Blacktail comber
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The second fish Canary sources mean by `cabrilla` — a larger, longer-lived serranid than the comber, and assessed by the IUCN as Data Deficient.
Safety: injury while handling fish — minor injury.
Catching Blacktail comber
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
- When
- Mar — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 1 place FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: recorded here · From the shore
`Cabrilla` does not resolve to one fish in the Canaries, which is a problem for anybody reading a Spanish-language report and assuming it does.
The regional fisheries directorate's size table gives the answer in two adjacent rows. *Serranus cabrilla* is `cabrilla, cabrilla rubia`. *Serranus atricauda* is `cabrilla, cabrilla reina`. Two species, two minimum sizes, one shared common name. A report that says cabrilla has not said which of them it means.
It is the larger of the two by a wide margin. FishBase records the blacktail comber to 43.2 cm and to sixteen years of age, against the comber's 40 cm and much shorter life. It is a stout, big-headed serranid, brown to greyish with darker bars and blotches and a dark-edged tail, over rock and rubble from about 3 to 150 m, along the eastern Atlantic from Biscay and the Azores south to the Canaries, Algeria, Morocco and Guinea-Bissau.
The IUCN assessment is DATA DEFICIENT, and that is a genuine statement rather than a formality: this is an abundant, commonly caught, commercially and recreationally fished species whose population status nobody has established. A sixteen-year lifespan on a fish taken as freely as this one is the kind of combination that turns out to matter.
For an angler it is the reliable fish of Canarian rock: it takes almost any bait fished near structure, it takes it fast, and it is good on the table. As with the comber, a session dominated by cabrilla usually means the bait is smaller than what was being fished for.
How it is caught
Where Blacktail comber is documented
Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.
The Azores
1 documented place
Ponta Delgada harbour, São Miguel
Harbour wall
Recorded here
From the shore
Reported Mar
What these strengths mean
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
Identification
No photograph of Blacktail comber 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
- Serranus atricauda
- Family
- Serranidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Data Deficient
- Regions
- Western Europe, North Africa, West Africa
- Larger and stouter than the comber: FishBase records 43.2 cm and an age of 16 years, against the comber's more slender build.
- Brown to greyish ground with darker vertical bars and blotches, and a characteristically dark-edged or dark-marked tail.
- The comber, Serranus cabrilla, carries fine orange and blue longitudinal lines along the head and body which this fish does not show in the same way.
- The butterfly-winged comber, the third Canary serranid, is boldly barred and more brightly coloured than either.
- A big head and a large mouth for the body — the sea bass outline rather than the bream outline.
Size
- Typical
- 200–500 g (7 oz–1.1 lb)
- Large
- 700 g–1.2 kg (1.5–2.6 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 43.2 cm and an age of 16 years
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal over a depth range of 3 to 150 m on rock and rubble. FishBase records a maximum age of 16 years and gives it LOW resilience — a long-lived fish for its size, which is why an unassessed population is worth noting rather than shrugging at.
Not established on the FishBase record for this species. Its close relative the comber is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, carrying functional male and female tissue at once, and that is deliberately not carried across: assuming a congener shares a reproductive strategy is the same class of error as assuming it shares a range.
Feeding and senses
An ambush predator on small fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, hunting from holes and ledges in rock. It finds a bait quickly and takes it decisively, which is what makes it both the reliable fish of a session and the reason a bait intended for a bocinegro rarely survives long enough to be found by one.
Close-range sight from cover, in the clear water of the islands. It works outward from structure, so a bait held against rock outfishes one in open water.
Through the year
Resident on the same ground year-round, with larger fish deeper. It is one of the fish that makes Canarian rock fishing a twelve-month activity: when the pelagic fishing has gone and the bream have moved, the cabrilla are still on the same ledges taking the same baits.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: along the coasts of Europe and Africa from Biscay, the Azores, south to the Canary Islands, Algeria and Morocco to Guinea-Bissau
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
One of the everyday fish of Canarian and Macaronesian rock fishing and a genuinely good table fish, taken on squid, prawn, worm and fish strip fished tight to structure, and on soft plastics and small jigs. Its wider significance is as a name: `cabrilla` in a Canary source may mean this fish or the comber, and only the scientific name or the size limit quoted alongside it will say which.
Handling and returning
Stiff sharp dorsal spines and a sharp-edged gill cover, on a fish with a mouth big enough to take a finger. Fold the dorsal, grip across the flank, unhook with pliers, and keep the hand off the operculum edge.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
The spiny dorsal punctures a hand closed over the back, and the trailing edge of the gill cover is sharp enough to cut.
What reduces it: Grip across the flank with the dorsal folded, unhook with pliers, and keep fingers clear of the gill cover and the mouth.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
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: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Serranus atricauda.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Data Deficient assessment for Serranus atricauda, assessed 04 February 2009.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That the Canary fisheries directorate regulates the recreational landing of this species and therefore treats it as quarry, and the Canarian common name it publishes beside the scientific name.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species Canary shore anglers target from rock, mole and beach, with the techniques and baits the Spanish-language regional guidance describes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 5 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Butterfly-winged comber
Serranus atricauda reaches 43.2 cm and 16 years, is stouter and darker-tailed, and is recorded from 3 to 150 m; Serranus papilionaceus is more brightly barred and recorded from 3 to 80 m. The Canary fisheries directorate gives both a Canarian name beginning `cabrilla`.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Comber
The Canary size table gives `cabrilla, cabrilla rubia` for Serranus cabrilla and `cabrilla, cabrilla reina` for Serranus atricauda, with a different minimum size for each. FishBase separates them on size, maximum age and colour: 43.2 cm and 16 years against a slimmer, finely lined fish.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 2 connections
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.
Ledgering
It works outward from holes and ledges, so a bait pinned against structure produces it and one in open water often does not.
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Light rock fishing
The Canary material describes the cabrilla as the fish that takes a bait intended for something larger, on squid, prawn, worm and fish strip fished tight to structure. Its identification as a distinct species from the comber is what this edge newly makes possible.
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rocky shores and reefs
Recorded as demersal over a depth range of 3 to 150 m from Biscay and the Azores south to the Canaries and Guinea-Bissau, on hard bottom.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Serranus atricauda.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.