Austin, TX

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.

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.

Flathead Catfish

Pylodictis olivaris

A solitary, big-river predator that ignores stink baits and eats live fish instead. Flatheads hide in log jams and deep holes by day and hunt sunfish and bullheads at night.

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.

Landlocked Striped Bass

Morone saxatilis

The coastal striper gone inland — stocked giants that herd shad across big reservoirs from Texoma to Santee-Cooper and Mead, and America's favourite landlocked big fish.

Redear Sunfish

Lepomis microlophus

The 'shellcracker' — a bottom-grinding sunfish that crushes snails over shell beds, grows heavier than any other panfish, and fills spring stringers from Florida to Lake Havasu.

Guadalupe Bass

Micropterus treculii

The Texas state fish — a jewel of a black bass found nowhere else on Earth but the limestone creeks of the Hill Country, where it fights the current and crayfish-plucks the rock gardens.

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.

Alligator Gar

Atractosteus spatula

A river giant from another age — alligator gar are the largest gar, broad-snouted ambush predators of Texas and Louisiana backwaters that can top 100 lb. Cut bait under a float in still, warm sloughs is the classic method.

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.