Chicago, IL

Largemouth Bass

Micropterus salmoides

Ambush predators of warm, weedy water. Bass reward anglers who fish cover precisely and slow down when the sun is high.

Smallmouth Bass

Micropterus dolomieu

Pound for pound the hardest-fighting freshwater fish in the Northwest. Smallmouth live on rock and eat crawfish imitations year-round.

Brown Trout

Salmo trutta

A wary, largely nocturnal trout introduced from Europe, now established in Great Lakes tributaries and scattered western waters. Browns eat streamers, spinners and dry flies, with the biggest fish feeding after dark.

Yellow Perch

Perca flavescens

A schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and one of the best-eating freshwater fish anywhere. Perch roam in schools — catch one and there are usually dozens more in the same spot.

Black Crappie

Pomoxis nigromaculatus

A speckled, paper-mouthed panfish that suspends over brush and timber in clear lakes and sloughs. Crappie bite small jigs and minnows delicately — the strike is often just a slight heaviness.

Bluegill

Lepomis macrochirus

The classic beginner's panfish: abundant, willing and surprisingly strong on light tackle. Bluegill nest in colonies on shallow flats in spring and guard the beds aggressively.

Channel Catfish

Ictalurus punctatus

The most widespread catfish in North America, at home in rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Channel cats find bait by scent and taste, bite readily after dark, and are the backbone of pay-lake and river catfishing.

Common Carp

Cyprinus carpio

Widespread, wary and powerful, carp cruise shallow flats rooting up the bottom and are a growing target for sight fishing and European-style bait tactics. A hooked carp makes long, stubborn runs.

Blue Catfish

Ictalurus furcatus

North America's biggest catfish — a slate-blue, open-water hunter of big rivers and reservoirs, from Chesapeake trophy holes to Texas winter flats.

White Crappie

Pomoxis annularis

The crappie of warm, fertile reservoirs — a schooling, minnow-eating panfish that swarms brush piles each spring from Texas to the Midwest.

White Bass

Morone chrysops

The 'sand bass' of spring river runs — a silvery, schooling striped cousin that boils under the gulls in summer and fills stringers from Texas to the Great Lakes.

Sauger

Sander canadensis

The walleye's river-running cousin — a spotted, bottom-hugging predator of big turbid rivers, and a cold-season staple from the Mississippi to the Saskatchewan.

Spotted Bass

Micropterus punctulatus

The largemouth's river-loving cousin — spotted bass school on rocky points and current seams from Georgia to the Ozarks, hit small baits with total commitment, and pull like smallmouth.

Longnose Gar

Lepisosteus osseus

A living fossil with a needle beak — longnose gar hang like sticks in warm weedy shallows from the Great Lakes to Texas, gulp air at the surface, and ambush anything that drifts past.

Freshwater Drum

Aplodinotus grunniens

North America's croaker gone inland — the freshwater drum 'sheepshead' drums over spring shoals, crushes zebra mussels by the thousand, and fights far above its reputation from Erie to Winnipeg.

Hybrid Striped Bass (Wiper)

Morone saxatilis × chrysops

The wiper — a hatchery cross of striper and white bass stocked across plains and southern reservoirs, famous for pack-hunting shad and drag-pulling fights. Find the shad boils at dawn and the action is as fast as freshwater fishing gets.