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Saltwater Fish
All of the saltwater species I’ve caught have come from the Gulf of Mexico or bodies of water tidally influenced by the Gulf. There are so many saltwater species out there that it would be pretty pointless to separate them by family, like I did with the freshwater fish, so I divided them between inshore and offshore species, of course most of the inshore species you can catch offshore too. If I caught it inshore, it got labelled as an inshore species. With the exception of the snook, you can catch all of these species in Louisiana or offshore of Louisiana. This list will only grow as I continue to make trips offshore and to Florida. Cobia, tripletail, mackeral, grouper, sharks, pelagics, etc. The list of saltwater species just in the Gulf seems infinite.
Gulf of Mexico inshore species
Bagre marinus – Gafftopsail catfish
Paralichthys lethostigma – Southern flounder
Pogonias cromis – Black drum
Sciaenops ocellatus – Red drum (Redfish)
Archosargus probatocephalus – Sheepshead
Elops saurus – Ladyfish
Cynoscion nebulosus – Spotted seatrout (Speckled trout)
Cynoscion arenarius – Sand sea trout (White trout)
Bairdiella chrysoura – American silver perch
Lutjanus griseus – Gray snapper (Mangrove snapper)
Lagodon rhomboides – Pinfish
Orthopristis chrysoptera – Pigfish
Synodus foetens – Inshore lizardfish
Centropomus undecimalis – Common snook
Lobotes surinamensis – Atlantic tripletail
Caranx hippos – Crevalle Jack
Fundulus grandis – Gulf killifish
Fundulus similis – Longnose killifish
Gulf of Mexico offshore species
Seriola rivoliana – Almaco jack
Seriola dumerili – Greater amberjack
Balistes capriscus – Gray triggerfish
Caranx latus – Horse-eye jack
Coryphaena hippurus – Common dolphinfish
Lutjanus campechanus – Red snapper
Euthynnus alletteratus – Little tunny
Thunnus albacares – Yellowfin tuna
Other Freshwater Fish
Outside of the sunfishes and the salmonids I haven’t caught multiple species from one family, so I lumped them all together here. Most of these were caught as bycatch while fishing for bass. I have begun to target some of them a little more these days with the fly rod. The picture quality on a couple of these is less than stellar. It is pretty funny looking back at some of these old pictures, I could tell when I got my Pentax Optio, quality improved, it was 2006-2007, sometime when I was living in Alabama. Also, I haven’t included every different chub or shiner that I’ve caught. There are so many different kinds out there and previously I really didn’t feel it was worth my time to research just what kind of chub or shiner I had caught as bycatch. I’m working to rectify that, I’ll try and keep tabs on them from here on out.
Amia calva – Bowfin (choupique)
The bowfin is actually the only surviving member of the family Amiidae.
Cichlasoma cyanoguttatum – Rio Grande cichlid
The Rio Grande cichlid is the only cichlid species native to the U.S. They’ve been introduced to the City Park lagoons in New Orleans.
Esox americanus vermiculatus – Grass pickerel
Esox niger – Chain pickerel
The chain pickerel is a member of the family Esocidae, for which Esox is the only living genus. Musky and pike are also Esox.
Ictalurus punctatus – Channel catfish
The channel catfish is in the Ictaluridae family, they are a family of North American catfishes. There are plenty of ictalurids out there, I just never target them.
Lepisosteus oculatus – Spotted gar
The spotted gar is in the family Lepisosteidae, which has 7 living species in 2 genera. Gar are another fish I rarely target, though they are everywhere around here.
Lepisosteus osseus – Longnose gar
Cyprinus carpio – Common carp
Nocomis micropogon – River chub
We catch these in the creek at the cabin, in fact, you will often run into them while fishing for trout in Georgia, they readily take flies. The tubercles on their heads are prominent during the spawn.
Semotilus atromaculatus – Creek chub
Cyprinella venusta – Blacktail shiner
A species of shiner commonly found in our Florida parish streams here in Louisiana.
Luxilus chrysocephalus – Striped shiner
Luxilus coccogenis – Warpaint shiner
Notropis texanus – Weed shiner
Mountains to Marsh 