one of the premier big-game targets for fly fishers, but they can be tough to find and catch and live mostly in northern waters. Chain pickerel are generally smaller, . . .

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Fish Facts: Grand Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)


Barracuda are a blast to chase with a fly, as they can be aggressive and fight like hell.
Photo by Greg Vincent, of H2O Bonefishing 

The great barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) isn’t generally considered one of the premier saltwater fly rod species—it’s not part of the flats Grand Slam, for instance—and few fly fishers head to . . .

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Fish Facts: Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma)


This illustration of a Dolly Varden is from Evermann and Goldsborough’s The Fishes of Alaska (1907).
Photo via Wikipedia

Like the two species to which is it closely related—Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus)—the Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma) is a true char that is found . . .

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Fish Facts: Sculpins (genus Cottus)


Prickly sculpin (Cottus asper) demonstrates the classic sculpin shape: big head, wide fins, tapering body.
Photo by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Ever since Don Gapen tied the first Muddler Minnow in 1936, fly fishers have recognized that freshwater sculpins (genus Cottus) can be important forage fish for trout, and there are now . . .

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Fish Facts: Largemouth Bass, a.k.a Ol’ Bucketmouth


Illustration by Duane Raver via USFWS

Among the more widely distributed game fish in North America, and now around the world, the largemouth bass is prized for its aggressive feeding habits and violent strikes. A big bass blowing up the water around a popper chugging across flat water is. . .

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Fish Facts: Pink Salmon (Oncorhyncus gorbuscha)


The large hump in front of the dorsal fin on spawning males is the reason for the species’s nickname, “Humpy.”
Illustration by Timothy Knepp – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

In the angling community, the pink salmon (Oncorhyncus gorbuscha) is not generally held in the same high esteem as its cousins, the Chinook, coho, and sockeye. However, the sheer. . .

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