Coldwater fish

Wild fisheries[edit]

The term "coldwater" is also used to refer to wild fish species that prefer bodies of water that are colder than most temperate waters. In recreational fishing, anglers may loosely break down fish into categories of warm-water fish, cool-water fish, and cold-water fish. Warm-water fish, such as largemouth bass, sunfish and bullhead catfish, are species that tend to dwell in relatively warm tropical and temperate waters similar to the room temperatures that humans easily find comfortable. Cool-water species, such as smallmouth bass and walleye, can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, but tend to be most abundant in cooler rivers or deeper parts of ponds and lakes, where the temperature is slightly lower than room temperatures. Cold-water species, such as salmonids (e.g. salmon, trout, char, graylings, freshwater whitefishes, etc.) and gadiforms (cods, hakes, pollock, haddock, burbot and rocklings, etc.), however become stressed at warm temperatures and are most active in colder temperatures around 7–18 °C (45–65 °F) which resemble a more subarctic or alpine condition. Because these designations are informal, different fisheries management authorities may recognize different boundaries in temperature preference between the categories.