Species Explorer

Every water has a shortlist. This is how you find it.

A worldwide gamefish catalog organised by continent and bioregion. Hover the map to see what a country or state holds, click to filter the catalog, and open any species for its diet, seasonal windows, habitat, and the presentations that actually work on it.

Species catalogued

181

Gamefish and notable food species worldwide

Continents

Each with its own fauna and seasonal logic

Bioregions mapped

Drainage basins, coastlines, and lake systems

Linked to tracked waters

Species tied to a WatrWays waterway profile

North America

85 species

The most heavily managed freshwater fishery on earth: black bass, cool-water percids, salmonids on both coasts, and a catfish family with no real equivalent elsewhere.

South America

30 species

The Amazon and Paraná systems hold more freshwater fish species than any other continent, from 300 lb catfish to piranha and the air-breathing arapaima.

Europe

36 species

Slow lowland rivers and canals built around cyprinids and pike, with cold headwaters holding the trout and grayling that most fly fishing traditions started from.

Africa

37 species

Rift lakes full of endemic cichlids, tigerfish in the Zambezi and Congo, Nile perch pushing 200 lb, and coastal fisheries that shift with the monsoon.

Asia

50 species

The largest carps and catfish in the world, mahseer in Himalayan whitewater, snakeheads across the tropics, and the densest inshore saltwater diversity anywhere.

Oceania

33 species

An isolated fauna built on barramundi, Murray cod, and reef predators, plus New Zealand's introduced trout that now fish better than most of their native range.

Range Atlas

Hover anywhere to see what swims there

Land shapes hold everything in that country or state. Ocean basins hold the saltwater species only. Click either one to filter the catalog below.

north americasouth americaeuropeafricaasiaoceaniaocean basins

Lighter fill means more species on record.

Showing 181 of 181 species.

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How to read this

Ranges are coarse on purpose

A species is mapped to the bioregions where it is a realistic target, not to a precise distribution model. Treat a highlighted country as worth planning around rather than as a guarantee for any specific lake or river inside it.

Months are the broad window

Best months reflect the typical peak across the whole range. Latitude, elevation, water level, and the southern-hemisphere calendar all shift it, so use the strip as a starting point rather than a schedule.

Regulations come first

Several species here are endangered, protected, or closed to fishing in part of their range. Where that is the case the entry says so, but the local authority is always the one that decides.