Fish of the United States

From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from Rocky Mountain trout streams to the Florida coast, the United States covers nearly every fishing environment that exists.

236 species documented

Range is the defining feature. The country stretches from subarctic Alaska to subtropical Florida, with the Mississippi basin between them draining close to a third of the territory. One season can see ice fishing in the north and warm saltwater fishing in the south, a few flight hours apart.

Recreational fishing carries a cultural and economic weight found nowhere else, and it shows in the water itself. Management, stocking and monitoring programmes are old and large-scale, to the point that the present range of several popular species owes as much to deliberate introduction as to native distribution.

It is also where most modern lure techniques were born. A large part of the vocabulary used everywhere else comes from here, often carrying the name of the species those techniques were built around.