Fish Encyclopedia

Want to learn more about fishing your destination? Be sure to visit the Catch of the Day, West Coast Fishing Club's new on-line encyclopedia. Here, you'll find valuable information on everything from fish habitat to techniques to stats and club records. Our resort staff help ensure this information stays current, so be sure to visit often to learn about the latest conditions awaiting you.

Species By Location:
All Fish
North Fish
South Fish

Chinook Salmon:

  • Alias: King, Spring, Tyee's (over 30 lbs),
  • Description: The Chinook Salmon, (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is an anadromous fish and the largest salmon species. It is a Pacific Ocean salmon and highly valued for their size and relative scarcity compared to other pacific salmon. The Chinook is blue-green-black or purple on the back and top of the head with silvery sides and white ventral surfaces. It has black spots on its tail and the upper half of its body. Adult fish average 10 to 50 pounds.
  • Where Caught: North Pacific; inshore & offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, mooching, casting, jigging 
  • Baits/Lures: Cut plugs, plugs, spoons, teasers
  • Records: The current sport-caught World Record is 97.25 pounds and was caught in May 1985 in the Kenai River (Kenai, Alaska). The commercial catch world record is 126 pounds caught near Rivers Inlet British Columbia in the late 70's.

Coho Salmon:

  • Alias: Silvers, Blue backs
  • Description: The Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) is an anadromous fish with silver sides, a blue back with very few spots. During their spawning phase males develop bright red sides in fresh water. Mature adults average 7 to 11 pounds occasionally reaching 20+ pounds.
  • Where Caught: North Pacific; inshore & offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, mooching, casting, jigging, bucktailing
  • Baits/Lures: Cut plugs, plugs, spoons, teasers, flies
  • Records:

Pacific Halibut:

  • Alias: Chickens, Hali's, Barn Doors
  • Description: The Pacific halibut is found on the continental shelf of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. They live on or near the bottom. The halibut is among the largest bony fish in the world. Halibut are strong swimmers and are able to migrate long distances. Pacific halibut have diamond-shaped bodies with both eyes on their dark, upper side. Halibut are able to eat a large variety of fishes such as cod, turbot, pollock, and some invertebrates such as crab and shrimp. Most halibut caught weigh 20 pounds although individuals weighing more than 150 pounds are regularly caught.
  • Where Caught: Offshore in water over 100 ft
  • Fishing Techniques: Jigging, trolling, anchoring, back trolling
  • Baits/Lures: Jigs, plugs, bait fish of all kinds
  • Records:

Black Marlin:

  • Alias: Blacks, Granders (fish over 1000 pounds)
  • Description: The black marlin (Makaira indica) is a species of marlin found in tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific oceans not far from the surface. It is a large commercial game fish with a maximum published weight of 1,700 lb but greater weights than this have been recorded. It is one of the largest marlins and bony fish. This marlin is the fastest fish on earth reaching speeds up to 80 mph or 128km/h.
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs and bait fish: tuna, skipjacks, mackerel

Blue Marlin:

  • Alias: Blues, Granders (fish over 1000 pounds)
  • Description: The blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) is a species of marlin found in tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific oceans not far from the surface. It is a blue water fish that spends the majority of its life in the open sea, far away from land. The biggest females are more than four times as heavy as the biggest males. Females commonly weigh over 540 kilograms (1,200 lb).
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs and bait fish: tuna, skipjacks, mackerel

Striped Marlin:

  • Alias: Stripes
  • Description: The striped marlin (Tetrapturus audax) is a species of marlin found in tropical to temperate Indo-Pacific oceans not far from the surface. The striped marlin is a predator that hunts during the day from close to the surface to about 100 meters or so. One of their favorite prey is sardines.
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs and bait fish: Sardines, tuna, skipjacks, mackerel

Sailfish:

  • Alias: Sails
  • Description: The Indo-Pacific sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) is a sailfish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is dark blue on top, brown-blue laterally, silvery white underbelly; upper jaw elongated in form of spear. They have a large and sharp bill, that they use for hunting. They are able to prey on the faster fish in the sea because their top speed has been clocked at 68 mph, making them one of the fastest fish in the ocean. It is theorized by marine biologists that the 'sail' (dorsal fin array) of the sailfish may serve the purpose of a cooling and heating system for this fish; this due to a network of a large number blood vessels found in the sail and because of "sail-raising" behaviour exhibited by the sailfish at of near the surface waters after or before high-speed bursts.
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs and bait fish: Tuna and Mackerel

Yellowfin Tuna:

  • Alias: Ahi
  • Description: The yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. The yellowfin tuna is one of the largest tuna species, reaching weights of over 300 pounds. The second dorsal fin and the anal fin, as well as the finlets between those fins and the tail, are bright yellow, giving this fish its common name. The main body is very dark metallic blue, changing to silver on the belly, which has about 20 vertical lines. Yellowfin tuna are epipelagic fish that inhabit the mixed surface layer of the ocean above the thermocline. Sonic tracking has found that although yellowfin tuna mostly range in the top 328 ft of the water column and penetrate the thermocline relatively infrequently, they are capable of diving to considerable depths. An individual tagged in the Indian Ocean with an archival tag spent 85% of its time in depths shallower than 75 meters (246 ft) but was recorded as having made three dives to 578 m, 982 m and 1,160 meters (3,806 ft).
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs and bait fish

Dorado:

  • Alias: Mahi-Mahi, Dolphinfish
  • Description: The Dorado (Coryphaena hippurus) is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. They live 4 to 5 years. Sizes average 15 to 29 lb. They seldom exceed 33 lb. Dorado have compressed bodies and long dorsal fins extending nearly the entire length of their bodies. They are distinguished by dazzling colors: golden on the sides, and bright blues and greens on the sides and back. Mature males have prominent foreheads protruding well above the body proper. Females have a rounded head. Females are also usually smaller than males. Dorados are among the fastest-growing fish.
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Trolling, casting
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs, lures, zooplankton, crustaceans and bait fish; flying fish, crabs, squid, mackerel

Rooster Fish:

  • Alias: Roosters
  • Description: The roosterfish (Nematistius pectoralis) is a game fish common in the marine waters surrounding Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Baja California to Peru. It is distinguished by its "rooster comb", seven very long spines of the dorsal fin. Rooster fish can reach over 4 feet in length and over one hundred pounds. The weight of the average fish hooked is about 20 pounds. The fish is popular as a game fish, but it is not considered a good eating fish.
  • Where Caught: Inshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Casting & trolling
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs, lures, and bait fish:

Cubera Snapper:

  • Alias:
  • Description: The cubera snapper (Lutjanus cyanopterus) is a species of fish in the Lutjanidae family. The largest recorded Cubera Snapper in the world was caught off the coast of Freeport, Texas June 23, 1984. It was caught on a hand line the snapper weighed in at 151 pounds.
  • Where Caught: Inshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Casting & Jigging
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs, lures, and bait fish:

Wahoo: 

  • Alias: Ono
  • Description: The wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) is a scombrid fish found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. It is best known to sports fishermen, as its speed and high-quality flesh make it a prize game fish. The body is elongated and covered with small, scarcely visible scales; the back is an iridescent blue, while the sides are silvery, with a pattern of vertical blue bars. Specimens have been recorded at up to 8 ft in length, and weighing up to 180 lbs. Growth can be rapid. Wahoo can swim up to 80 km/h. They are one of the fastest fish in the sea.
  • Where Caught: Offshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Casting, trolling
  • Baits/Lures: Plugs, lures, and bait fish

Grouper:

  • Alias:
  • Description: Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family. The word "grouper" comes from the word for the fish, most widely believed to be from the Portuguese name, garoupa. Groupers have a stout body and a large mouth. They are not built for long-distance fast swimming. They can be quite large, and lengths over a meter and weights up to 100 kg are not uncommon. They swallow prey rather than biting pieces off it. They do not have many teeth on the edges of their jaws, but they have heavy crushing tooth plates inside the pharynx. Their mouth and gills form a powerful sucking system that sucks their prey in from a distance.
  • Where Caught: Inshore
  • Fishing Techniques: Jigging and anchoring
  • Baits/Lures: Bait fish: fish, octopus, crab, and lobster