Garden Route fish species guide
A complete field guide to the 58 species you can catch along the Garden Route coast and dams — from surf and estuary favourites like kob, garrick and grunter, to reef fish, gamefish, freshwater bass and carp, and the sharks and rays of our shores. Each species page covers identification, scientific and local names, preferred habitat and feeding, the best tackle, bait, times and tides, and the seasons and legal limits that apply.
⚠️ marks species with catch restrictions · 🚫 marks protected species (no take). Always confirm current regulations before keeping any fish — see our regulations guide.
🐟 Surf & rock
Blacktail
The ever-reliable dassie — a plucky black-fringed seabream found in every gulley, wash an…
📅 Year-round
Bronze Bream
The bluefish or bronze bream — a heavy-shouldered wave-zone seabream that shares galjoen …
📅 May to September
Galjoen 🚫
Dichistius capensis
South Africa's national fish — a stocky, black-bronze wave-zone specialist that thrives i…
📅 May to September
Musselcracker ⚠️
Cymatoceps nasutus
The poenskop or black musselcracker — the brute of the rocks. A blunt-headed seabream wit…
📅 Year-round; calm autumn seas prime
Shad (Elf) 🚫
Pomatomus saltatrix
The ever-popular elf — an aggressive shoaling predator with razor teeth that runs the coa…
📅 March to August; closed season Oct–Nov
Strepie (Karanteen)
The striped 'sardine of the rocks' — small, abundant and endlessly useful. Strepies shoal…
📅 Year-round
White Musselcracker ⚠️
Sparodon durbanensis
The 'brusher' — a hard-pulling reef and gulley seabream, lighter and spottier than its bl…
📅 Year-round; best autumn–spring
Zebra
Unmistakable in its convict stripes, the zebra (wildeperd) is a wary, powerful seabream o…
📅 Year-round; best autumn–winter
🐟 Marine Mammal
Bottlenose Dolphin
Tursiops aduncus
The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is the classic inshore dolphin, seen close to the sur…
📅 Year-round
Bryde's Whale
Balaenoptera brydei
A slender, fast baleen whale present off the coast year-round rather than seasonally migr…
📅 Year-round
Common Dolphin
Delphinus delphis
The long-beaked common dolphin travels in large, energetic pods, sometimes hundreds stron…
📅 Year-round
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Famous for breaching and long pectoral fins. Humpbacks pass the Garden Route on migration…
📅 Year-round
Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin
Sousa plumbea
A shy, uncommon inshore dolphin recognised by the low hump beneath its dorsal fin. Usuall…
📅 Year-round
Orca (Killer Whale)
Orcinus orca
The ocean's apex predator makes occasional but dramatic appearances along the Garden Rout…
📅 Year-round
Southern Right Whale
Eubalaena australis
The signature whale of the South African coast. Southern rights migrate up from Antarctic…
📅 Year-round
🐟 Surf & estuary
Baardman (Belman) ⚠️
The whiskered drummer of the sand — baardman use their chin barbel to root out prawns and…
📅 Year-round; summer nights best
Cape Stumpnose
A willing, pretty seabream of estuaries and gentle surf — the perfect species for young a…
📅 Year-round
Cob (Kabeljou) ⚠️
Argyrosomus japonicus
The dusky kob is the Garden Route's most prized inshore fish — a powerful, silver-bronze …
📅 October to April; year-round in estuaries
Spotted Grunter
Pomadasys commersonnii
The estuary favourite from Stilbaai to Swartkops. Grunter feed head-down on prawn banks, …
📅 September to May
Springer (Ladyfish)
The estuary acrobat — silver, fast and airborne the second it feels the hook. Springer (E…
📅 October to April
White Steenbras ⚠️
Lithognathus lithognathus
A ghostly silver digger of prawns and worms, the white steenbras (pignose grunter) is one…
📅 September to April
🐟 Gamefish
Bonito
Sarda orientalis / Katsuwonus
A small tuna-like speedster of the colour lines — great light-tackle sport and fine bait …
📅 Warm summer months
Dorado
The mahi-mahi — a neon-gold acrobat that rides warm blue water down the coast in high sum…
📅 January to April (warm-water years)
Garrick (Leervis) ⚠️
Lichia amia
The leervis is the Cape's premier light-tackle gamefish — a fast, dogged fighter that hun…
📅 November to April
Katonkel (King Mackerel)
The couta of Cape waters — a torpedo of teeth that arrives with warm summer currents and …
📅 December to April
Snoek
The Cape's famous winter fish — a razor-toothed pelagic that sweeps east when cold upwell…
📅 May to September (cold-water runs)
Yellowtail
Seriola lalandi
A blue-water speedster that invades the inshore reefs and points each summer when warm wa…
📅 December to April
🐟 Reef & deep sea
Carpenter (Silverfish)
Argyrozona argyrozona
A deep-reef schooling seabream taken in numbers over offshore reef — a ski-boat staple.
📅 Year-round
Dageraad ⚠️
A beautiful rose-and-silver seabream of the mid-depth reefs, named for the dawn colours a…
📅 Year-round
Geelbek (Cape Salmon) ⚠️
A sleek, golden-mouthed predator of the deep reefs and one of the finest eating fish in t…
📅 April to October (night fishing)
Longfin Tuna
Albacore — the workhorse of the Cape tuna fleet. Schools work the offshore grounds where …
📅 November to May
Red Roman ⚠️
The crimson emblem of Cape reef fishing. Red roman are hermaphroditic, territorial seabre…
📅 Year-round; calm winter seas are prime
Red Steenbras 🚫
The copper giant of the deep reefs — a top predator that grows past 60 kg and lives half …
📅 Protected — not targeted
Red Stumpnose (Miss Lucy) ⚠️
Chrysoblephus gibbiceps
The famous Miss Lucy — a bucket-headed red seabream of the deeper reefs, prized on the ta…
📅 Year-round
Roman ⚠️
Chrysoblephus laticeps
The classic red reef fish of the Cape — bold biting, hard-fighting and superb eating, but…
📅 Year-round; calm seas
Santer
The soldier — a crimson night-raider of the reefs that bites hardest after dark. Santer s…
📅 Year-round; nights, best in autumn
Yellowfin Tuna
The heavyweight prize of the offshore grounds — yellowfin over 80 kg are taken off the so…
📅 December to May
🦈 Sharks & rays
Blacktip Shark ⚠️
Carcharhinus limbatus
A fast, spectacular inshore shark that leaps and spins when hooked — a summer highlight f…
📅 Warm summer months
Blue Stingray ⚠️
The common stingray of sandy surf zones — a beautiful blue-marbled disc that inhales crus…
📅 Year-round; summer best
Broadnose Sevengill (Cow Shark) ⚠️
Notorynchus cepedianus
A primitive seven-gilled shark of kelp reefs and bays — a heavy, dogged fight rather than…
📅 Year-round
Bronze Whaler (Copper Shark) ⚠️
Carcharhinus brachyurus
The classic big surf shark of the Cape — a powerful copper-flanked whaler that follows th…
📅 November to April (bait runs)
Diamond Ray (Duckbill) ⚠️
The duckbill ray — a big, powerful diamond-shaped ray of surf zones and estuary mouths th…
📅 Year-round; summer best
Eagle Ray ⚠️
Myliobatis aquila
An elegant winged ray of sandy flats and reef edges; strong sustained runs.
📅 Warm months
Great White Shark 🚫
The apex predator of this coast, present year-round around seal colonies (Mossel Bay's Se…
📅 Present year-round
Honeycomb Ray ⚠️
Gymnura natalensis
A very broad, short-tailed ray of sandy bays that produces heavy, grinding fights on the …
📅 Warm months
Leopard Catshark 🚫
Poroderma pantherinum
A small endemic catshark, beautifully spotted and completely harmless — often caught by a…
📅 Year-round
Lesser Guitarfish (Sandshark) ⚠️
The sandkruiper — half shark, half ray, entirely harmless. Guitarfish lie buried on sandy…
📅 Year-round
Pyjama Shyshark (Striped Catshark) 🚫
The striped pyjama shark — a small, beautifully marked catshark endemic to South Africa, …
📅 Year-round
Smooth Hammerhead 🚫
Unmistakable and increasingly precious — juvenile smooth hammerheads run this coast in su…
📅 December to April
Smoothhound Shark ⚠️
The 'houndshark' — a small, elegant grey shark of sandy bays that feeds on crabs and praw…
📅 Year-round; summer best
Soupfin Shark (Vaalhaai) 🚫
The tope or vaalhaai — a slender, fast grey shark that patrols deeper surf and inshore re…
📅 Year-round
Spotted Gully Shark ⚠️
The sweet-william of Cape gulleys — a thickset, spotted shark that hunts crabs and small …
📅 Year-round; best in summer evenings
Spotted Ragged-tooth Shark 🚫
Carcharias taurus
The raggie — a snaggle-toothed giant that migrates along this coast to breed, gathering a…
📅 October to March
🎣 Freshwater
Common Carp
Cyprinus carpio
Hard-fighting bottom feeders that grow large in Garden Route dams — the mainstay of coars…
📅 Year-round; best in warm months
Largemouth Bass 🚫
Micropterus salmoides
The Garden Route's top freshwater sportfish — hard-striking and acrobatic around dam stru…
📅 Spring to autumn (warm water)
Mozambique Tilapia
Oreochromis mossambicus
The blue kurper — a scrappy, tasty freshwater panfish of warm dams and rivers.
📅 Warm months
Rainbow Trout 🚫
Oncorhynchus mykiss
Introduced game fish of cold mountain streams and dams — the fly angler's high-country qu…
📅 Cooler months; cold water
Sharptooth Catfish
Clarias gariepinus
The barbel — a huge, hard-pulling scavenger that gives freshwater anglers their biggest f…
📅 Year-round; best warm nights
