North American saltwater fishing

Treating North America as one saltwater fishery is the commonest visitor error.

THE NORTH-WEST ATLANTIC is cold, tidal and rocky in the north, sandy and barrier-island in the middle. Historically one of the world's great commercial grounds, and the site of the northern cod collapse.

THE SOUTH-EAST AND GULF are shallow, warm and estuarine, with marsh, seagrass, mangrove and reef. The inshore fishery here is enormous and the flats fishing is world-defining.

THE NORTH-EAST PACIFIC is cold, upwelling-driven and extremely productive, with kelp, rock and major salmon rivers, running from California to Alaska.

THE ARCTIC COASTS carry subsistence fisheries with very short seasons.

A reader who has fished one of these knows very little about the others: the species, the methods, the seasons, the hazards and even the vocabulary differ.

ATLANTIC NORTH-EAST: striped bass, bluefish, cod, haddock, pollock, flounder, black sea bass, tautog, and bluefin tuna offshore. The striped bass migration is the defining seasonal event, moving north in spring and south in autumn, and the autumn run is the year's high point.

SOUTH-EAST AND GULF: red drum, spotted seatrout, snook, tarpon, flounder, snapper, grouper, cobia, king mackerel. Warm enough to fish year-round, with tarpon and cobia arriving on defined seasonal runs and snapper seasons controlled tightly.

PACIFIC: five species of Pacific salmon, halibut, lingcod, rockfish, albacore, and striped bass in California. The salmon runs organise the year completely, and their timing varies by river and by species.

ARCTIC: char, whitefish and salmon in a very short open season.

AND ACROSS ALL OF THEM the stock picture is actively managed and actively contested, with seasons and limits revised in response to assessment.

SURF FISHING on the Atlantic and Gulf beaches, with a heavy-tackle tradition and, for striped bass, a substantial night fishery.

PIER AND JETTY FISHING, the most accessible saltwater angling on the continent and the entry point for most people.

INSHORE LURE AND FLY FISHING from skiffs and kayaks for red drum, seatrout, snook and striped bass — the fastest-growing recreational sector.

FLATS FISHING by sight from a poled skiff for bonefish, permit and tarpon, which is a specialist discipline with its own gear and its own guiding profession.

BOTTOM AND WRECK FISHING for snapper, grouper, cod and rockfish, frequently from party boats.

OFFSHORE TROLLING for tuna, marlin, wahoo and dolphinfish.

SALMON TROLLING and river-mouth fishing on the Pacific.

AND CRABBING, CLAMMING AND SHELLFISH GATHERING, which are substantial recreational activities with their own separate rules and their own public health controls.

The single most consequential event in this region's fishing history is the collapse of the northern cod stock off Newfoundland and Labrador, and the moratorium that followed in 1992.

A fishery that had been prosecuted for five centuries, that built the economies and the settlements of an entire region, and that was assumed to be inexhaustible, fell to a fraction of its former biomass within a few decades of industrial expansion. Tens of thousands of people lost their livelihoods at once. The stock has not recovered to anything like its former state.

Why it matters beyond Canada is that it is the clearest available demonstration of several things at once: that a fishery can appear productive right up to the point of collapse; that landings data can mask decline when effort and technology are rising; that scientific advice can be overridden by economic and political pressure; and that recovery is neither quick nor guaranteed.

It is the reason precaution is written into modern fisheries management, and it is the argument behind measures that look excessive from a boat. Any reader who wonders why a season closes at short notice, or why a limit tightens on a stock that still produces fish, is looking at the shadow of this event.

REDFISH means red drum in the south-east and Gulf, and something else entirely in the north Atlantic commercial fishery.

FLATS means shallow clear sight-fishing ground, and the word carries a whole discipline with it.

PARTY BOAT or HEAD BOAT is a large charter taking individually paying anglers, as opposed to a private charter — the distinction matters when booking.

SLOT means the legal retention size range, and 'a slot fish' is one inside it.

THE EEZ is the federal zone beyond state waters, and which side of an invisible line you are on decides whose rules apply.

STRIPER, LINESIDER, ROCKFISH all mean striped bass in different parts of the Atlantic coast — while ROCKFISH on the Pacific coast means an entirely different group of fish. That single word is the most reliable way to confuse a visitor.

The layering here is unusually consequential and worth understanding before booking anything.

STATE OR PROVINCIAL WATERS extend a defined distance from shore and are governed by the state or provincial marine fisheries agency. FEDERAL WATERS lie beyond and are governed federally. The same species can carry different size limits, bag limits and seasons in the two zones on the same day, and the boundary is not visible from a boat.

REGIONAL FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCILS set measures for particular stocks and revise them within seasons in response to catch data. Openings and closures for high-profile species have been announced at very short notice.

SALTWATER REGISTRATION OR LICENSING is required in most jurisdictions and differs between them. Highly migratory species require separate federal permits.

TRIBAL AND TREATY FISHERIES operate under separate legal arrangements, particularly on the Pacific coast.

SHELLFISH HARVESTING is controlled on public health grounds by a different authority again, with closures that can be immediate.

FishingHQ states none of these. The practical instruction is to check BOTH the state and the federal position for the species and the water, and to check them close to the day.