The freshwater angling encyclopedia
100 species, written to the same structure every time: identification, habitat, distribution, lures, baits, rigs and tackle. Free to read, no account, no paywall.
Brown trout Stocked & wild
Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, and introduced to every continent except Antarctica — the most widely transplanted trout on earth, and the most variable. The small dark fish of an upland beck, the golden fish of a lowland reservoir, the cannibal ferox of a Highland loch and the silver sea trout running a tidal river are all one species.
In this article: identification, stocked vs wild behaviour, lures, baits, distribution, tackle, rigs, habitat.
Species directory
All 100 species · ● has stocked & wild variantsOwn a pond, lake or farm dam? Enter its size, depth, summer temperature, water chemistry and what you want from it — anywhere in the world — and get a stocking plan: which species, how many, what size, in what order, and what to fix before you buy a single fish. Warm-water, trout and coarse fisheries, with the temperature gates, liming gates and stocking permits that hatchery order forms leave out.
The encyclopedia stays free. This is the only paid part of Redd.
Browse another way
Where they live
Every species in Redd, by continent — native, introduced, or both. Continent level only; each species page carries the detail and the caveats.
All species
113 species, grouped by family. Tier 1 gets the full angling treatment, tier 2 a condensed one, tier 3 identification and ecology only. Species marked Stocked have separate stocked and wild guidance, because the two fish differently.
| Species | Scientific name | Regions | Tier |
|---|
Nothing matches that.
Rigs & presentations
Every rig is written once, here, and referenced by each species it suits — so the float rig reads the same on the trout page as on the roach page. Each entry lists components, when it works, and what it is bad at.
Catch your first fish
One realistic species for wherever you are, and everything you need to actually go and catch it. No boat, no club membership and about as much tackle as fits in a coat pocket.
Five things that matter more than tackle
- Fish where the fish areCover, depth change, moving water, shade, an overhanging tree, a jetty. Featureless open water in the middle is the worst place to start and it is where most beginners cast.
- Be quiet and stay backFish feel footfalls through the bank and see movement against the sky. Walking softly and standing a metre back from the edge will catch you more than any lure you can buy.
- Go smaller than you thinkA small hook and a small bait catch more fish than a large one, and almost everything in fresh water can be caught on a size 16 hook. Scale up later.
- Feed a little and oftenA pinch of bait every cast holds fish in front of you. A whole bag in one go feeds them and they leave.
- Wet your hands before you touch anythingDry hands strip the mucus that protects a fish from infection. Wet hands, support under the belly, back in the water quickly.
What not to buy yet
Almost nothing. A beginner setup is a rod, a reel with line already on it, a packet of hooks, a few split shot, one float and a tub of bait. The tackle shop will happily sell you ten times that, and none of it will catch you a fish you would not have caught anyway. Buy a landing net before you buy a second rod, and buy forceps or long-nose pliers before you buy anything else at all — getting a hook out cleanly matters more than any of it.
When you are ready for more, the rigs page covers every presentation on the site, tackle is written as specifications rather than model numbers, and every species page has its own handling notes.
Tackle & loadouts
Recommendations written as specifications rather than model numbers. A rod described as “7′0″ medium-heavy, fast action” is still correct in ten years; a link to a discontinued model is dead in two — and the spec teaches you something the link never will.
| Loadout | Rod | Reel | Line | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light river spinning | 6′6″ light, fast | 1000–2000 | 4–6 lb mono | Brown trout, grayling, perch |
| All-round spinning | 7′0″ medium, fast | 2500 | 10 lb braid + 8 lb fluoro | Bass, walleye, zander |
| Heavy cover casting | 7′0″ medium-heavy, fast | Low-profile 7.1:1 | 15–20 lb fluoro | Largemouth bass, Murray cod |
| River float | 13′ match, through | 3000 front drag | 4 lb mono, 3 lb hooklength | Roach, chub, dace, trout |
| Trout fly — river | 9′ 5-weight | 5/6 click drag | WF floating, 4x–6x | Brown trout, rainbow, grayling |
| Catfish bottom | 7′6″ heavy, moderate | 6000 baitrunner | 30–50 lb braid | Channel, blue, flathead, wels |
Where a loadout carries commercial links they sit under the spec, never in place of it, with the FTC disclosure above the fold rather than in the footer. Every loadout shows a visible updated date so a reader can judge how stale the advice is.
Data & sources
Redd is a commercial site, so it is built only on data that permits commercial use. Everything below is CC0, public domain, or written from scratch. Non-commercial sources — FishBase, IUCN Red List, NatureServe’s watershed maps — are deliberately excluded, and their absence shapes what the maps can show. Every photograph carries its own photographer and licence next to it.
| Source | Used for | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| iNaturalist | Most species photographs and many habitat photographs | CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA — per photograph, credited on the image |
| Wikimedia Commons | Habitat photographs, and species photographs where iNaturalist has none | Public domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA — per file, credited on the image |
| Natural Earth | Continent outlines for the distribution maps | Public domain |
| Wikidata | Species names in German, French, Spanish and Polish, matched on the scientific name | CC0 |
| Fisheries agencies | Regulations — linked, never reproduced | Linked only |
| Extension services and agencies | Pond stocking rates, cited per figure | Public domain or open publication |
| Redd editorial | All angling content, rigs, tackle, tactics, habitat and distribution notes | Original work |
Editorial standards
Eight rules the site holds itself to. They are here so a reader can check whether it keeps them.
- Regulations are linked, never republished. Seasons, size limits and permitted methods change every year and differ by water. Redd names the responsible agency and links to it; it does not restate a number that could be wrong by the time you read it.
- Every photograph carries its photographer and licence, next to the image rather than buried on a credits page. Attribution travels in the same record as the picture, so it cannot be separated from it by accident.
- Only sources that permit commercial use. FishBase, the IUCN Red List and NatureServe are excluded for that reason, and their absence costs real coverage. The sources table says what is used instead.
- Articles are drafts until a named person signs them off. Every species page says so at the top and again at the foot. No article claims review it has not had.
- Records are attributed, not asserted. A record is what a record body published, and those are broken and ratified continually. Check the current listing before relying on a figure.
- Tackle is written as specification, not model number. A rod described as 7′0″ medium-heavy is still correct in ten years; a link to a discontinued model is dead in two, and the spec teaches you something the link never will.
- No invented numbers. Where Redd has no live data it leaves the space blank and says why — the supplier order sheet has empty price columns rather than guesses, because the only real price is the one your hatchery quotes you.
- Where an honest answer cannot be given, none is given. The stocking calculator refuses to produce a plan for New Zealand, because trout farming is prohibited there and numbers would be worse than silence.
Known limitation · map resolution. The distribution maps are drawn at continent level, and that is the resolution the underlying notes actually support. A crisp country-by-country map would imply a precision this data does not have — “native to North America” covers Nunavut and Panama alike. The map is an index into the written distribution notes beneath it, not a range claim, and the notes carry the detail.
Finer resolution would mean occurrence data. The commercial-use rule bites here: NatureServe maps North American species at watershed resolution but forbids commercial use, and the open alternatives need heavy cleaning before they could be trusted on a page anyone pays for. Until that work is done the map says what it can stand behind and no more.
Pond stocking report
Tell us about your water anywhere in the world and get a stocking plan: which species, how many, what size, in what order, what to fix first, and which permits you need before you buy a fish. Built on published extension-service and agency rates, with the gates that hatchery order forms leave out.
Where the numbers come from
Every rate traces to a published extension-service or agency recommendation — Mississippi State, Clemson, Noble Research Institute, NC State, Texas A&M AgriLife, Virginia DWR, NSW DPI, Victorian Fisheries Authority. The report cites the source for each figure, because someone about to spend four figures on fingerlings deserves to see where the number came from.
Coverage is honest about itself. North America has the most codified guidance, the UK works in stocked weight rather than fingerling counts, and Australian rates come from state hatcheries and aquaculture extension rather than one central source — so each region is modelled on its own terms rather than translated from the American one.
Why this beats what exists
Pond stocking calculators already exist, but nearly all are hatchery order forms — pick an acreage, get a quantity of what that hatchery sells. None gate on water temperature, refuse to sell you trout for a pond that hits 80°F, cap grass carp at your state’s legal limit, tell you your existing population has to go first, or tell you the honest answer is “test your water and come back”. Being independent is the product.
This is a starting point, not a management plan. Rates assume typical conditions and cannot account for your soil, watershed, inflow or local climate. Before spending money, confirm with your regional fisheries agency or extension office — most advise on private waters free of charge. Renovation with rotenone or other piscicides is restricted to licensed applicators in most jurisdictions. Permit requirements change; verify current rules before ordering fish.