Tarpon
Mexico
Keys migratory peak Apr–May. Boca Grande Pass is the spring stack. Jupiter inlet and beach. Texas beach/passes mid-summer. Venice south passes in the heat. Bahamas: resident fish in bights Apr–Oct.
Bonefish
Mexico
Absent in Texas. Keys: big, few, educated. Bahamas: the capital — winter singles, summer schools of 3–5 lb fish. Puerto Rico: east islands more than San Juan. Seychelles: Alphonse and Farquhar sand, not Mahé town water.
Permit
Mexico
None in Texas. Keys mecca — flats, banks, wrecks. Bahamas west sides May–Oct. Puerto Rico: east-island banks, not Condado. Seychelles 'permit' is often the Indo-Pacific fish (Trachinotus blochii) — same job, different ocean.
Hogfish
Mexico
Keys and Caribbean patch reefs. Not a Texas bay fish. Not a bonefish headline. He lives on the hard bottom, not the grass.
Yellowtail snapper
Mexico
Islamorada to Key West, then the Bahamas and the Spanish Virgins. Patch reefs and the first drop. Absent from Texas bays.
Mangrove / gray snapper
Mexico
The snapper that will live in a Texas jetty and a Keys creek. Schoolies on structure. Bigger fish on the wrecks. Not a yellowtail.
Mutton snapper
Mexico
Keys wrecks and Caribbean hard bottom. Not a Texas red. Not a yellowtail in a chum slick.
Lane snapper
Mexico
Nearshore Gulf and Caribbean hard bottom. Texas jetties and the first reefs. Not the federal red-snapper story.
Black grouper
Mexico
Keys, Bahamas, Yucatan, Puerto Rico wrecks. The heavy grouper. Do not print him on Galveston.
King mackerel
Mexico
Texas and Florida summer kings. The beach and the first wrecks. Not a trout. Not a wahoo.
Striped marlin
Mexico
Eastern Pacific. East Cape and the mouth of the Cortez. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Same rule as the rooster: this ocean only.
Roosterfish
Mexico
Eastern Pacific — Baja East Cape and La Paz, Costa Rica, Panama. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Lives on this atlas only on the Mexico Pacific desks.
Noise, not the headline: Jack crevalle, Great barracuda.