What types of things have you done to increase your fishing identification skills?

When I was a kid I had a book called "How to fish the Pacific Coast", which had detailed descriptions and line drawings of the 200 or so most common fish taken in the ocean off California. So whenever I caught something I didn't recognize, I took it home and used the book, comparing colors to the description, counting spines in the fins and so on. (There's a family of bass-like fish, called Rockfish, with something like 100 different species, 50 of which were in that book, and that's how I learned to identify them -- at least the ones I saw regularly.)

But the common fish are distinctive enough I didn't need a book. One identification in the field and I knew the fish.

Honestly, I think photos aren't too good for differentiating between similar species, as the colors can vary quite a bit between individuals (or after a fish dies), and the features which can distinguish them (like the number of spines in the dorsal fin) really don't appear clearly. In person, many superficially similar species seem to have a distinctive "look", which also often doesn't come out in a photo.

To be honest,

remembering every fish in an area is difficult because they can be in many stages of their life or have look a like. The fish we come into contact with most often is burned into memory for sure. That's why you see regs tossing or keeping the fish. Fact is, even the best of us forget sometimes, we can't remember how many rays on the fin, the patterns on the skin, the distance from the this to the that or the look a likes. Add the fact that your out there under the sun fishing away and probably distracted by bikinis or whatever...hell, it's a wonder why most can even name a fish at all.

The easiest way to know what the hell you're doing is to take a copy of the fishing regs provided by your state. They often come with pics and descriptions on to how properly identify the fish. Some states provide free copies of fish descriptions on paper, some on line...cut it out and or print it out and take it with you. Study these fish for longer than a minute, you'll see that they have differences, even if it's minute.

When you go fishing, take it with ya, compare notes and after awhile you'll be pro in fish I.D. ! ~ Good luck catchin"

What I done was learn which fish are in the waters that I will be fishing, because some species could be out of season and even catch & release would probably be illegal. That last part is true here in Alaska for when they close down king salmon fishing in certain water systems it is illegal to disturb them and if you accidentally hook one they tell you in the regulations that you must break or cut your leader, because catch and release is prohibited when they shut down the king salmon fishing. They even shut down trout fishing at certain times in some water systems, because they don't want people disturbing them when it is spawning season for trout.

Now for the learning what species are in the waters that you will be fishing is something that one can do by doing research by getting info from fish and wildlife, or do online searches to learn too.