12. The Complete Almanac

In this two-part chapter, we'll skim the cream off saltwater fishing around the United States. Skim the cream, we say, be­cause we'll talk only about the 107 fish most likely to be taken by sports anglers and well disregard the countless others in our waters that have nothing much to offer the sportsman or the family man out just for a day of old-fashioned fun.

The 107 fish that constitute the cream of the crop are popular because they're either hard-fighting and thrilling to catch, good eating, or just plain available to the fellow and his family who haven't got much time, money or inclination to make a sea-going safari of a fishing trip. But, for those who are safari-minded, we'll include the most popular big game fish, too.

Part One of this chapter is a geographical chart of our coastal waters—Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific—divided into eight separate zones where the 107 fish are most apt to roam. Each zone, or area, has a number from one through eight.

Part Two lists the 107 fish by their most popular American names and also by their Latin names. If we used every nick­name for every fish, we'd probably end up with a thousand names so well save some of the nicknames for Chapter 13 where well talk about how to catch each fish. There well again use the Latin names to make identification easier.

Alongside the name of each fish in Part Two there is a row of twelve blocks, one block for each month of the year. In each appropriate block there is an appropriate geographical area number so that you can tell at a glance which fish can be caught when and where just by reading across. Or follow any month down and you'll know every fish running wher­ever you are and whenever you're there.

The geographical chart divides our twenty-one coastal states into eight areas.

1: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts.

2: Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey.

3: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia.

4: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia.

5: Florida.

6: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas.

7: Southern California, north to Point Conception and Santa Barbara.

8: Northern California, Oregon, Washington.

The number "five" after "Amberjack" in the January block means the Amberjack can be caught in Florida in January. Simple?

As we said, we put these 107 most popular fish into one or more of the eight geographical areas under the months that they are most likely to be waiting to be caught there. But just remember this: we can read maps and charts of geographical boundaries; fish can't. A fish isn't going to stop swimming at the Georgia-Florida line or at Point Conception, California, just because we say so. Stragglers will roam north or south, east or west of our boundaries, so don't be surprised when you hook into a fish that's strayed off the reservation. It happens every day.

Nor does a fish respect a calendar. Seasons, yes. Months, no. And, to a fish, it's the temperature of the water that sets the seasons. Past performances may indicate that a given fish first will be plentiful off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, or somewhere in the Gulf in May, but that doesn't mean there won't be a time when he will get there on the twentieth of April or perhaps not until the tenth of June.

PART ONE GEOGRAPHICAL CHART

PART TWO CALENDAR  

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