Angler with a silver bass in the sunshine

Species guide

Sea fish of Sussex

From mackerel to tope, here is what you can expect to catch on a boat trip from Brighton Marina, and when.

Fish you can catch off the Sussex coast

Seasons and numbers vary from year to year, but this is what our trips produce.

Click through to the trip pages for more on each of the main species. For when each one is best, see the fishing seasons guide.

Bass

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Silver, powerful and a favourite. Best spring to autumn.

Cod

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Bottom feeders over wrecks and rough ground, best in winter.

Pollack

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Hard fighters that hang above wrecks and reefs.

Plaice

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Spotted flatfish from sand banks and mussel beds.

Tope

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The school shark, caught on live bait and returned.

Mackerel

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Fast shoal fish, the classic first catch.

Black bream

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Summer wreck favourites that swarm over structure.

Conger eel

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Big wreck dwellers caught on fish baits.

Sea fish guide

Look them up in the sea fish guide

Every species above, and many more, has its own page in our UK sea fish guide: 88 fish with their British boat-caught records, sizes, seasons and rules.

Open the sea fish guide Every fish recorded off Sussex

= caught off the Sussex coast, according to the sources in our sea fish reference guide.

Rays and hounds

Rays, smoothhound and other sharks

Alongside tope, our catches include thornback, undulate and blonde rays, smoothhound, spurdog and bull huss over wrecks. They are usually caught on whole mackerel baits and returned unharmed.

Mixed bags

Gurnard, wrasse, squid, sole and more

On inshore trips we regularly see dabs of about 1.4 lb, gurnard, ballan wrasse, pout and whiting. On lure trips squid jigs can bring in squid, and into the evening in summer you can fish for sole.