Saltwater Fishing

As fishing continues to grow as a popular sport and tourist attraction, the kinds of fish anglers seek are expanding in diversity just as quickly. The species sought by saltwater fisherman tend to fall in the big game fish categories, including blue marlin, king fish, dolphin, swordfish, and sharks.

In order to fish for the more exotic species, anglers are following their catch to the Gulf Coast, the Florida Keys, Belize, and the Bahamas. The expanding ideas of where to find the best catch can bolster the tourism industry for many countries. In search for rare species such as taimen, or precedent-setting runs of salmon lead anglers to some of the unlikeliest fishing spots one can imagine, such as Mongolia or the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

In comparing saltwater fishing to freshwater fishing the tactics may vary, and most anglers probably use a combination from both sports, but it is the bait that will reveal the major difference. For freshwater fish the bait, in the form of insects sitting on the water's surface, trick the fish to come to the topside and snap their prey. Saltwater fish eat other animals, and thus their bait must live up to this enticement. Another important facet to saltwater fishing is the impact tidal waves have on the catch. The tides can change up to four times a day, and with each change the location of the baitfish for the catch alters. The challenge for the angler then becomes not only keeping up with their catch, but also with the tides.

The basic techniques used to catch saltwater game fish include mooching, trolling, and drift fishing. Mooching takes place from a boat drifting just outside of the main currents. The frozen or live bait is dragged through the waters where fish are most likely to rest. Trolling is a much more proactive technique. The lures are trolled through the waters, thus the angler must continually be on the outlook, and on the move. Drift fishing, sometimes called jigging, entails the abrupt raising of a weighted lure, followed by the immediate release that allows the bait to quiver as it floats down below the surface of the water. This motion, or quivering causes the bait to emit a small sparkle of light, an added pull for any nearby fish.