Flyfishing Species Life-List (Updated 8/2024)

 This post is for me...as good a place as any to list and show a photo of each species of fish I've caught on fly/fly rod.  I plan to updated this post as I go along, adding more species to my list.  These are in no particular order.  I will include what my known Fly Rod Personal Best (PB) is....if I know it.  The fish pictured will be one of the fish I've caught, it may or may not be the PB fish.

1. Bluegill (PB 10.5")

2. Warmouth

3. Redspotted Sunfish

4. Dollar Sunfish

5. Bantam Sunfish

6. Saugeye

7. Freshwater Drum (PB 25.5")

8. Skipjack Herring

9. Kentucky Spotted Bass

10. Longear Sunfish

11. Sauger

12. Goldfish (PB 13.5")

13. Carmine Shiner

14. Common Shiner

15. Rock Bass (PB 8.5")

16. Pumpkinseed Sunfish (PB 9.75")

17. Goldeye (PB 16.25")

18. Koi

19. Bleeding Shiner

20. Grass Pickerel

21. Striped Shiner

22. Largescale Stoneroller (PB 8")

23. Chain Pickerel

24. Longnose Gar (47.5")

25. Brook Trout (PB 12")

26. Creek Chub (PB 11")

27. Shortnose Gar (29.5")

28. Walleye (PB 27")

29. Golden Shiner (PB 11")

30. Hybrid Striped Bass (PB 18.5")

31. Rainbow Trout (PB 16")

32. Northern Studfish

33. Hornyhead Chub

34. Silver Carp

35. White Bass (PB 16")

36. Comet Goldfish (PB 13.5")

37. Orangespotted Sunfish (PB 5")

38. King (Chinook) Salmon (PB 22 lbs)

39. Steelhead (PB 12 lbs)

40. White Crappie (PB 15")

41. Smallmouth Bass (PB 18")

42. Common Carp (PB 35", 22 lbs)

43. Brown Trout (PB 19")

44. Black Buffalo (PB 25" 7 lb)

45. Smallmouth Buffalo (PB 25.5")

46. Bigmouth Buffalo (PB 28")

47. Northern Hognose Sucker

48. Mirror Carp

49. Black Bullhead (PB 15.5")

50. Black Crappie (PB 14.5")

51. Channel Catfish (PB 31")

52. Grass Carp (PB 41", 35 lbs)

53. Redear Sunfish (PB 12")

54. Hybrid Sunfish

55. Eyetail Bowfin (PB 26.5")

56. Redfish (PB 27")

57. Oscar (PB 13")

58. Northern Pike (PB 24")

59. White Sucker

60. Golden Redhorse Sucker

61. Green Sunfish (PB 9.75")

62. Largemouth Bass (PB 21.75")

63. Meanmouth Bass (Hybrid)

64. Peacock Bass (PB 17.5")

65. Mayan Cichlid (PB 13")

66. Spotted Tilapia (PB 12")

67. Hardhead Catfish (PB 13.5")

68. Stingray (no picture taken... but me fighting it)

69. Spotted Seatrout

70. Ozark Sculpin (PB 5.5")

71. Knobfin Sculpin (PB 5")

72. Yellow Perch 

73. Yellow Bass

74. Yellow Bullhead

75. Gizzard Shad (PB 15")

76.  McCloud River Redband Trout

77. Ghost Carp

78. Longfin Carp

79. Butterfly Koi

80. Mirror Koi

81. Leather Koi

82. Full Scale Koi / Carp

83. Linear Koi/Carp

84. Flier

85. Ozark Bass

86. Blackspotted Topminnow

87. Yellowtail Snapper

88. French Grunt

89. Blue-Striped Grunt

90. Sailor's Choice

91. Houndfish

92. Bermuda Chub

93. Tomtate

94. Pigfish

95. White Grunt

96. Redbreast Sunfish

97. Florida Largemouth Bass

98. Barramundi

99. Ruddy Bowfin (PB 26")

100. Florida Gar

101. Crested Goby

102. Plecostomus (PB 17")

103. Spotted Sunfish

104. Coppernose Bluegill

105. Jaguar Guapote

106. Zebra Tilapia (PB 14")

107. African Jewelfish

108. Spotted Gar (PB 30.5")

109. Mottled Sculpin

110. Tarpon

111.  Blue Runner

112. Shadow Bass

113. Mooneye

114. Striped Bass:

115. Blue Catfish:

116. Southern Redbelly Dace:

117. Bluntnose Minnow:

118. Emerald Shiner:

119. Bighead Carp:

120. Northern Snakehead (PB 25.5")

121. Banded Sculpin

122. Redfin Shiner

123. Blackstripe Topminnow

124. Mimic Shiner

125. Western Mosquitofish

126. Sand Seatrout

127. Gafftopsail Catfish

128. Atlantic Croaker

129. Ladyfish

130. Rio Grande Cichlid (PB 8.5")

131. Black Drum

132. Gulf Killifish

133. Alligator Gar

134. Northern Sunfish

135. Ozark Logperch

136. Orangethroat Darter

137. Bigeye Shiner

138. Ozark Minnow

139. Sand Shiner

 

Mid-February 2022

 Fished 2 days with my buddy Hamilton, an outstanding angler from Arkansas.  Both days were low 60-degrees F....beautiful for this time of year!  Kinda breezy one afternoon.

First day...goal was to get me my first ever Chain Pickerel.  Hamilton put me in the right places, I just couldn't get bites.  He caught a couple pretty quickly.  I begrudging used his gear and fly....at his strong suggestion.  It worked!  I lost one that jumped and threw the fly, then finally caught one!  A small one, but it counts!  Very happy to finally get this species added to my flyrod list!

And that was all I caught the entire day.  Hamilton had a stellar day, though, catching 9 species and somewhere over 25 fish total for the day.  The struggle...for me....was real!

Next day, we waded a couple places we'd fished together before.  I struggled less...and had a pretty decent day, catching 7 species, including 2 more new-to-me species.

The new ones were Knobfin Sculpin:

...and a Largescale Stoneroller!  The 3 pictures below are all of the single specimen I caught.

In addition to a few Green Sunfish and a Hybrid Sunfish, I also caught a nice river Largemouth Bass and a feisty Smallmouth Bass:

And a bunch of Rainbow Trout...guesstimating @ 30 or so.

I also accidentally foul-hooked this fish.  Kind of neat looking, so I took a couple pics of it:

And just for fun, I put these two pictures together, to show the difference in markings between a Chain Pickerel (left), and a Grass Pickerel (right).  Both very cool fish!

I've also caught Northern Pike on flies.  I have caught muskies and a tiger musky, but NOT on flies.  So...technically I've caught all the Esox species.  However....Grass Pickerel and Redfin Pickerel are both SUBSPECIES of Esox americanus.  I haven't caught a Redfin Pickerel yet.