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Features: Black crappie are silvery in color with numerous black or dark green blotches and no distinct vertical bars. This results in a darker overall color than seen in white crappie. The forehead is dished, but not as much as in the white crappie. The dorsal fin usually has seven or eight spines and its length is equal to or greater than the distance between the dorsal fin and eye. Habitat: Black crappie do best in clear waters of medium-sized lakes, reservoirs and large slow moving streams. They are less tolerant of flowing and muddy water than white crappie and
Features: White crappie are often confused with black crappie. White crappie have silvery bodies with blackish-green mottling forming narrow vertical bars on the sides. The forehead is more dished than in the black crappie. The dorsal fin has five or six spines and its length is less than the distance between the dorsal fin and eye. Habitat: White crappie do best in larger lakes and reservoirs and are more tolerant of turbidity and less dependent on aquatic vegetation than black crappie. They congregate around pilings, sunken logs, underwater brush, weed beds and rocks. White crappie begin life feeding primarily on
Features: While their coloration can be variable, bull trout are generally gray infused with green. The body is covered with small white or pale yellow spots. Some spots along the side may be deep orange to red. The leading edges of the fins along their bellies are white. Bull trout, despite the common name, is not actually a trout but a member of the closely related char group. Habitat: Bull trout need cold, clean water to survive and are typically found in the headwaters of Oregon rivers. Spawning occurs in the fall when water temperatures drop below 50F. Techniques: Anglers
Features: The name “cutthroat” is derived from the two red slash marks or streaks on the underside of the lower jaw. Lahontans don't develop the intense crimson or gold coloration that other subspecies do, but the males can develop some red on their sides. Spots on the head can help distinguish this subspecies from other inland cutthroat subspecies. Habitat: This variety has adapted to the dry, highly alkaline waters and was once widespread throughout the Lahontan Basin of California, Nevada and southeast Oregon. Today, native populations can be found in the Whitehorse and Willow creek basins in the far southeastern
Features: These fish have dark blue backs, silver sides and bellies, and very long pectoral (side) fins. Albacore caught off the Pacific Coast are generally 21 to 30 inches long with the largest fish running about 35 pounds. Habitat: Tuna are pelagic species, meaning they spend their lives in the open ocean. Albacore generally show up 15-200 miles or more off the Pacific Coast in mid-July and stick around through September. Albacore are usually found where surface water temperatures are at least 59 degrees Fahrenheit and the water has a distinct clear blue color (this is where chlorophyll levels are
Features: Plankton eaters, the American shad is the biggest of the herring species and averages 3 to 5 pounds. They are silver on the sides, and green to blue on top, with green shading on their fins. Habitat: Like other anadromous fish species, they spend most of their lives at sea and return to fresh water to spawn. Females release free-floating eggs that will be fertilized by later-arriving male, called buck shad, in a spawning frenzy. Eggs hatch in eight days and fry spend four to five years in salt water before returning to spawn. Shad often survive to spawn
Features: California halibut are usually solid brown to black or mottled with light and dark patches on the eyed side and white underneath. They have the ability to change skin color patterns to blend in with the ocean floor. The eyes on a California halibut are most commonly on the left side but may be on the right side as they are on a Pacific halibut. The upper jaw in a California halibut extends to the rear of the lower eye, while on a Pacific halibut the upper jaw only extends to the front of the lower eye. In both
Features: There's no mistaking a sturgeon. This primitive looking fish has large bony plates running down its back, a long flat snout, and a deeply-forked tail. It's also covered in rough, scale-less skin, similar to a shark. Though they can reach lengths of 20 feet, most white sturgeon rarely get over 10-feet long, which seems plenty long to us. Some populations migrate between the ocean and freshwater, but not necessarily with the same consistency as salmon or steelhead. These prehistoric fish may live well over 100 years, and may not mature until they are 25-years-old. Habitat: White sturgeon are primarily
Features: Olive brown to red on back, silvery-red to pink on sides. Lower jaw is long and extends at least to the eye socket. Short second anal fin spine. These fish can grow up to 3 feet long. Habitat: Most common between 160 and 820 feet deep. Adults show a preference to stay close to their home swatch of rocky bottoms or outcrops. Technique: Their diet consists of invertebrates and small fishes – try a lure that mimics these sea creatures.
Features: Herring are silver with large scales. They are an important food source for larger fishes, sea birds and marine mammals. Habitat: Herring are frequently offshore in large schools but can be caught inshore in harbors and large estuaries during spawning. Technique: Herring are a schooling fish, and anglers can target them from docks, piers or boats in the bays. The most popular rig is a multiple-hook herring jig. Header photo by Steve, Flickr
Features: These fish are olive green to dusky-brown with some light mottling towards their top sides. Their fin membranes are yellow. Habitat: Yellowtail rockfish will usually be found in offshore waters and often suspended over deep reefs and rocky habitat to as deep as 900 feet. Technique: Best success will be by first locating suspended schools of yellowtail rockfish in offshore areas during periods open for fishing offshore, and then working rubber tail jigs or shrimp flies through the schools.
Features: Opah are also known as moonfish due to their round, laterally compressed bodies. These fish are very beautiful with pale red colored and lighter spots throughout resembling the craters on the moon, and orange-red fins. Opah grow to an average of 3-feet long and 100 pounds. Habitat: Opah can be found in temperate and tropical waters. They tend to be at depths of 300- to 1,000-feet during the day and come above 300-feet at night. Technique: These fish are rare in Oregon's waters and are difficult to catch by rod and reel, though they are occasionally brought in.
Features: When in the ocean coho salmon can look very similar to Chinook salmon . However, coho will have a white gum line on the lower jaw with darker color both inside and outside of the gum line, and will only have spots on the upper lobe of their tails. When coho return to freshwater they become red on their sides and dark greenish on their backs, heads, and fins. Coho adults may reach 25 pounds or more, but rarely exceed 15 pounds. Habitat: Small, relatively low-gradient tributary streams with pea to orange-sized gravel for spawning and juvenile rearing. Coho
Features: These fish are dark green, gray or brown on top with an off-white belly and silver or tan sides. The underside of the head and fins can be pinkish. Long second anal fin spine. Silvergrays can be confused with bocaccio rockfish which have a short second anal fin spine. Habitat: Most commonly found between 330 and 990 feet though subadults have been found in kelp beds only 56 feet deep. Adults live over various rocky-bottom habitats. Technique: Work rubber tail jigs or shrimp flies through the schools containing these fish.
Features: These fish are dark blue or black with a light belly. In fact, they are closely related to blue rockfish, which are similar in appearance. The easiest way to identify a deacon rockfish is by the lower jaw that extends forward creating a significant underbite. Habitat: Like all rockfish, these fish use rocky reefs as habitat, but commonly suspend well up off the bottom. They are common down to 300 feet or more. Technique: They readily take both bait and lures. Deacon rockfish have smaller mouths than the black rockfish and are more likely to take smaller jigs and
Features: These fish are dark blue or black with a light belly, a blotchy pattern on the sides, and no spots in the dorsal fin. The easiest way to distinguish a blue rockfish from a deacon rockfish is that the blues have jaws that meet together when closed. Habitat: Like all rockfish, these fish use rocky reefs as habitat. They are common down to 500 feet or more, but also come in to shallow areas. Blue rockfish will often suspend in large schools well off the bottom over rocky areas. Technique: They readily take both bait and lures. Blue rockfish
Features: Green sturgeon have olive to dark green backs and a yellowish, green-white belly. They also have a green strip down the middle of their stomachs. This fish will grow to 7-feet long and, as with white sturgeon, have bony body armor along their backs and are covered in sandpaper-like skin. Habitat: Green sturgeon are bottom dwellers, travelling all along the Pacific coast of North America. They spawn in deep pools in turbulent freshwater from March to July. Technique: Green Sturgeon may not be targeted for retention or catch-and-release angling. Any Green Sturgeon caught incidentally, for instance during White Sturgeon
Features: Before spawning, sockeye salmon are silvery on their sides, white on their bellies, and dark blue on their backs. When spawning, their heads turn green with black on the snout and upper jaw, and their bodies turn red. They can be 24- to 33- inches long and weight between 5 and 15 pounds. Habitat: Many sockeye populations require a lake for part of their life cycle. Spawning may occur along lake shorelines or in stream gravels, but fry usually migrate to lake environments soon after emergence and occupy this habitat during their stay in fresh water. Technique: Sockeye salmon
Features: Pacific cod are brown to gray on the back with brown spots or pale areas on the back and sides. They are lighter on their bellies. They have an elongated body with a square caudal fin, three dorsal fins, a chin barbel, and two anal fins. The anal fins are usually white-edged. Habitat: They are widely distributed in cooler regions of Pacific and adjacent seas- Japan to the Bering Sea and south to Santa Monica, California. They range in water 7- to 300-fathoms deep, but tend to hang out near the bottom of the water column, regardless of water
