SEA ANGLER
UK &IRELAND SPECIALIST SPECIES HUNTING
Black bream fishing tactics in the far south west reaches of the UK will give you the best possible chance of encountering this exotic species commonly found throughout the Mediterranean, as Dave Lewis explains
From time to time I receive images of fish that have been caught by anglers who are keen to have the identity of their catch confirmed.
In some cases I remain as baffled as the fish’s captor. Thankfully, in other cases, I am able to positively confirm the identification. So it was in October this year when I received an email from Robert Christie who had caught a colourful bream-like fish whilst fishing in Guernsey. One glance was sufficient to identify it. It was a species I have caught on several occasions fishing in and around the Mediterranean: the comber.
The comber is a species of marine ray-finned fish from the family Serranidae, the sea basses. The comber has an extensive distribution in the eastern Atlantic where it is occasionally found in the warmer waters in the south and south-west of England and off western Wales. Further south in France and Portugal comber are abundant, and especially within the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The species also occurs along the west coast of Africa from Morocco southwards to Angola and off the coasts of South Africa, and within the Red Sea.
IDENTIFYING FEATURES
It has a relatively stout body with a large head and a prominent jaw. It has two dorsal fins, the first has 11 thin spines and is joined to the second, which has 13-15 branched rays. The colour of the comber varies from light brown to dark brown to an intense reddish brown. It is marked with seven to nine darker transverse bands along its flanks. These are broken by a longitudinal white to yellowish stripe running from the head to the tail. There are a few yellow or orange longitudinal lines on the sides of the head. Comber can reach a length of 40cm. The current British record is held
