For most serious fishermen, it was their family and friends who showed them the basics of the sport. But not everyone was lucky enough to have been mentored to a lifetime of outdoor fun pursuing and catching fish.

The good news is, learning to fish isn’t difficult. And it offers never-ending challenges in the outdoors. Even old hands at the game can learn about new types of tackle, baits, and lures. What’s more, there’s an infinite variety of subtle nuances that can make fishing challenging enough for a lifetime.

Fishing can be done virtually anywhere there’s water, and for little cost. America is blessed with great fishing from coast to coast—in thousands of lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and sprawling reservoirs. The following fish species are common to many of America’s freshwaters. Each has its own habits, habitats, preferred baits, lures, and methods for catching them. If you’ve never caught a fish before, this is a good place to start.

1. Sunfish

This generic name covers a host of freshwater panfish. Technically it includes black bass and crappies, but those species are so purposefully fished for and so different, they are covered in another section below. Sunfish are a warm-water species, abundant and readily caught near shore in ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers throughout America. They can be large—up to several pounds in the case of bluegills and red ear sunfish. But most weigh well under a pound, and fish about the size of an open-hand are common.

Bluegills are likely the most prolific sunfish, followed by red ear sunfish, rock bass, and warmouths. But spotted sunfish, pumpkinseeds, green, and longear sunfish also are widely distributed and caught by countless anglers. Often several sunfish species inhabit the same water, and some species hybridize.

Sunfish are an ideal target for beginners because of their great abundance. Their near-shore availability also makes them easy targets for people who don’t have access to a boat. They have voracious appetites that allow even novice anglers to catch plenty. In clean waters, sunfish of suitable size are tasty catches. They’re easy to clean and simple to cook and eat. (The fish earned the generic name “panfish” because they are the perfect size for frying in a pan.)

In almost any warm body of water, panfish can be found near weed beds, grassy banks, and overhanging vegetation. Shoreline areas of ponds and small lakes typically teem with summer sunfish. Bigger lakes and reservoirs also hold sunfish, especially near docks and in pockets with flooded brush and weeds. Some panfish species abound in creeks and rivers. Redbreasts and warmouths are especially abundant there, though other sunfish species can thrive in moving water, too.

The Best Natural Baits for Sunfish

Sunfish are democratic in their food preferences, and they’ve been caught on almost everything, including dragonflies, grasshoppers, grass shrimp, beetles, ladybugs, caterpillars, crickets, roaches, small minnows, and even pieces of lunch meat and bread. The most common bait is a simple earthworm, the garden variety, which many bait shops carry.

Small pieces of nightcrawler are best, since a sunfish has a small mouth. Use a long-shank light-wire No. 6 or 8 hook and barb an inch or two of earthworm multiple times onto it. Bait like this works best when fished a few feet below a lightweight bobber with a small split shot attached a foot or so above the hook for casting weight.

The Best Artificial Lures for Sunfish

Artificial panfish lures need to be small, since sunfish have very tiny mouths. Occasionally sunfish will hit large plugs and lures intended for other species, like bass and crappies. But as a rule, small lures are best.

A tiny 1/16- or 1/8-ounce single-blade spinner such as a Mepps or Panther Martin works for sunfish, as do small jigs down to 1/32-ounce size.

If you’re using a fly rod, thumbnail-size poppers, wet flies, or nymphs also work well, and they can be “sweetened” with a bit of earthworm. Fly tackle can be used very effectively, especially when summer sunfish are in shallow clear water spawning on large, visible beds. You can also use flies and poppers with small bobbers or floats with spinning tackle.

How to Fish for Sunfish

Slow retrieves with bait and lures usually account for most sunfish, since they are careful, deliberate feeders. Bank fishermen using polarized sunglasses frequently see small schools of sunfish holding near weeds, brush, stumps, and grassy shorelines. Carefully casting to fish that you can see usually results in strikes, and anglers should land hooked fish quickly to keep from spooking others.

Long shank bait hooks make for removing barbs from fish easy, and it’s always a good idea to bring a set of needle-nose pliers to help unhook a sunfish.

2. Catfish

Catfish get their name from the whiskers or barbels around their mouths. The whiskers are sensory organs that them to locate food in the deepest, darkest, muddiest water. Catfish are chiefly bottom feeders. While there are a number of American catfish (and similar-looking bullheads) the most important catfish species to American anglers are channel catfish, blue catfish, and flathead catfish.

Channel Catfish

The channel catfish is the most widely distributed, abundant, and sought-after fish in the group. Channel catfish are usually dark in color, with a gray to nearly black hue, often with liberal black spotting along their flanks. They sometimes are confused with blue catfish, but channels have deeply forked tails and a protruding upper lip.

Channel cat