Game fish

{{main|List of freshwater game fish|List of marine game fish}}

File:Striped Blue Marlin.jpgs are popular blue-water game fish]]

File:Esox lucius ZOO 1.jpg is a classic freshwater game fish]]

File:Pan-fried-fish.jpg

The species of fish prized by anglers varies with geography and tradition. Some fish are sought for their value as food, while others are pursued for their fighting abilities, or for the difficulty of successfully enticing the fish to bite the hook.

• Big-game fish or blue water game fish are large pelagic saltwater fish such as tuna, tarpon, grouper and billfish (sailfish, marlin and swordfish). Occasionally other predatory fishes such as sharks, barracuda and dolphinfish are also pursued. Large powerful freshwater fish such as alligator gar, lake sturgeon and flathead catfish can also be considered big-game fish.
• Freshwater fish targeted by anglers in North America include bass (especially black bass), salmon/trout, char, walleye/sauger, common snook, redfish, northern pike and muskellunge, sturgeon, gar and several catfish species. In Europe and Asia, large cyprinids (e.g. carps, barbels, breams, chubs, daces and tench), perches, freshwater salmonids (trout, graylings, whitefish and taimen), drum, pikes, catfish, eels and snakeheads are also popular, although many of them are regarded derogatorily as "trash fish", "dirt fish" or "pest fish" in America.
• In the United Kingdom, "game fish" refers specifically to salmonids other than graylings – that is, salmon, trout and char. Other popular freshwater fish are called coarse fish.
• Small/medium-sized freshwater fish routinely sought by anglers are called panfish in the United States, because they typically can fit wholly into a normal cooking pan without needing to be cut or filleted. Examples are crappies, yellow perch, rock bass, bluegills and other sunfish (Centrarchidae). Panfish are often sought by younger, more inexperienced anglers, at least partly due to their proactivity to feed and the relative ease to be caught; although adult anglers sometimes consider them as "nuisance fish" due to their tendency to opportunistically strike the baits/lures intended for other larger fishes.

Some popular game fish have been introduced and stocked worldwide. Rainbow trout, for instance, can be found nearly anywhere the climate is appropriate, from their native range on the Pacific Coast of North America to the mountains of southern Africa,{{cite book|last1=Skelton|first1=Paul|title=A complete guide to the freshwater fishes of southern Africa|date=2001|publisher=Struik|location=Cape Town|isbn=9781868726431|page=72|edition=New|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bURse4a-2m8C&pg=PA72}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and is now listed as one of the worst invasive species.{{cite web|url=http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/100_worst.php |title=100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species|publisher=Global Invasive Species Database |access-date=5 September 2018}}

File:Mark Cantrell tagging a fish (8696825616).jpg injecting a sicklefin redhorse with an identifying tag]]

{{main|Tag and release}}

As part of the catch-and-release practice encouraged to promote conservation, tagging programs were established. Some of their goals are to improve the management of fishery resources and to keep records on abundance, age, growth rates, migrations and breed identification.

Some well-known tagging programs in the United States are the South Carolina Marine Game Fish Tagging Program and the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program. The South Carolina Marine Game Fish Tagging Program began in 1974 and it is now{{when|date=October 2021}} the largest public tagging program in the Southeastern United States. Anglers are trained and then receive a tag kit with tags, applicator, and instructions. When they tag a fish, anglers use a reply postcard they receive in advance to send the information on the tag number, tag date, location, species, and size. This program issues anglers who tag and release 30 or more eligible species within a year a conservation award. When an angler recaptures a tagged fish, they then should report the recapture. If possible, the tag number and the mailing address should be reported, along with the location and date of the recapture, as well with the measurement of the fish. The objective is to provide biologists with the necessary information to determine growth rate through an accurate measurement.{{cite web|url=http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascience/tagfish.html|title=SC Marine Game Fish Tagging Program|access-date=2010-05-07|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509170801/http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascience/tagfish.html|archive-date=9 May 2010}} The Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program started operations in 1995 and keeps records on recaptured fish since then. This is an annual program that starts in January and it is limited to 160 anglers. Anglers receive training workshops in February and March.{{cite web|url=http://web.vims.edu/adv/recreation/tag/index.html|title=Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program|access-date=2010-05-07|archive-date=24 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924090005/http://web.vims.edu/adv/recreation/tag/index.html|url-status=dead}}

The official guide to world salt- and freshwater fish records is the World Record Game Fishes, published annually by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which maintains records for nearly 400 species around the world. The records are categorised, with separate records for juniors, for the type of tackle and line used, for fly fishing, and locality records.[http://fishing.about.com/library/review/books/blrvigfa.htm Fishing Book Review: World Record Game Fishes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225209/http://fishing.about.com/library/review/books/blrvigfa.htm |date=3 March 2016 }} About.com. Retrieved 19 April 2009. The IGFA also organize the world saltwater championship tournaments.[http://www.igfa.org/tour.asp World Championship Tournaments] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210041131/http://www.igfa.org/tour.asp |date=10 February 2010 }} – International Game Fish Association

• {{annotated link|Coarse fishing}}
• {{annotated link|Fishing tournament}}
• {{annotated link|Game (hunting)}}
• {{annotated link|List of freshwater game fish}}
• {{annotated link|List of marine game fish}}
• {{annotated link|Overfishing}}
• {{annotated link|Recreational fishing}}

{{Reflist}}

• Dunn, Bob (2000) Saltwater Game Fishes of the World. Australian Fishing Network.{{ISBN|978-1-86513-010-1}}

{{angling topics}}

{{Fisheries and fishing}}

{{Diversity of fish}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Recreational fishing

pt:Peixe esportivo