Fish Facts: Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)


Wild brook trout are prized by anglers, but their habitat is disappearing.
Photo by Sandy Hays

Although the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is not, in a fact, a trout at all, it is the most “troutlike” of the charrs. A sought-after game fish because it often lives in pristine waters and. . .

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Fish Facts: Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)


Chris Fowler, who works at Orvis Austin, landed this beautiful grassy in Texas last summer.
Photo by Chris Fowler

Imported from eastern Asia, the invasive grass carp has established itself from coast to coast and is recognized as one of the toughest species to catch on a fly. While the last decade has . . .

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Fish Facts: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Common Carp But Were Afraid to Ask


Carp may be an invasive species, but many fly fishers love them.
Photo courtesy Mike Mazzoni

Unlike trout, common carp (Cyprinus carpio) are unattractive, slimy, feed almost exclusively below the surface, and rarely inhabit clear mountain streams—choosing instead to live in turbid or brackish waters. For these reasons, the species was denigrated as a “trash fish” by . . .

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Fish Facts: Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush)


Although few fly fishers target them, lake trout will readily take flies, especially early and late in the year.
Photo courtesy New York Department of Conservation

In fly-fishing circles, the lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is perhaps the least respected of all the “trout” species. (It’s actually a char, of course, a close relative of brook trout, bull trout, and . . .

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Fish Facts: American Shad (Alosa sapidissima)


The American shad features a silvery body, blue-green back, and dark spots starting near the top
of the gill plate and running laterally rearward, as well as a deeply forked tail.
Photo by Duane Raver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

While salmon, steelhead, and striper runs garnish the most attention from the angling press, the annual migration of American shad offers fly fishers the chance to tangle with a brawny . . .

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Fish Facts: Redfish, Lords of the Marsh


Orvis’s Chrissy Atkins shows off a South Carolina redfish caught from the spartina grass.
Photo by Tyler Atkins

A species known as much for its light flavor as for its sporting qualities, the redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus) is the only species in its genus, which sets it apart from the other fish commonly. . .

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Everything You Want to Know About Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka)


During the spawn, kokanees develop the classic sockeye hump, green head, and kype.

The landlocked version of the sockeye salmon, the kokanee (pronounced coke-a-nee) spends its entire life in fresh water. Instead of migrating to the ocean, adult kokanees inhabit large. . .

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