Forkbeard
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The shallower, southern forkbeard — a nocturnal rock-hole cod-relative that a Macaronesian night session produces and a daylight one never will.
Safety: barotrauma and pressure injury — minor injury.
Barotrauma and pressure injury — Minor injury
Taken from a Madeiran wall the fish may come from well below its usual band, and a swim bladder that has expanded on the way up leaves a fish that cannot swim down when returned.
What reduces it: Where a fish is to be returned, bring it up slowly and return it promptly; a fish showing an everted stomach or gross distension will not survive release and should be treated accordingly rather than dropped back to float.
Catching Forkbeard
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
*Phycis phycis* is the other forkbeard. The greater forkbeard, *Phycis blennoides*, is the deep-water one, a fish of the continental slope. *Phycis phycis* is its shallower, more southern relative, recorded by FishBase from 13 to 614 m and usually between 100 and 200 m, from the Bay of Biscay to Cape Verde and through the Mediterranean and the Azores, reaching 65 cm and 3.9 kg.
That shallow limit of thirteen metres is what puts it in a shore angler's reach, and the Madeiran creel survey records it at 0.21% of the archipelago's estimated recreational shore catch — a small number that is entirely consistent with what the fish is.
It is a phycid hake: an elongate, soft-bodied, brown fish with a single long barbel under the chin and pelvic fins reduced to long feelers set far forward under the throat. Those feelers are the sensory equipment, and they are the whole of how it feeds — it works the bottom in darkness, in and around rock holes and broken ground, finding crustaceans and small fish by touch and scent rather than sight.
FOR AN ANGLER THAT MEANS ONE THING: IT IS A NIGHT FISH. The Madeiran survey records 14.7% of the archipelago's shore anglers fishing at night, and this is one of the species that rewards them. A fresh fish or squid bait fished hard on the bottom against rock after dark, on ground that is unproductive by day, is the way it is taken.
It is well regarded on the table across Iberia and Macaronesia, where `abrótea` is a familiar restaurant fish.
Identification
No photograph of Forkbeard 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
- Phycis phycis
- Family
- Phycidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, North Africa, West Africa
- Elongate and soft-bodied, uniformly brown to dark grey-brown, paler beneath.
- A single barbel under the chin.
- Pelvic fins reduced to long forked feelers set forward under the throat — the `fork` of the name.
- Told from the greater forkbeard by colour and depth: P. blennoides is paler with dark fin margins and lives deeper; P. phycis is darker, plainer and comes far shallower.
- FishBase records 13 to 614 m for this species against a deeper band for the greater forkbeard, and a maximum of 65 cm and 3.9 kg.
Size
- Typical
- 25–40 cm
- Large
- 50 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 65 cm and 3.9 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic and non-migratory from 13 to 614 m and usually 100 to 200 m, from Biscay to Cape Verde including the offshore islands, and in the Mediterranean and the Azores. FishBase records medium resilience.
A broadcast spawner with pelagic eggs and larvae. The FishBase record does not carry a detailed seasonal account for this species.
Feeding and senses
Works broken ground and rock holes in darkness, taking crustaceans and small fish located by the chin barbel and the forked pelvic feelers rather than by sight. It takes fresh fish and squid baits fished hard on the bottom.
Touch and chemoreception through the barbel and pelvic feelers, which is why it feeds in darkness and in holes where sight would be useless.
Through the year
Resident year-round. Its availability from the shore is governed by darkness and by how close its depth band runs, not by month.
Distribution
Northeast Atlantic : Bay of Biscay to Morocco, south to Cape Verde, and including off-lying islands. Also in the Mediterranean and the Azores
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
A night-caught bottom fish on Macaronesian and Iberian rock, taken on fresh fish and squid fished hard against structure after dark, and recorded at 0.21% of the estimated recreational shore catch of the Madeira archipelago. It is one of the specific rewards for fishing a Madeiran wall at night rather than in daylight.
Handling and returning
Soft-bodied, scaleless-feeling and easily damaged, with no venom and no spines of consequence. Wet hands, support the body, and be aware that a fish brought up from depth may show barotrauma — which on a fish taken from a wall over deep water is a real possibility rather than a theoretical one.
Safety
Barotrauma and pressure injury is set out at the top of this page, where it cannot be missed.
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 Phycis phycis.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 Least Concern assessment for Phycis phycis, assessed 02 February 2015.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Importance of recreational shore angling in the archipelago of Madeira (northeast Atlantic) — Scientia Marina (CSIC), vol. 84 no. 4, 2020 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this species is recorded in the recreational shore-angling catch of the Madeira archipelago, at 0.21% of the estimated total by the study's own catch-composition table.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished — tackle, method and the ground it is taken over.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Greater forkbeard
Phycis phycis is dark, plain brown and recorded from 13 m; Phycis blennoides is paler with dark-edged fins and lives deeper on the continental slope. Both carry the chin barbel and the long forked pelvic feelers the name describes. The practical separator for an angler is not colour but depth — a forkbeard taken from the shore is almost certainly phycis.
- 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 — 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.
Ledgering
The Madeiran creel survey records 14.7% of the archipelago's shore anglers fishing at night and bottom fishing as one of the two dominant methods. This is a nocturnal fish that finds food by barbel and pelvic feeler rather than by sight, so a fresh fish or squid bait held on the bottom against rock in darkness is the whole of the method.
- Importance of recreational shore angling in the archipelago of Madeira (northeast Atlantic) — Scientia Marina (CSIC), vol. 84 no. 4, 2020 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The methods, baits, ground and time of day recorded for the Madeira archipelago's recreational shore anglers, from a 2017 survey of 653 of them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Inshore ground
Recorded as benthopelagic and non-migratory from 13 to 614 m and usually 100 to 200 m from Biscay to Cape Verde, in the Mediterranean and the Azores. The 13 m shallow limit is the whole of why a shore angler ever meets it.
- 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 Phycis phycis.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.