When anglers think of pursuing saltwater fishing in Alaska, they’re usually inundated with dreams of wrestling a barn-door halibut — which sometimes get so big that anglers might use a .410 to dispatch the large behemoths. But that’s not the only species the cold waters of Northern California all the way to the Gulf of Alaska can provide.

Often thought of as the “younger brother” to targeting halibut in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the rockfish offers an engaging, high-success-rate option for anglers looking to round out a trip. Also, consider the distressed halibut populations and increased limits anglers have seen in Alaska. If other fish species aren’t available to target, that could really hamper the legendary lodge trips Alaska is so famous for.

From deep-water holes along underwater ridges to the rocky reefs along the coast, rockfish offer a diverse and exciting fishing experience for anglers who target them. We spoke with experts in the field to learn more about the top five species of rockfish you’ll likely encounter in these waters — along with habitat, tackle and techniques for catching them.

Top Rockfish Species to Catch

We caught up with biologists and captains in the region to talk about the top species to catch (there’s more than 34 in Alaska alone). We classified them into two categories — “pelagic” and “non-pelagic.”

Pelagic Rockfish Species

These species tend to dwell off the bottom, congregating around rock pinnacles like walls, ridges, and even in kelp forests near rocky bottoms, but generally higher in the water column. They’re targeted with smaller jigs for the most part, along with spinners and flies on occasion.

Black Rockfish

Agreed upon by all our experts as easily the most-targeted and cooperative rockfish species, these fish school big time around rocky structure (as the name suggests). They are incredibly eager to bite once you find a school. We caught up with Cap. Brent Foster of Brookings Fishing Charters in Oregon. Foster specializes in lingcod and rockfish charters off the Oregon coast, and boasts that 80% of trips are black rockfish, with some really big ones.

“It’s not uncommon to have a 4- or 5-pound black on every trip.” That’s a trophy size fish, and great fun on the light tackle spinning gear. Brent fishes some of the smaller reefs off the lighthouse area of Oregon, often in less than 100 feet of water.

“We do a lot of light tackle here, not running big sticks like other guys do since we’re fishing in 100 feet of water or less with spinning rods and braided line,” Foster said. “Flutter Jigs and smaller paddle tail swimbaits up to 4 ounces excel; sometimes we have to go a bit heavier due to drift.”

Quillback Rockfish

Known for their distinctive spiky dorsal fins, quillbacks are another common pelagic rockfish that grow to good size, making them a favorite among anglers. While available farther north in Alaska, the quillback are a subject of controversy as they’ve been added to the list of banned harvest fish in Oregon. (Other species on the no-take list include copper and China rockfish.) As always, anglers should check limits and regulations of species when fishing in state or federal waters.

What are Non-Pelagic Rockfish?

These rockfish are found most often on or near the bottom and tend to prefer rocky bottoms (hence the name “rockfish”). More often than not, they’re hooked as bycatch when jigging or bait fishing for halibut.

Yelloweye Rockfish

Yelloweye rockfish are the quintessential Alaskan fish. Among the largest of the rockfish species, a big yelloweye jigged up from depth makes a fine photo fit for a postcard. (It’s one of my biggest bucketlist rockfish since moving to the last frontier several years ago.) They’re common and fairly easy to find in and around Kodiak waters all the way down to Prince William Sound.

Tiger Rockfish and China Rockfish

Okay, technically two species, but these are favorites of Capt. Brian McKay of Alaska Outdoors Addiction. While on the smaller side of the rockfish spectrum, they’re beautiful fish, often caught at depths of 100 to 300 feet (and sometimes as deep as 800 to 1,000 feet). They readily hit jigs on light tackle. Tigers are also a favorite of biologist Adam St. Saviour, a researcher with the state of Alaska, as they’re a rare species to catch compared to others. We’ll talk later with St. Saviour about conservation.

Shortraker Rockfish

Gaining notoriety after the 48-pound state record was caught last July in Alaska, shortraker rockfish are known for hanging out deep. Captain Ray Nix, of Crazy Ray’s Adventures, deep-drops herring or octopus on circle hooks with halibut sticks at least 800 feet down to target these fish. By all accounts, it’s quite a chore to crank them up, but worth the experience for a once-in-a-lifetime catch. Electric reels are the preferred tackle method in this scenario.

Fly Fishing for Rockfish

Captain Brian McKay developed a method for clients who want to take rockfish on the fly off the coast of Kodiak Island, Alaska. He suggests switching things up by having one angler “man the jig” with a hookless lure to entice the fish higher in the water column and whip them into a feeding frenzy. Once the fish are jigged up higher, they will cooperate with any big streamers in your fly box, including a super-sized Russian river or popsicle style.

Rockfish Conservation

Catching up with Adam St. Saviour, a research biologist for the Southcentral Region with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, we’d be remiss if we didn’t cover one major conservation aspect of fishing for rockfish. Rockfish are susceptible to overfishing and bad management practice. They’re also prone to barotrauma during their release, which can kill the fish.

In Alaska, it is imperative for anglers to carry a deep-water release mechanism for rockfish in the boat. These devices are designed to return a rockfish back near the bottom where it was hooked, or to a specified depth, to assist the fish in recompression and up chances of post-release survival. Anglers can find more information about deep-water releases from the organization Return ‘Em Right.

About the Author: Cody McLaughlin is an outdoor writer, conservationist and hunting advocate based in Alaska. He recently launched Trout Stream Studios as an executive producer for podcasts and livestreams in the hunting and veterans’ affairs spaces – including for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s The Sportsmen’s Voice Podcast, the popular Blood Origins Podcast, and the Veterans’ Affairs Administration’s National Center for PTSD. He serves currently on the board of the Alaska Outdoor Council and is a former board member and lead spokesman of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance.

The post Targeting Rockfish in the Pacific Northwest appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Tunas are part of the family Scombridae, which also includes mackerels, large and small. But there are tunas, and then there are, well, “true tunas.” Two groups (sometimes known as “tribes”) dominate the tuna species. One is Thunnini, which is the group considered true tunas, characterized by two separate dorsal fins and a relatively thick body. The 15 species of Thunnini are albacore, bigeye, black skipjack, blackfin, bluefin (three species: Atlantic, Pacific, southern), bullet, frigate, kawakawa, little tunny, longtail, skipjack, slender and yellowfin. The other tribe is Sardini; these tunas — the dogtooth tuna and several species of smaller true bonitos — are somewhat more mackerel-like (notably with a more elongated body and a row of sharp, conical teeth). Below you will find complete breakdowns of the various types of tuna in the world.

ALBACORE (Thunnus alalunga)

Easily identified, having by far the longest pectoral fins of any tuna, albacore are also noted for the lightest, whitest flesh among tunas. Circumglobal, albacore prefer temperate (versus tropical) seas and rarely venture near shore. They’ve long been a popular target for California anglers, particularly off the central part of the state, but their availability in the summer varies greatly from year to year. Later in summer and fall, albacore move up into waters off Oregon, Washington and British Columbia but are often too far offshore for most sport-fishing boats.

BIGEYE (Thunnus obesus)

Bigeye may be confused with yellowfin, but their yellow finlets are edged in black and their eyes may indeed be a bit larger. The bigeye may also be more robust in its body shape. But the single sure way to distinguish the two species is underneath the skin: The bigeye’s liver is striated (striped or streaked); the yellowfin’s is not. Found worldwide, this prized game fish is also an important target for commercial longliners.

BLACKFIN (Thunnus atlanticus)

The most common tuna of the Florida Keys and South Florida, blackfin tuna are found in tropical and warm temperate waters of the western Atlantic Ocean. Anglers target them from Brazil to North Carolina, including the Gulf of Mexico, but most of the world records hail from Florida.

A blakfin’s pec fins reach somewhere between the twelfth dorsal spine and the origin of the second dorsal fin, but they never extend beyond the second dorsal fin as in the albacore, explains the IGFA. A blackfin’s finlets are uniformly dark, without a touch of the bright yellow often present in other tunas.

The blackfin is a schooling fish that feeds near the surface, mostly caught while trolling ballyhoo or jigging with artificials. Overshadowed by yellowfins where the two species overlap, blackfins are still a fine-tasting tuna that draws praise when served properly.

BLACK SKIPJACK (Euthynnus lineatus)

This species is one of the few tunas limited to the eastern Pacific, found in waters off California to Peru. The black skippy can be identified by the four or five broad, straight stripes that extend horizontally along its back. A hard-hitting, fast-moving predator, smaller skipjack are popular among anglers for use as live bait for billfish and large yellowfin. The strong dark-red flesh is not appealing to most fishermen.

BLUEFIN (Thunnus thynnus)

The king of tunas, giant bluefin are for many anglers the ultimate prize among all game fishes. Ditto for sushi eaters, who at market may bid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single giant. There’s some irony in the fact that before the latter part of the 20th century, sport fishermen had no use for giant bluefin, which at best were used for pet food, being considered unpalatable. Go figure.

Bluefin mature at about six years of age, around 300 pounds. Atlantic bluefin spawn in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico. Researchers discovered and confirmed a third spawning area in the western Atlantic called the Slope Sea. They’re not terribly picky eaters, devouring even very small baitfish, and invertebrates, including starfish, have shown up in stomach analyses.

Bluefin range from far offshore to near-coastal waters. The three species of bluefin (Atlantic, Pacific and southern) tolerate a great range of temperatures and migrate great distances, across both oceans. Satellite tags have revealed transatlantic crossings in less than 60 days. Decades ago, giants made a reliable migration each May off Bimini and down the Florida Strait, but that suddenly came to an end after the 1960s. In recent years, Southern California anglers have been catching bluefin of sizes exceptional for those waters.

BONITOS (Sarda spp)

In addition to the Atlantic bonito, there are three other species of Sarda (Pacific, striped and Australian). These four true bonitos are related to dogtooth tuna and share that species’ shape — more elongated than other “true” tunas — and somewhat non-tuna-like sharp-toothed dentition. All are small coastal pelagics; all make outstanding light-tackle game fish and (even if not universally appreciated) fine table fare as sashimi or cooked. (Not to be confused with little tunny/false albacore, often called “bonito.”)

DOGTOOTH (Gymnosarda unicolor)

That the Indo-Pacific dogtooth (along with true bonitos — basically smaller versions) belong in a different group from bluefin, yellowfin and relatives isn’t hard to imagine. Unlike those true tunas, dogtooth are longer, leaner and maybe even meaner. Per its name, check out its dentures, most impressive of any tuna. Also, dogtooth are far more solitary, and unlike most tunas are not a schooling species. Finally, they prefer to haunt steep reef slopes; anglers needn’t travel far offshore to tangle with doggies. A fine eating fish, dogtooth are known for their brutal power when hooked.

KAWAKAWA (Euthynnus affinis)

Known as mackerel tuna in Australia, the kawakawa — native to the Indo- and western Pacific — is similar to the little tunny of Atlantic waters. It is also a dark-meat species, though popular among many anglers for food, as in Hawaii. Kawakawa are, typically, tremendous fighters for their size. Kawakawa mostly inhabit coastal reefs and may even move into estuaries.

LITTLE TUNNY (Euthynnus alletteratus)

A fish of many names, little tunny are known as false albacore off the U.S. Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, where they’re a very popular game fish among light-tackle and fly anglers. In the Southeast and Gulf, they’re mislabeled bonito, and generally avoided. Yet they are tremendous fighters for their size, battling in classic tuna fashion. Little tunny are readily identified by the wavy lines along their upper back, behind the dorsal, and the spots between pectoral and ventral fins. Small tunny are also popular as baitfish, drifted live or trolled dead. They form and feed in tight schools, often churning the surface as they gorge on baitfish. The dark-red, bloody meat of little tunny keeps them out of fish boxes.

LONGTAIL (Thunnus tonggol)

The longtail inhabits the Indo-Pacific, quite near shore, even prowling estuaries and river mouths, where it often roams in large shoals. A popular game fish among Australians, the species is there labeled northern bluefin, though it is not a species of bluefin.

SKIPJACK (Katsuwonus pelamis)

With distinct horizontal stripes limited to its lower half (and no stripes dorsally), the skipjack is readily distinguished from other small tunas. One of the most widely dispersed of small tunas, the skipjack is found in all temperate and tropical seas, where it often forms huge schools. Not all anglers realize that its light meat should make it a preferred species for the fish box. The skipjack is of huge importance globally as a commercial species, with great tonnage ending up canned.

YELLOWFIN (Thunnus albacares)

Named for its bright-yellow finlets, the yellowfin is fantastically popular among anglers who fish tropical seas around the world. Their habit of schooling and feeding at the surface makes yellowfin particularly exciting targets for run-‘n’-gunners. Yellowfin are decidedly bluewater pelagics but may move into coastal waters at times. The fast-growing tuna can reach 200 pounds in seven years. Anglers in eastern Pacific waters take advantage of the yellowfin symbiotically feeding with dolphin (porpoise). From years spent as an observer for the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, California photographer, writer and angler Bill Boyce says tuna definitely follow dolphin (not vice versa). The tuna seem to understand that dolphin will find the baitfish; the tuna then help corral the bait, pushing it to the surface.

OTHER TUNAS

The post An Illustrated Guide to Types of Tuna appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Do you have a photograph of a fish you can’t identify? If so, we’re up for the challenge, and would welcome the opportunity to share your photo and its ID with an international audience of enthusiasts. (Whether published or not, we will personally respond to every inquiry.) Email your jpgs, as large/hi-res as possible, to: fishfacts@sportfishingmag.com.

Clearly, says Jean-Francois Helias, of anglingthailand.com, this is a lionfish. But which species? Helias writes that in fact one of his guides, Pro Kik Phanpraphat, and clients were catching “one after the other” while jigging near Koh Kut Island, in the Gulf of Siam. He would like to know more about this impressively spiny fish.

Handle with care, advises Sport Fishing Fish Facts expert Ben Diggles, based in Australia. That is a very venomous plaintail lionfish (Pterois russelii). There are many species of lionfish in tropical and warm-temperate waters around the world. The plaintail grows to around 12 inches, inhabiting muddy areas in shallow estuaries, bays and coastal waters throughout the western Indo-Pacific. Like most lionfishes, they’re voracious predators of small fishes, so snapping up small jigs is hardly surprising.

The plaintail, like most lionfish species, sports venom glands at the base of each spine. These, Diggles says, operate like a hypodermic syringe; when contact is made with the business end of the spine, venom containing a potent and highly painful neurotoxin is released into the puncture wound. “Fortunately the venom is not deadly, but it can cause paralysis in rare cases, so best to neutralize by dousing the affected area with or in hot water,” Diggles says.

The plaintail can be sometimes confused with the common lionfish, Pterois volitans, an invasive species now well established in the Western Atlantic, from the Carolinas south through the Caribbean. But it lacks the many rows of small dark spots on tail, soft dorsal and anal fins found on the common lionfish.

The post Fish Facts: A Dangerous Beauty appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

When it comes to sharks, anglers just can’t seem to get enough of ’em. Somewhere between 400 and 500 different species of shark swim in our oceans, in depths from mere inches, over shallow flats, to thousands of feet; from the hottest equatorial seas to freezing waters over the poles. Some never grow to a foot in length, while some man-eaters exceed 20 feet.

This gallery offers a look at 15 shark species important to sport fishermen — most of them likely to be encountered and/or targeted. Some are wild on the hook — offering a performance as exciting as any species of game fish in the world. Many are unspectacular but dogged fighters. But no matter how they fight, bringing a big one boatside offers one of fishing’s more dramatic moments.

I’ve included the all-tackle world record for each species. Some species are part of the International Game Fish Association’s line-class-record system.

BLACKTIP AND SPINNER SHARKS

• Blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) world record: 270 pounds, 9 ounces, 8 feet long (Kenya, 1984)
• Spinner (Carcharhinus brevipinna) world record: 208 pounds, 9 ounces (Texas, 2009)

Blacktip sharks and the closely related, very similar spinner shark, are among the most widespread and cosmopolitan of “sporting” sharks, found in all the world’s temperate and tropical waters and ranging from flats they share with bonefish to deeper offshore waters. These active and agile predators are popular with anglers who at times catch them casting topwater lures and flies and enjoy their spirited fight and, often, their repeated leaps. These species are responsible for most of the annual shark bites reported by Florida beach-goers when they follow mullet runs into the murky waters near shore, and the flash of an arm or foot may attract their attention.

BLUE SHARK

• Blue (Prionace glauca) world record: 528 pounds — 10 feet long (New York, 2001)

The long, slender and aptly named blue shark is nowhere a stranger, being circum-global in tropical and temperate waters. The wide-ranging sharks of offshore waters can be a nuisance. Their fight is less than spectacular, though bringing a big one to the boat can get exciting. Arguably one of the least-desirable sharks for eating. While attacks on humans are rare, blues are in the “potentially dangerous” category.

BONNETHEAD SHARK

• Bonnethead (Sphyrna tiburo) world record: 32 pounds — 3½ feet long (Florida, 2013)

In essence a small, inshore hammerhead, the bonnethead prefers estuaries, flats and bays in tropical and temperate waters of the New World, along both western Atlantic and eastern Pacific coasts of North and South America. Flats anglers can sight-cast to them as they search the sand with zigzag turns looking for anything edible. Agile little bonnetheads will hit lures and flies, and offer great light-tackle sport.

BULL SHARK

• Bull (Carcharhinus leucas) world record: 697 pounds, 12 ounces — 8½ feet long (Kenya, 2001)

Unquestionably one of the most dangerous of the world’s sharks, the bull is also one of the most ubiquitous: Anywhere in the world there’s a tropical or temperate coastline, there are bull sharks. Bulls move freely far up rivers and into lakes. The thick-bodied, powerful sharks when hooked offer a reasonably stubborn but unspectacular fight (though the release might be lively).

GREENLAND SHARK

• Greenland (Somniosus microcephalus) world record: 1,708 pounds, 9 ounces — 13-plus feet long (Norway, 1987)

Unlike other sharks on this list, the Greenland shark is restricted to the far-north reaches of both sides of the Atlantic and up into the most northern Arctic waters. These sharks have been aged up to 392 years; sexual maturity occurs at around 150 years. Very limited sport fisheries in fjords, sometimes through the ice, have offered a handful of anglers the unique chance to land one of these monsters, which they do more for the novelty than any sort of real fight. Given this species’ habitat, humans are safe from Greenland sharks.

GREAT HAMMERHEAD SHARK

• Great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) world record: 1,280 pounds — 11 ½ feet long (Florida, 2006)

Anglers may catch any of several hammerhead species besides the great hammerhead including the smooth and scalloped varieties, but S. mokarran is the largest. It roams the world’s oceans, ranging from shallow nearshore waters to offshore. Attacks on people are exceedingly rare. A fair opponent when hooked, though studies have shown that hammerheads are particularly prone to mortality when released, even if they appear healthy. Note that all three of these hammerhead species are widely illegal to harvest, with the scalloped hammerhead added in 2014 to the federal Endangered Species List.

LEMON SHARK

• Lemon (Negaprion brevirostris) world record: 405 pounds — nearly 8 feet long (North Carolina, 1988)

Widely distributed, lemons prefer shallower coastal waters, and they’re definitely the big dog of the flats. Lemon sharks can be chummed near a skiff in a couple of feet of water on the right tides, and sight-casting to them and hooking up in such clear water is explosive action. Although Lemon attacks on humans are rare, they’re not unheard of. By law, lemons must be released in the waters of most coastal states where they occur.

MAKO SHARK

• Shortfin mako (Isurus paucus ) world record: 1,221 pounds — 11 feet long (Massachusetts, 2001)

Found in most of the world’s temperate and tropical seas, the mako shark is truly one of the ocean’s great game fishes. This fastest of all sharks often goes ballistic when hooked, repeatedly making memorable sky-high somersaulting leaps. They’ve been known to jump into boats, and frequently chomp on outboards’ lower units. Makos will devour live baits but also track down marlin lures trolled at high speeds. Makos are also considered excellent eating. The species certainly has the potential to present a danger to people. The longfin mako, I. paucus, is less common and stays farther offshore.

OCEANIC WHITETIP SHARK

• Oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) world record: 369 pounds — 7 feet (Bahamas, 1998)

Common in tropical, temperate and cool-temperate seas worldwide, the whitetip is one of the requiem sharks; its close relatives include the bull, bronze whaler, dusky, silky and tiger. These open-ocean hunters are fast and aggressive, and many’s the offshore angler who has lost a prize to them. At the same time, when hooked, they’re quick, tough opponents. Whitetips definitely present a danger to humans.

PORBEAGLE SHARK

• Porbeagle (Lamna nasus) world record: 507 pounds — 8 feet long (Scotland, 1993)

Sometimes call “fat makos,” the porbeagle is indeed closely related to and more robust than the mako. They also inhabit cooler waters, in the entire North Atlantic and southern hemisphere. Like the mako, the porbeagle is an outstanding game fish, though far less common, and is also fine eating. A limited targeted sport fishery off the U.K. has resulted in some fine catches in recent years. It is also valued as a food fish. The cool waters that porbeagles inhabit preclude much contact with humans, hence they’re not a likely threat.

SALMON SHARK

• Salmon (Lamna ditropis) world record: 461 pounds, 9 ounces — 7 ½ feet long (Alaska, 2009)

Basically the north Pacific’s version of the north Atlantic porbeagle, the very similar salmon shark is a cold-water version of the mako. Like many large-shark species, the salmon shark is warm-blooded, heating its blood well above ambient water temps. Targeted fisheries are limited, mostly to areas where the sharks follow runs of salmon in close to the coasts of Alaska. Salmon sharks offer exciting, sometimes aerial, action for northern anglers.

THRESHER SHARK

• Thresher (Alopias vulpinis) world record: 767 pounds, 3 ounces — 9 feet long (to fork of tail) (New Zealand, 1983)

The common thresher shark is found in nearly all seas tropical, temperate and cool-temperate around the world. It ranges from bluewater to nearshore shallows in some areas, such as Southern California beaches, seasonally. The long tail is used to herd and stun small fish. Threshers are excellent eating and tough opponents when hooked; they often leap wildly. The less common bigeye thresher (A. superciliosus) may get slightly larger: The world record is 802 pounds from New Zealand in 1981. Threshers are not considered aggressive to humans.

TIGER SHARK

• Tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier) world record: 1,780 pounds, 14 feet (South Carolina, 1964) AND 1,785 pounds, 11 ounces (Australia, 2004)

One of the largest active shark species, tigers sharks inhabit nearshore and even inshore coastal waters worldwide. They’re not a true pelagic, open-ocean species. Tigers of well over 6,000 pounds have been reported. While impressive for their size, tigers are not terribly unpredictable or flashy fighters when hooked. They’re known to ingest just about anything edible and many things not, and they’re widely implicated in many attack on humans.

TOPE SHARK

• Tope (Galeorhinus galeus) world record: 72 pounds, 12 ounces — 5 feet (New Zealand, 1986)

Tope range from shore to deeper ocean waters in all oceans, particularly in temperate and cold waters. As sport fish, these sharks are particularly valued in areas where cool waters preclude a great variety of game fish species, notably the British Isles as well as South Africa and southern Australia. Anglers in these areas target tope for their quite-respectable fighting qualities.

The post Shark Fishing: A Guide to Popular Species appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Do you have a photograph of a fish you can’t identify? If so, we’re up for the challenge, and would welcome the opportunity to share your photo and its ID with an international audience of enthusiasts. (Whether published or not, we will personally respond to every inquiry.) Email your jpgs, as large/hi-res as possible, to: fishfacts@sportfishingmag.com.

When an angler in the U.S. mentions fishing for redfish, one species comes to mind: red drum, widely called redfish through its range — a big drum caught primarily inshore, typically in very shallow waters, in Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. But Capt. Terry Nugent, with Riptide Charters in Sandwich, Massachusetts, caught a very different kind of redfish in 400 feet of water off Chatham, Massachusetts.

“I’ve landed a few of these over the years,” he says of the fish in his photo. The fish are marketed as redfish, he adds, “but obviously they’re not red drum. What are they really?” He also asks how large they grow, what is a normal depth to encounter them, and what is their range.

Nugent did indeed catch a redfish. That is the correct common name for four species in the genus Sebastes. Two of those species are caught off Massachusetts, says Mike Fahay, a Northeast marine fish expert: S. fasciatus, the Acadian redfish, and S. mentalla, the deepwater redfish.

These species are part of the rockfishes complex (genus Sebastes) important in Pacific Northwest recreational and commercial fisheries. They are in no way related or similar to drums and croakers, like the red drum.

Fahay says that, based on depth of capture, this would likely be the Acadian redfish, common from 400 to 900 feet. In fact, the species — found from Iceland as far as south as the Mid-Atlantic — at one time supported an important, major commercial fishery and was a common item in fish markets in the Northeast. But it’s a story too-often told: Landings plummeted from 60,000 metric tons in 1942 to just over 300 metric tons landed in 1996. The species is now considered endangered by the IUCN, yet NOAA says it is not overfished.

Like all rockfish species, redfish are slow growing and long lived, increasing their susceptibility to overfishing. These days, most that are caught weigh in at under two pounds, Fahay reports. (The IGFA all-tackle record, caught in 2010, weighed a whopping 2 ½ pounds.) At one time, redfish weighing up to 24 pounds were caught.

The post A Redfish Caught Hundreds of Feet Deep appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Do you have a photograph of a fish you can’t identify? If so, we’re up for the challenge, and would welcome the opportunity to share your photo and its ID with an international audience of enthusiasts. (Whether published or not, we will personally respond to every inquiry.) Email your jpgs, as large/hi-res as possible, to: fishfacts@sportfishingmag.com.

Most U.S. anglers are familiar with various species of croakers as small bottom feeding members of the large family Sciaenidae — which includes redfish, black drum and white seabass — from surf or shallow inshore waters. In the Southeast, for example, spot and Atlantic croakers are available oftentimes in great numbers.

Angling enthusiast and IGFA representative Martini Arostegui is very familiar with such inshore croakers. But to catch some sort of small croaker in about 800 feet of water, well offshore of Buena Vista on the southern Baja peninsula, in the Sea of Cortez, was something of a shocker.

“My friends and I batted around a few potential species’ names, but with our 25-year-old identification guide, we were unable to positively identify it and figured it might not be listed in that book,” says Arostegui, who now lives in Seattle but grew up in Florida.

We turned to an expert for help on this and got a two-fer, since he invoked a second expert. Milton Love, a biologist at the Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, knows his Pacific fishes. But this one gave him trouble.

“I hadn’t seen it before, and it was caught deeper than any published record for a croaker living in the Gulf of California,” he says. So he brought in Ross Robertson at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Robertson recognized it as the bigeye croaker, Umbrina bussingi.

Love says the species has been caught even deeper — from more than 3,000 feet of water — and is found from southernmost Baja to Colombia. It doesn’t get large, reaching only around a foot in length. The bottom dweller likely feeds on crustaceans, worms and small fishes. As common as croakers are worldwide, this is one species very few anglers have ever seen — or caught.

The post Fish Facts: Croaker from the Abyss appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

A permit swimming on a flat shallow enough to expose its black scythe-like tail certainly doesn’t seem “jack-like dumb” to fly fishers who suffer through countless fly presentations without a payoff. The most jaded fly fishers personify them, and call them [bleeping] dishonest, compared to tarpon, and maybe, bonefish. But a bait fisher who strictly plies offshore wrecks for permit loves that they act like jacks, more times than not. And yes, they are the same fish — revered wherever they’re pursued and caught.

Though far fewer Florida and visiting anglers target permit than they do tarpon, bones, redfish and others, the fish’s popularity is growing, as is the concern for their numbers and habitat. For starters this premier gamefish, released as an unwritten rule by flats anglers, is also a decent food fish, so a number do end up in the fish box. Or, unfortunately, the jaws of sharks.

The Project Goal

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) researchers want to know more about the permit’s life cycle, its migratory habits, spawning activities and the threats to its habitat and very existence. The innovative project was launched in 2011. At the time, the Lower Keys Guides Association and BTT voiced concerns to the Florida Fish & Wildife Conservation Commission (FWC) regarding declining numbers of permit on the flats. Their suspicion was that overfishing of permit spawning aggregations, such as those at Gulf and nearshore wrecks, was the likely culprit.

There was little hard data at that time to support the groups’ claims, and FWC made it clear that data had to be provided in the future if the commission was expected to take the issue to the public. That was the impetus to ramp up Project Permit.

Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager, says permit were an especially “poor data species” when Project Permit was launched in 2011, incidentally, the same year that the FWC established the Special Permit Zone (SPZ) which includes Florida state and adjacent federal waters south of a line running due east from Cape Florida in the Atlantic, the waters of south Biscayne Bay, and south of a line near Cape Sable running due west through federal waters.

“Within the established Special Permit Zone, commercial take is prohibited,” said Boucek. “And adjacent to the SPZ we have the Pompano Endorsement Zone, sharing a boundary with the SPZ. So there is allowance for gillnetters that hold a pompano endorsement license to take an unlimited number of pompano.” The two species frequent the same waters there, so the state allows an incidental bycatch of up to 100 legal-size permit. Unfortunately, this commercial harvest exists very close to the permit spawning grounds.

“We closely monitor long-term trends,” said Boucek. “I feel the commercial bycatch numbers are
sustainable, especially in the SPZ bordering the pompano endorsement zone. But on the Gulf
wrecks that attract permit aggregations we did some sentinel studies that revealed a concerning
number of hooked permit are eaten by sharks, which is a problem in other Florida fisheries.”

Permit Travels

Can permit be considered homebodies?

When asked about the possibility that permit travel from the Lower Keys as far north as Florida’s Atlantic Treasure Coast beaches or the Indian River Lagoon, where anglers catch them mixed in with pompano, Boucek said that’s not at all likely.

“First of all, the mixing in with pompano in that region is a big information gap,” said Boucek. “But we are very sure that permit we catch and tag here in SPZ waters of the Lower Keys do not make the jump north across the SPZ boundary in South Biscayne Bay. We have tracked thousands of acoustically tagged fish to prove that. These fish are not as migratory as tarpon,” said Boucek.

“A prime example of restricted migratory behavior is a permit that I and colleagues from Canada tagged nearly 5 years ago in the Lower Keys. We used both an acoustic transmitter and an external dart tag on that fish, the dart being the external type of tag our fishing guide volunteers use. Three years after the tagging, Keys guides Nathaniel Linville and John O’Hearn caught that fish only 100 feet from where we originally tagged it! Granted, it did move around the region quite a bit in those years, but it never left the general region.”

A Downward Permit Trend

Besides hard science data derived from tagging, Boucek credits detailed anecdotal information, provided by anglers and experienced permit guides, with helping BTT better understand the fish’s habits.

“Capt. Pat Bracher, out of Cudjoe Key, keeps the most meticulous catch records I’ve seen which he has shared with us. In fact his notes on declining barracuda catches provided Florida fishery managers with evidence compelling enough to tighten barracuda harvest regulations,” said Boucek. “Bracher prides himself on getting his flats clients a Grand Slam. And he has literally thousands of them to his credit. His fishing trip journal, which he shared with BTT shows an unmistakable downward trend for permit around Key West, which started in the early to middle 2000s. The trend became apparent in the Lower Keys a bit more recently.”

Threats to Permit Numbers

Other than allowances for some commercial harvest, it’s become apparent that recreational harvest puts a dent in the permit stocks as well. Among light-tackle and fly anglers who enjoy sight fishing the flats for them, release mortality is low. Education and improved catch-and-release techniques, including minimal time out of the water, has helped immensely.

Ross Boucek hopes that anglers of all persuasions better appreciate the permit for its fighting ability, even on nearshore wrecks.

“We get the fact that this species is a legal fish for the table, but we think there is excitement to catching a big permit over a wreck, and satisfaction in releasing them. If the angler’s ultimate goal is to kill a fish for the table, that’s fine too,” said Boucek.

On the subject of shark depredation, Bouchek cited BTT’s studies of that situation on a few sentinel wrecks in the Gulf and some sentinel spawning sites on the Atlantic side of the Keys that hold flats permit.

“We found that about 35 percent of hooked permit are killed by sharks on Western Dry Rocks, out of Key West, and that has been a consistent number before and even after the closure period (April 1 through July 31),” said Boucek.

And the numbers are even greater (up to 80 percent of hooked permit killed) on some Keys Gulf wrecks and those in Florida Bay just outside the Everglades National Park boundary. The BTT feels these are not sustainable numbers. In light of these troubling numbers, which are anecdotal according to BTT, researchers are not sure whether anglers after permit (or snapper species) are changing their behavior by avoiding “sharky” wrecks or not.

The post Solving the Permit Puzzle appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Do you have a photograph of a fish you can’t identify? If so, we’re up for the challenge, and would welcome the opportunity to share your photo and its ID with an international audience of enthusiasts. (Whether published or not, we will personally respond to every inquiry.) Email your jpgs, as large/hi-res as possible, to: fishfacts@sportfishingmag.com.

Anglers who spend much time on clear blue offshore waters — particularly when drifting or slow-trolling — have likely seen stunning little blue-and-silver fish darting this way and that. Seen from above they resemble tiny flyingfish thanks to their oversized pectoral fins. Miami resident Scott Salyers provided this photo, after it fell onto the deck amidst “a passel of pogies” from a castnet thrown off Port Canaveral, Florida.

“We didn’t know for sure what it might be,” he says. The answer: a juvenile man-of-war fish, Nomeus gronovii. It’s a member of the family Nomeidae, the driftfishes.

The concept of niche evolution is beautifully illustrated by this species, common in all warm oceans. It’s called man-of-war fish because, at least when young, it lives in symbiosis with the Portuguese man of war, characterized by its brilliantly colored pink- and-blue balloon-like sail or float and its very long strings of tentacles filled with stinging nematocyst cells. Any fisherman or swimmer who’s been nailed by these can be excused for exclaiming “ouch!” or worse.

The man-of-war fish sets up residence beneath these animals, adrift on the ocean. (Erroneously called jellyfish, man o’ wars are siphonophores — each one a floating community of organisms). Darting about the stinging tentacles, the small fish achieve a good bit of protection from predators, though they’re ever vigilant since they’re not immune to the poison of the tentacles.

So how do they coexist with the venomous, sticky strings? Apparently, it has adapted to avoid the tentacles by being alert and agile. The species also has more vertebrae than is typical, making its body more flexible, and relies largely on its big pectoral fins, an adaptation typical of species that must be particularly nimble. Beyond coexistence, there’s evidence that the man-of-war fish may get some sustenance from its partner, nibbling on smaller tentacles.

Symbiosis suggests a two-way street, so the man o’ war presumably gains something from the man-of-war fish swimming freely about its tentacles, most likely luring in other fish with a false sense of security to blunder to their death.

All this describes juveniles, and that’s all we see of Nomeus gronovii. This is because as they grow to be adults — to 15 or 16 inches in length — they descend to live near bottom in as much as 3,000 feet of water. At that stage, the man-of-war fish hardly resembles the colorful, elegant little form it took as a juvenile, looking more like a greyish, somewhat elongate bluefish.

The post Mystery Fish Revealed: A Brave Tentacle Tickler appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Admittedly, Capt. Brandon Storin first considered it an annoyance, but he soon realized that he had dialed in a cool Florida Keys fishery that goes largely unnoticed.

“During the time when we catch bridge tarpon in spring, sometimes we’d run into some bycatch of cubera snapper,” Storin said. “I think they’re chummed up because of all the people tarpon fishing; there’s a lot of scent in the water. It’s mostly just the scent of the baits. Some people chum for tarpon (with cut bait), but I don’t because it brings too many unwanted species like nurse sharks.”

Considered the most brutal of the snapper clan, the hard-fighting cubera is a straight-up string stretcher. As Storin notes, these aren’t the giant spawners that anglers catch at night over deep-water reefs with legal-size lobster as bait, but the 15- to 20-pounders common at Keys bridges will still give you all the fight you want.

How to Target Cubera Snapper in the Florida Keys

If you’re game to actually target these cuberas near the bridges, Storin offers a few tips.

When: April-May is prime time, but the small to midsize cuberas hang around the bridges throughout much of the year. Colder weather will slow the bite when big winds muddy the water; during these conditions don’t waste your time.

Storin said he’s caught cuberas on incoming and outgoing water, but the fish seem most aggressive at the change of the tide. The fish can feed much easier during slower water compared to when the tide is screaming — ideal conditions are when that heavy bridge current slacks up and starts moving again.

“They’re definitely more nocturnal, so the night action is great, but also, the first and last hour of the day can be good,” Storin said. “If you’re fishing for them during the day, I’d bet that you wouldn’t run into many of them during the full moon.”

Where: Storin does most of his tarpon guiding around Islamorada’s Channel 2 and Channel 5 bridges, and the Long Key area. Most of Florida Keys’ major bridges will attract cuberas.

How: Based on his tarpon fishing thefts, Storin can attest that cubera snapper like a big deboned mullet on a fish-finder rig or pinfish drifted near pilings. If he’s targeting cubera specifically, Storin would fish a smaller deboned mullet or a live pinfish on the bottom.

“I’d definitely fish the baits close to the pilings and close to the bottom,” Storin said. “You’ll want to make an upcurrent presentation so the scent will come down to where the cuberas are.”

Tackle: A 7-foot medium-heavy spinning rod with a 6500 series reel carrying 65-pound braid will handle most bridge cuberas, along with the abundant mutton snapper. Storin uses 60-pound fluorocarbon leader for tarpon, but he’ll drop to 40 for the wary snapper.

Cubers Snapper Fishing Tips

Land-Based: For anglers perched on Keys fishing platforms like the popular pedestrian-friendly Channel 2 and Channel 5 structures, a chum bag and a jumbo live shrimp can make big things happen.

What to Expect: Storin says bait size will determine how long an angler should wait to set the hook. A hefty meal might require a little chomping, but these fish are super aggressive, so they’ll snatch up a smaller offering and try to yank the rod out of your hand.

“If you feel them picking it up and turning the bait in their mouth, give them a few seconds,” Storin said, “but once they get a good bite, they’ll run hard. If you feel them batting at it, open the bail open to let them get it. I use the Owner Mutu circle hooks, so once they get the bait, I just let them come tight. Then you just have to (tighten) the drag and handle that run.”

The post Florida Keys Bridge Monsters appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Recent emergency regulations from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources have canceled the striped bass trophy season in 2024, affecting the Maryland portion of Chesapeake Bay. Currently, anglers can continue to catch-and-release fish for striped bass in Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries until the end of March. From April 1 to May 15, fishing for striped bass is now prohibited.

The changes, approved by the Maryland General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review, were made to bolster striped bass spawning populations. Chesapeake Bay is a crucial spawning and nursery area for 70 to 90 percent of Atlantic Coast striped bass, so the emergency measures aim to safeguard mature fish during their spring spawning migration.

More Striped Bass Changes

These Maryland-specific actions are in addition to coast-wide recreational measures set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). In January, ASMFC approved an addendum (PDF) to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass that aims to reduce fishing mortality in 2024. For Chesapeake Bay anglers — which includes charter boats — the addendum implements a 19- to 24-inch slot limit and a bag limit of one fish per person, per day. For anglers fishing in the ocean, the addendum implements a 28- to 31-inch slot limit and a coast-wide daily bag limit of one fish.

What Caused the Emergency Striper Closures?

To be blunt, five years of below average spawning success for striped bass has been disastrous. In 2023, Maryland’s annual striped bass young-of-year index had a value of 1.0. That’s significantly lower than the long-term average of 11.1. This key index measures reproductive success. Unfavorable environmental conditions, such as warm winters and low water flows, were identified as contributing factors to the decreased spawning rates.

“The recent recruitment numbers of juvenile striped bass show that additional management efforts are necessary to protect the overall population,” said Lynn Waller Fegley, Maryland’s DNR Fishing and Boating Services Director.

The repercussions of these lowly spawns are expected to really show in the adult striped bass population over the next few years, as the juveniles mature, leading to reduced abundance of legal-sized fish. A comprehensive striped bass stock assessment is scheduled to be released in 2024 to determine how the species responded to previous management actions made by Maryland and other coastal states.

What’s the Future Hold?

Don’t be surprised if the emergency trophy season closure becomes an annual occurrence. Maryland is considering establishing these new rules permanently. In past years, the striped bass trophy season has taken place during the first two weeks of May. This is when large female striped bass typically make their way up the Chesapeake Bay to spawn in the same rivers where they hatched.

Maryland is also considering extending the recreational and charter boat summer closure by an extra week — from July 16 to Aug. 7 — and closing the commercial hook-and-line season during the recreational and charter boat summer closure. Data show this period is the hottest part of summer when striped bass are most vulnerable to dying after being caught and released. 

The post Maryland Cancels Trophy Striped Bass Season appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.