Black Bream

By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026

Black bream (Spondyliosoma cantharus, also called black seabream) are a sea fish found mainly off southern England, Wales and Ireland. You catch them from beaches, rock marks and boats, and UK adults commonly measure 35 to 40 cm.

The males dig and guard nests in spring. That is why one zone of the Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone off West Sussex is closed to angling every year from 1 April to 30 June.

Below: identification, where and when to fish, the rules on keeping them, rigs and baits, and releasing nesting fish. For other species, start at our hub of UK sea fish species.

How to Identify Black Bream (and Tell Them From Gilthead)

Catch a bream on the south coast and you need to know which species it is, because the Kingmere limits and the minimum sizes below apply to black seabream specifically.

A black bream has a deep, laterally compressed body, silver-grey with 6 to 9 dark vertical bars along the flanks. In the breeding season, nesting males turn almost black, with a blue-grey band between the eyes. These are the fish the Kingmere code asks you to put back.

The species typically reaches about 30 cm across its range, but UK adults are commonly 35 to 40 cm, up to about 50 cm. Black bream are protogynous hermaphrodites: they start life as females and some later become males. Fish over 40 cm are female.

The fish most often confused with them is gilthead bream, which is increasingly caught in the Channel as far east as the Isle of Wight.

Feature	Black bream	Gilthead bream
Scientific name	Spondyliosoma cantharus	Sparus aurata
Body markings	6 to 9 dark vertical bars	No clear vertical barring
UK status	Established southern summer fish	Increasingly caught in the Channel, east to the Isle of Wight

If you are unsure, photograph and measure the fish before deciding whether to keep it. Our guide to identifying UK sea fish covers the lookalikes.

Where and When to Find Black Bream in the UK

The fastest way to stop blanking on black bream is to fish the right coast in the right months.

They are mainly a southern fish, found off southern England, Wales and Ireland, and are not caught as far north as Scotland. Look for rocky reef, wrecks, kelp and rough ground, plus the sand and gravel patches where the males build nests.

In British and Irish waters, black bream spawn in April and May. The male digs a shallow crater nest in sand or gravel and guards the eggs. Kingmere, off West Sussex, is a place where black seabream come to breed in spring, and they are one of the features it was designated to protect.

Generally, spring brings fish inshore, summer is the peak and numbers tail off through autumn. Two windows stand out:

Summer nights on the beach: shoals move inshore after dark.
South West rock marks over kelp: fish while the tide is moving, roughly a 3.5-hour window.

Plan your first black bream fishing trips for summer on the south coast, over rough ground, on a moving tide or after dark.

Black Bream Rules: Kingmere MCZ and Minimum Sizes

Few black bream guides mention that part of a key English breeding ground is closed to angling every spring. There is no single national rule either, so check the protected area and your district’s minimum size before keeping a fish.

Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone

Kingmere MCZ lies 3 to 6 nautical miles off West Sussex, south of Littlehampton and Worthing, and covers 47 km². It was designated in November 2013 for black seabream, chalk and thin-sediment rock, according to the Defra Kingmere MCZ factsheet. Sussex IFCA manages angling there, with rules in force since December 2016.

Period	Zone 1 (north-east of the MCZ)	Zones 2, 3 and 4
1 April to 30 June	Angling prohibited	Open, maximum 4 bream per person per day
1 July to 31 March	Open, maximum 4 bream per person per day	Open, maximum 4 bream per person per day

Other rules apply across the MCZ:

No bream under 23 cm may be retained.
Keep bream whole or gutted only.
No live bream in containers or keepnets.
No transferring bream between vessels.
Dead bream must not be returned to the sea.
No bream may be used as bait.
No vessel may hold more than 4 bream for each person fishing aboard.

These rules come from Sussex IFCA’s 2025 Kingmere leaflet, its Kingmere schedule guidance and the angling code of conduct. Check the current Marine Protected Areas byelaw and zone map on the Sussex IFCA regulations page before you fish.

Minimum sizes

The minimum size for black seabream is 230 mm in the Sussex IFCA district (Minimum Size Byelaw 2021) and in the North Western IFCA district (NWIFCA Byelaw 1).

Elsewhere in England, each Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority sets its own byelaws. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators. If you plan to keep fish, carry a measure and check the byelaws for the district you are fishing, including how it defines the measurement.

How to Catch Black Bream: Rigs, Hooks and Baits

Rattling bites that never connect are the classic bream frustration. The usual fix is smaller hooks and baits: black bream have small mouths, and shoal fish pick at a bait rather than engulf it.

Setting	Rod and line	Rig	Hooks	Baits
Clean beach	12 to 15 ft light beachcaster, fixed-spool reel, 8 to 12 lb main line	About 8 ft body of 30 lb, 2 or 3 long snoods of about 10 lb fluorocarbon, two-up one-down paternoster or flapper, grip or plain lead	Size 4 or 6 most popular, size 2 the largest needed; carp patterns for bigger fish	Mackerel cube, peeler crab, ragworm tipped with a sliver of squid
Rough ground and kelp (South West rock marks)	20 lb main line to an 80 lb shock leader, or 25 lb straight through close in	Trace of 2 ft to 6 ft depending on tide	Size 2 to 6	Mini squid, bluey, fresh mackerel
Boat over reef	Depends on depth and tide, so ask the skipper	Drift or use a low-impact anchor over reef (Kingmere code)	Size 2 to 6	The same small, compact baits

Keep baits compact. A long, trailing strip gets nibbled away before the hook reaches a mouth, while a neat mackerel cube gets taken properly. A floating bead above the hook is optional.

On night beach sessions, keep a second rig baited so you can recast the moment a fish is landed while the shoal is in front of you. Over kelp, set the drag and ratchet before the rod goes in the rest.

Bass turn up on many of the same reefs and beaches, so see our guide to bass fishing on UK reefs and beaches. Rough rock marks over kelp also hold pollack.

Start light on clean sand, and step up to the shock-leader set-up only where rock or kelp would cut a 10 lb snood.

Handling and Releasing Black Bream, Especially Nesting Males

A male black bream guards his nest, so taking him in spring can mean losing the eggs he is protecting. The voluntary Kingmere code from Sussex IFCA and the Angling Trust asks you to:

Catch and release from April to June, or keep fewer than 4.
Release males, recognisable by the dark breeding colours described above.
Return fish over 40 cm, the voluntary maximum. These larger fish are female.
Return females in roe.
Use barbless hooks, and log your captures if asked.

These points are voluntary, not law. Inside Kingmere, though, dead bream must not be returned, so decide before you kill a fish. Unhook quickly with wet hands and get released fish back into the water promptly.

From April to June, put every dark male back.

Frequently asked questions

What is the British record for black bream?

On the British Record (rod caught) Fish Committee list updated in June 2026, the boat record is 6 lb 14 oz 4 dr (3.125 kg), taken in 1977 from a wreck off Torquay, Devon, and the shore record is 6 lb 8 oz 6 dr (2.959 kg), from Creux Harbour, Sark, in 2001. The boat weight list was frozen in 2024, and new boat claims are now measurement-based, with a 50 cm qualifying length. Shore claims can be by weight or length, with a 40 cm qualifying length.

Is black bream the same as sea bream?

Not exactly. Black bream is one species, Spondyliosoma cantharus, also known as black seabream. "Sea bream" is a loose name covering several bream species in UK waters, including gilthead bream, which is increasingly caught in the Channel. The Kingmere rules on this page apply to black seabream, so see How to Identify Black Bream above before you decide what you have caught.

Can you catch black bream in Scotland or northern England?

Black bream are mainly a southern fish of England, Wales and Ireland, and they are not caught as far north as Scotland. The North Western IFCA, which covers north-west England, still sets a 230 mm minimum size for them, so check local byelaws if you do hook one. If you fish further north, cod are found right around the UK coast and are a better target.