Popular California fish: Black Crappie | Blue Gill | Grayling | Lake Whitefish | Mountain Whitefish | Steelhead | Sturgeon | Shad | Yellow Perch

Lake Whitefish

Lake Whitefish are olive-green to blue on the back, with silvery sides. They have a small mouth below a rounded snout, and a deeply forked tail.

Mountain Whitefish

Mountain Whitefish have large scales, no spots and small mouths with no teeth. The general body color is a bronze-white or greenish white.

Steelhead

Grayling

The Grayling fish have a colorful and very large dorsal fin, much larger than that of any other cold-water fish. Grayling have large scales with brown or black spots on the body behind the head. They have a black line in the fold under the mouth.

Yellow Perch

Yellow Perch are the most common sport fish, giving hours of enjoyment to beginning, young anglers. They are a very popular winter sport fish. Their general body color is golden yellow or green, with broad, dark vertical bands on the side. They have needle-like spines on the dorsal fin.

Sturgeon

The Sturgeon is a living "dinosaur" of the fish world, this unusual species is torpedo-shaped and armor-plated. Instead of scales, the Sturgeon's large brown or grey body is covered with tough, leather-like tissue and five rows of bony plates. It has a shark-like, upturned tail and a pointed snout with four barbells, or tissue filaments. These leathery giants can live up to 100 years.

Shad

Blue Gill

Bluegills are generally found in slow moving or standing water where there is plenty of vegetation or other shelter. They are a pretty fish, green to brown on their backs and upper sides shading into brown, orange, or pink with traces of vertical bars along their bottom sides. The breast is yellow to copper-orange, and the sides of their heads have metallic blue and green overtones. The large, square-shaped, blue black gill flap and conspicuous dark blotch on the back of the soft-rayed portion of their dorsal fins distinguishes bluegills from their close relatives, the pumpkinseed. Bluegills average four to ten inches in length.

Black Crappie

Black Crappies provide good fishing opportunities. Usually occurring in large schools, they can provide fast and furious action for anglers. This is especially true in early to mid-spring when large numbers gather prior to spawning. And, like the rest of the sunfish family, black crappies make a delicious meal.