Saltwater species
Known for its incredible speed and massive sail-like dorsal fin, this billfish is a bucket-list offshore target.
What is the Sailfish?
This green-colored member of the sunfish family is the most popular game fish in North America, famous for hitting topwater frogs.
This classic, circular red-and-white plastic device floats on the surface and plunges underwater to signal a bite.
What is a bobber (or float)?
This fundamental knot is taught to beginners and involves wrapping the tag end around the standing line 5 to 7 times before passing it back through the loops.
This visible line of sensory structures running along the sides of a fish detects vibrations and pressure changes in the water.
This silver giant is famous for its massive scales, explosive leaps when hooked, and the nickname "The Silver King."
What is the Tarpon?
Often targeted through the ice or by trolling, this toothy freshwater apex predator is known as the "fish of ten thousand casts."
This hard-bodied lure features a plastic lip that forces it to dive under the surface and wobble wildly when retrieved.
What is a crankbait?
This incredibly strong knot is the gold standard for tying braided line directly to a hook, requiring you to pass a doubled loop through the eyelet first.
This internal, gas-filled organ allows a bony fish to maintain its buoyancy and control its depth without expending energy.
What is a swim bladder?
This flat bottom-dweller is the largest of all flatfish, with specimens in places like Alaska frequently exceeding 300 pounds.
This popular target has a distinct white tip on the lower lobe of its tail and is prized for its low-light feeding habits.
This soft-plastic bait resembles an earthworm and is commonly rigged "Texas-style" to make it completely weedless.
What is a plastic worm (or Senko)?
This nearly invisible line material sinks quickly, resists abrasions, and is frequently used as leader material attached to braid.
What is fluorocarbon?
This term describes fish like salmon or striped bass that live their adult lives in saltwater but migrate up freshwater rivers to spawn.
What is anadromous
This pelagic fish is famous for its vibrant neon green and yellow colors, a blunt head profile on males, and the alternate name Dorado.
Named for its whisker-like barbels, this heavyweight bottom-feeder uses a highly developed sense of taste across its entire body to find food.
This lure features one or more metal blades that spin around a wire shaft, creating flash and vibration to mimic baitfish.
This line-to-line connection knot is incredibly slim, allowing it to easily pass through rod guides when joining a braided main line to a leader.
What is the FG knot
To estimate a fish's weight mathematically without a scale, anglers multiply the length by the square of this measurement, then divide by 800.
This hard-fighting reef dweller is notoriously difficult to land because it immediately dives into jagged structure, earning it the nickname "reef donkey."
What is the Greater Amberjack?
This primitive, armored freshwater fish has a dual row of sharp teeth and a long snout, and it is capable of breathing atmospheric air.
This terminal tackle piece features a heavy lead weight molded directly onto a hook, frequently paired with soft plastics.
This bottom-fishing presentation positions the weight at the very bottom of the line with a hook tied directly to the line static above it.
what is a drop shot rig
This specialized organ, found in sharks and rays but absent in bony fish, allows them to detect the weak bio-electric fields of hidden prey.
What are the Ampullae of Lorenzini?