There are plenty of fish in the sea, most of them are predatory
and will take a fly. Check below for a discussion about some of them:
Valuable Sea Fish
Bonefish
It occurs both as individuals and in small or large schools. It is often caught on an #8 eight weight rod and 16-20 pound leader with a shrimp or crab fly. It can be found all over the tropical seas like in the Seychelles, Caribbean and the Maldives.
Triger Fish
A prized fish, growing up to half a metre. You can find several species/colors of trigger fish. They stay close to rock formations and seek shelter there. They are typically fished on the flat in shallow water on a crab fly.
Barracuda
A very common super-fast fish, found in coastal waters, also in muddy lagoons, e.g. in the Arabian Emirates, or patrolling the mouths of lagoons or estuaries. It has teeth like a pike, and a wire is required in front of the fly. Barracuda can grow to monstrous proportions.
Rainbow Runner
They usually cruise in large schools along the semi-arid waters of the outer islands. A fast striped streamer on an 8 to 10 weight rod and a clear line is needed to get a take from this beautiful predator.
Snapper
They stick to rocks, cliffs, high rocky walls, etc. We have several species of them, the red snapper below is probably the most famous one. Unfortunately, it is often killed for its excellent meat.
Pompano
There are several pompano species, but for this simple view we will suffice with one example. Typically they come in schools, along the beaches of most islands of Seychelles and Maldives. They are predatory fish, caught on a small and light streamers. Pictured here is the rarer "Three Spot Pompano".
Bluefin Trevally
The most common of the trevally genus. Typical blue body, can be up to one metre long. It is a large predator but often very cautious. It is typically caught on the edge between shallow and deep "on the reef" etc. It can be found everywhere in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
Mullet
They are found in many coastal waters and reach high into rivers, for example in Italy on the river Po they are up to 100 km inland from the sea. They are difficult to catch and then they fight back vigorously. The most effective might be a fly pretending to be a sand flea.
Giant Trevally
It's an iconic fish, everyone who goes fly fishing on an island trip wants to catch a GT. The fish grows well over a metre and catching it requires training and quality equipment. It is caught on #12 tackle, strong leaders, big streamers with super strong hooks. The GT's bite and fight will stay in your memory forever.
Tarpon
They are very powerful and strong fish that can be over two metres long and can be caught throughout the Gulf of Mexico or in Gabon, Africa, where this photo comes from. Catching a huge tarpon from the shore is like fulfilling your fishing matriculation.
These ten species of fish are only a tasting. We are missing here, for example, dolphin fish, golden trevally, snook, red fish, permit, king fish, sea trout and many other fish of tropical water and seas. Furthermore we should cover here also an inland jungle species like tiger fish, nile perch, golden dorado, all basses and other species. For fishing techniques of these jungle predators pay the same principles as for the sea fish species. Just enter to your browser "sea fish for fly fishing" and you will get plenty of pictures.
We do not deal with the billfish and tuna in this list for now. Also the school does not cover the teasing/exchange method of how to catch a billfish on a fly. The billfish covers mainly sailfish, marlin and swordfish.