The freshwater angling encyclopedia
113 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 113 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.
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Where they live
Every species in Redd, by continent or country — native, introduced, or both. 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 |
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; the how-many pages name the source of each published figure and mark Redd’s own | 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 map on each species page is drawn at continent level, which is the resolution the underlying notes actually support — “native to North America” covers Nunavut and Panama alike. The Where they live page also has a country view. It is built from counts of public occurrence records (GBIF.org), and only inside the continents where Redd records the fish, so it shows where a species has been recorded, not its range: a country with few observations can be missing, and one stray record can add one. Neither map is a range claim; the written distribution notes carry the detail.
Anything finer would mean cleaned occurrence data or range maps. The commercial-use rule bites here: NatureServe maps North American species at watershed resolution but forbids commercial use, and FishBase licenses its data for non-commercial use. The country view therefore uses only counts of GBIF records, which are facts about the records, and checks them against Redd’s own continent notes. Until more work is done the maps say what they can stand behind and no more.
Privacy policy
Last updated 15 October 2026
Who we are
Redd (reddfishing.com) is run by William, in Australia. If you have a question about your information, email hello@reddfishing.com.
Reading the site
You do not need an account, and Redd uses no analytics service, no advertising and no tracking cookies. One outside service sees ordinary technical information when you visit, as it would for any website:
- Cloudflare hosts the site. It receives your IP address and browser details to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse.
The typefaces are served from Redd itself, so your browser contacts no other outside service to read the encyclopedia.
What you search for
When you use the search box, the words you typed are counted so Redd can see what readers are looking for and what the encyclopedia is missing. Only the words and a monthly count are kept, for about a year. Nothing is stored alongside them: no IP address, no identifier, no session, and nothing that could connect a search to a person or to another search.
What Redd counts
Redd keeps daily totals so it can see what is used and what is not: how many times each kind of page was viewed (a species page, a comparison, a rig and so on), what kind of site sent the reader (a search engine, a social site, an AI assistant, another site, or none), and how many readers started the calculator, saw a plan, pressed pay, or bought a report. Search engines, scripts and other known crawlers are not counted. Only the totals are kept, for about a year. Nothing is stored alongside them: no IP address, no identifier, no session, and nothing that could connect one visit to another.
What your browser keeps
Three things are saved in your own browser, not sent to us: the language you chose, a pond you choose to save in the stocking calculator, and a receipt for a report you bought (the checkout reference and the pond it was for, so you can reopen it). Clearing your browser’s data for this site removes them.
When you buy a stocking report
- Payment is handled by Stripe. You give Stripe your card details, name, email address and country. Redd never sees or stores your card details.
- From Stripe, Redd receives your email address, the amount and whether the payment went through, and the checkout reference.
- Your pond. The answers you gave the calculator, and the plan built from them, are attached to the payment and kept with Cloudflare for 90 days so your report can be built and emailed. They contain no name or email address.
- The email with your report is sent through Resend, which processes your email address and the message.
What it is used for
Only to take your payment, build and deliver your report, let you reopen it, deal with refunds and questions, and keep the records tax law requires. Redd does not sell your information and does not send marketing email.
Where it is stored
Stripe, Cloudflare, Resend and Google operate internationally, so your information may be stored or processed outside Australia, including in the United States.
How long it is kept
Pond plans are deleted automatically after 90 days. Payment records are kept for as long as Australian tax law requires, generally five years. Stripe and Resend keep their own records under their own policies.
Your choices
You can ask what information Redd holds about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for anything not required for tax records to be deleted. Email hello@reddfishing.com. If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au. If you are in the EU or UK, you have the rights given by data protection law there, and the same address applies.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
Terms of sale
Last updated 15 October 2026
These terms apply when you buy a pond stocking report from Redd. The encyclopedia itself is free to read.
1. Who you are buying from
William, trading as Redd, Australia. Contact: hello@reddfishing.com.
2. What you are buying
A stocking report for one pond or dam, built from the answers you enter in the calculator. You get the report on the site and as a Word document, emailed to the address you give at checkout and available to download. The price is shown at checkout in Australian dollars and includes any GST that applies. Payment is taken by Stripe.
3. Delivery
The report is available as soon as your payment is confirmed, and the email is sent at the same time. It can land in a junk or spam folder. If you have not received it within an hour, email us.
4. What the report is, and is not
The report is a planning document built from published extension-service guidance and the answers you give. It is not a site inspection, not advice from a fisheries biologist, and not legal advice. Redd does not state fishing or stocking law: the report names the agency responsible where you are, and you must confirm the species, the numbers and any permit with that agency before buying fish. How fish survive, grow and breed depends on conditions Redd cannot see, so no particular result is promised.
5. Refunds
If you are not happy with your report for any reason, email us within 14 days of buying it and we will refund you in full, no questions asked. Include the email address you used at checkout. Refunds go back to the card you paid with, and usually arrive within 5–10 business days.
Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
6. Using your report
The report is for your own pond or dam. You may print it and share it with your fish supplier, your fisheries agency or an adviser. Please do not resell or republish it.
7. The rest of the site
Photographs belong to the people credited on them and are used under the licences shown with each image. The Data & sources page lists where everything comes from.
8. Liability
To the extent the law allows, and without limiting your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, Redd’s total liability for a report is limited to the price you paid for it.
9. Law
These terms are governed by the law of South Australia, Australia.
10. Changes
The terms in force when you bought your report are the ones that apply to it. New versions are posted here with a new date.
Contact
Email hello@reddfishing.com. Redd is run by one person, so replies usually take a few days.
About a report you bought
Include the email address you used at checkout, and the reference printed at the top of the Word report if you have it. For a refund within 14 days, that is all we need — see the terms of sale.
Corrections to the encyclopedia
If something in a species article is wrong, say which article and what, and where possible link to a source. Corrections backed by a source are the most useful email Redd gets.
Fishing and stocking rules
Redd cannot answer questions about what the law allows where you fish. The Data & sources page links the agency responsible in each place, and they are the only ones who can.
Privacy
What Redd collects and why is set out in the privacy policy.
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
Where a published rate exists the plan uses it and names its source — Mississippi State, Clemson, Noble Research Institute, NC State, Texas A&M AgriLife, Virginia DWR, NSW DPI, Victorian Fisheries Authority and others. Where none was found, the plan says so and shows a number worked out from what the water can carry, marked as Redd’s estimate rather than a published rate. The report lists the sources it used, because someone about to spend four figures on fingerlings deserves to see where the numbers 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, 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.