Baardman

SOUTH AFRICA REGULATES SEA FISHING SPECIES BY SPECIES, WHICH IS NOT HOW MOST COUNTRIES DO IT.

A recreational permit is the entry ticket and not the whole of it. On top of it sits a minimum size and a daily bag limit SET PER FISH, a closed season on a small number of species, and a cumulative daily cap across everything caught — so being inside the limit for each species separately does not put you inside the limit overall.

THERE IS A CAP ON HOOKS on a rod-and-line permit. A spearfishing permit is separate, allows no breathing apparatus beyond a snorkel, and PROHIBITS SPEARFISHING IN AN ESTUARY — a flat ban rather than a limit, and the rule visitors most often do not know.

A LANDED FISH MUST KEEP ITS HEAD AND TAIL so its length can be checked. Nothing caught on a recreational permit may be sold by anyone. And a small list of species may not be caught, landed or possessed at all.

FISHINGHQ DOES NOT PRINT THE FIGURES, and the reason is on this page rather than in a policy document: the department's own guidance says adjustments may be forthcoming given the acknowledged crisis of linefish, the numbers differ by species and by area and by whether you were standing on a beach or sitting in a boat, and a stale figure on a fishing site is worse than no figure at all. Get the current position from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, and get the protected-area position from whichever body manages the stretch of coast you are on.

Poorly documented, which is why the species is Data Deficient rather than assessed. What is established is that it is a demersal coastal fish with a wide Atlantic and Indian Ocean range, and that South African populations use both the surf zone and deeper inshore ground. The honest position is that its growth, maturity and longevity are not well described.

Not well documented for the South African population. As with other sciaenids, spawning is inshore with pelagic eggs and larvae, and drumming with the swimbladder is thought to play a role in spawning aggregation — but the specifics for this species have not been established, which is part of why the Red List assessment could not reach a category.

A bottom feeder, using the chin barbel to locate worms, crustaceans and small molluscs in and on sand and mixed ground. That is the whole of the angling method: a natural bait sitting still on the bottom, near structure or on the edge of a gutter, is being presented exactly the way the fish hunts.

Touch and taste through the barbel, plus the sound production and detection of the sciaenids. A fish that feels for food in sediment is a fish that feeds well in coloured water and at night, and baardman are notably a low-light and dirty-water capture.

Present on the South African coast through the year, moving between the surf zone and deeper inshore ground. There is no closed season and no documented migration to plan a trip around; the fish is a bonus on ground fished for kob and steenbras rather than a species with a season of its own.

A regular and welcome shore capture on South African surf and mixed-ground beaches, taken on natural baits fished on the bottom, often alongside kob and steenbras. It is a recreational species that may not be sold, at a minimum size and a daily bag limit. Its Data Deficient assessment means there is no basis for calling it either secure or threatened, which is worth knowing before keeping a bag of them.

A soft-mouthed, easily handled fish that should be treated as though its status were worse than it is recorded to be.

WET HANDS, HORIZONTAL SUPPORT, off the dry sand.

CIRCLE HOOKS ON BAIT. A bottom-feeling fish takes a bait properly and is deep-hooked on J-hooks.

AND KEEP FEWER THAN THE LIMIT ALLOWS. Data Deficient means nobody knows how many there are, and the sensible response to not knowing is restraint rather than the maximum.