Bank steenbras
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-27
Not a steenbras and not a sea bream: a large fingerfin of the Cape reefs that seldom takes a bait, is a prized spearfishing target, and reaches nearly two metres on the reference data.
Catching Bank steenbras
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
The bank steenbras is the clearest case anywhere on this coast of a common name describing a fish's job rather than its family.
IT IS NOT A SPARID. It is a Latridae — a fingerfin or morwong, part of a southern-hemisphere family with nothing much to do with the sea breams it is named after. The name is South African fishing usage, and 'steenbras' on this coast has never been a taxonomic statement.
IT SELDOM TAKES A BAIT, which is the fact that shapes everything. The research institute's own capture note says so plainly: it is caught as bycatch in the inshore trawl fishery and occasionally by boat-based line fishermen, although it seldom takes bait. What it IS is a much sought-after target for SPEARFISHERS, which is an unusual thing for a fisheries note to say.
IT IS LARGE. FishBase records a maximum of a hundred and eighty centimetres, on a fish that lives from the shallows down to a hundred and fifty metres from Walvis Bay in Namibia to South Africa.
IT HAS NO IUCN ASSESSMENT AND NO SASSI LISTING, and the recreational rules are correspondingly loose — a daily bag limit, no minimum size. Where an animal is neither assessed nor limited, restraint is the only control there is.
AND THE RANGE HAS A TAXONOMIC CAVEAT. FishBase notes that KwaZulu-Natal records are likely to be a different species, Chirodactylus jessicalorum, which is a useful reminder that the boundaries of these records are still moving.
Identification
No photograph of Bank steenbras has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Chirodactylus grandis
- Family
- Latridae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Regions
- East & Southern Africa
- ELONGATED, THICKENED LOWER PECTORAL FIN RAYS — the fingerfin character, and the giveaway that this is not a sea bream.
- A LARGE, ELONGATE BODY with a small mouth and thick lips.
- DARK BANDS OR BLOTCHES over a paler ground on many fish.
- VERY LARGE: FishBase records a maximum of 180 cm, which no South African sparid approaches.
- A CAPE AND NAMIBIAN FISH. KwaZulu-Natal records are likely to be the separate species Chirodactylus jessicalorum.
Size
- Typical
- 50–90 cm. No minimum size is set for this species.
- Large
- Over 110 cm is a large bank steenbras.
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum length of 180 cm, which is exceptional and well beyond anything ordinarily encountered.
How South African sea-fishing rules work
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.
Official guidance — why, and the sources (2)
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- Marine Recreational Fishing Regulations in South Africa — South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), summarising the Marine Living Resources Act and its regulations, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The minimum size, daily bag limit and closed season for this species, its place on the prohibited or permitted list, and the cumulative ten-fish daily cap that sits above every individual limit.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing: Regulations for Linefishing, under the Marine Living Resources Act — Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South Africa (published as issued under Act 18 of 1998), 2000 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The general framework: the permit requirement and its age threshold, the no-sale rule, the measurement convention, the category lists, and the closed seasons named in the regulations themselves.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Lifecycle and reproduction
Poorly documented, which is consistent with a species that has no IUCN assessment and no SASSI listing. It is a reef-associated fingerfin occupying a very wide depth band from the surface down to about a hundred and fifty metres, and it is likely to be slow-growing in the pattern of the family.
Not well documented for this species. Latridae generally spawn in coastal water with pelagic eggs and a long pelagic larval stage, which is part of why the family is so widely distributed across the southern hemisphere.
Feeding and senses
Feeds on benthic invertebrates picked from reef and mixed ground, using the small mouth and thick lips rather than crushing or seizing. That feeding style is the mechanical reason it seldom takes a bait — a fish that picks small invertebrates off rock has little use for a hooked piece of squid.
Close-range vision and touch over reef, working structure it knows. Its approachability to a diver and its indifference to bait are two expressions of the same habit.
Through the year
Reef-associated through the year with no documented migration. Availability to a spearfisher is a visibility-and-swell question rather than a seasonal one.
Distribution
South-east Atlantic, from Walvis Bay in Namibia to South Africa and possibly KwaZulu-Natal, demersal from the shallows down to about a hundred and fifty metres. FishBase notes that KwaZulu-Natal records are likely to be the separate species Chirodactylus jessicalorum. No IUCN assessment has been made.
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
Much more a spearfishing species than an angling one: the research institute records it as a much sought-after target for spearfishers, taken as bycatch in the inshore trawl fishery and only occasionally by boat-based line fishermen, because it seldom takes bait. The recreational rules are a daily bag limit with no minimum size, on a species with no IUCN assessment and no SASSI listing.
Handling and returning
A large fish with no obvious hazard beyond its size.
SUPPORT A BIG FISH HORIZONTALLY with both hands; do not lift by the jaw.
A SPEARED FISH IS CONTROLLED BY THE BODY, not the head.
BAROTRAUMA APPLIES if it has come from depth on a line.
AND CONSIDER THAT NOBODY HAS ASSESSED IT. Ten fish a day with no size limit is what the rules permit on a species nobody has counted, which is a reason for restraint rather than for taking ten.
Check the rules before you fish
Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.
Check with:
- Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
- Current local bylaws
- The relevant fisheries authority
- The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
- Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use
Where to go next
Where you will find it
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Scientific name, family, environment, depth range, latitudinal range, maximum recorded length, weight and age, and the IUCN category with its assessment date.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing Regulations in South Africa — South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), summarising the Marine Living Resources Act and its regulations, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The minimum size, daily bag limit and closed season for this species, its place on the prohibited or permitted list, and the cumulative ten-fish daily cap that sits above every individual limit.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing: Regulations for Linefishing, under the Marine Living Resources Act — Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South Africa (published as issued under Act 18 of 1998), 2000 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The general framework: the permit requirement and its age threshold, the no-sale rule, the measurement convention, the category lists, and the closed seasons named in the regulations themselves.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- ORI Fish Fact Sheets: the species accounts of the Oceanographic Research Institute — Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), Durban, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, feeding, movement and residency, reproduction, maximum size and age, and the measured stock status, from the institute that did the tagging and the ageing.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 2 connections on this page are here, and the sources
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Reef spearfishing
Established practice for this species: what the fishery that takes it actually does. It is practitioner consensus corroborated by the research institute's own capture notes, and it says nothing about where anybody may fish.
- ORI Fish Fact Sheets: the species accounts of the Oceanographic Research Institute — Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), Durban, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The capture context each fact sheet records: which fishery takes the species, on what tackle and on what bait.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated South African practice for the species named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where you will find it
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
The Cape Peninsula and False Bay
A claim that a coast or region contains the ground and conditions this species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the reference literature and on the institute that surveyed it, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- ORI Fish Fact Sheets: the species accounts of the Oceanographic Research Institute — Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), Durban, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, movement and residency for South African linefish, from the institute that did the tagging and the ageing.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.