Madeira rockfish
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The small scorpionfish of Macaronesian rock, venomous in the dorsal spines, and one of the commonest fish a light shore rod picks up in the Canaries.
Safety: venomous and spined species — can cause injury needing treatment.
Catching Madeira rockfish
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
- When
- Feb and May — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 2 places FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: recorded here · From the shore
A scorpionfish is a hazard before it is a catch, and this is the one a Canary shore angler is most likely to lift onto a rock without looking properly. It is small — FishBase records a maximum of 17.8 cm and about 108 g — mottled red, brown and cream, superbly camouflaged against volcanic rock and weed, with a large head, a huge mouth and fleshy tabs about the eyes and jaws.
It lies still on the bottom and ambushes, which is exactly the behaviour that puts it on the end of a line fished slowly over rock. A species-hunting angler working around Puerto del Carmen took eleven of them in a week on soft plastics and small baits, from the pier and from the breakwater, which makes it the fourth commonest fish in that whole tally.
The dorsal spines carry venom. That is not exotic and it is not usually dangerous, but it is genuinely painful, and the standard first aid — immersing the wound in water as hot as can be tolerated without scalding — is worth knowing before it is needed rather than after, because the pain of an untreated scorpionfish spine can last for hours.
It is a Macaronesian, Moroccan and West African fish, also known from several Mediterranean localities, recorded by FishBase from 20 to 40 m but plainly common far shallower on island rock. The two scorpaenids a European angler is likelier to have heard of — the large red scorpionfish of the Mediterranean and the long-spined sea scorpion of northern Europe — are neither of them this, and calling a small Canary scorpionfish by either name is a guess dressed as an identification.
Where Madeira rockfish 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.
Lanzarote
1 documented place
Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote
Harbour wall
Recorded here
From the shore
Reported May
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 Madeira rockfish 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
- Scorpaena maderensis
- Family
- Scorpaenidae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, North Africa, West Africa, Mediterranean
- Small, big-headed, wide-mouthed bottom fish, mottled in red, brown and cream and very hard to see against rock.
- Fleshy tabs and skin flaps around the eyes, jaw and body, which break up the outline further.
- A long spiny dorsal fin carrying venom glands, raised when the fish is handled.
- Much smaller than the red scorpionfish of the Mediterranean: FishBase records a maximum of 17.8 cm against that species' 50 cm.
- Taken lying still on the bottom over rock and rubble rather than moving in the water column.
Size
- Typical
- 8–14 cm
- Large
- 15 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 17.8 cm and about 108 g
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal, recorded by FishBase over a depth range of 20 to 40 m but taken repeatedly from shore marks far shallower than that on Canarian rock. Medium resilience. It is a sedentary ambush fish rather than a ranging one, and a piece of ground that holds one will hold it again.
Not separately documented on the FishBase record for this species. Scorpaena generally release pelagic egg masses in a gelatinous envelope, and that family-level pattern is not asserted here as a fact about this fish.
Feeding and senses
An ambush predator: it lies motionless and takes small fish and crustaceans that come within reach of the mouth, which is disproportionately large. Its capture rate on lures is a direct consequence — anything worked slowly across rock at its level will eventually be worked past a fish that is already looking at it.
Camouflage rather than pursuit is the whole strategy, so what matters is that it sees the bait and the bait does not see it. It is unmoved by an angler standing above, and a lure that stops for a moment on the bottom is more likely to be taken than one that keeps moving.
Through the year
Resident year-round on the same ground rather than seasonal, and sedentary enough that a piece of rock which produced one in January will produce one in July. Feeding is governed by light rather than by month: it is most active at dusk and after dark, which is when a bait left on the bottom over rock finds one.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: Azores, Madeira, and Morocco to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Senegal. Also known from several localities in the Mediterranean Sea
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
Among the commonest fish caught on light tackle over Canarian rock, and the one most worth being able to recognise before it is in the hand. Taken on soft plastics worked slowly on the bottom, on small baits, and from harbour walls as readily as from open rock. It is eaten across its range and is good in soup, and it is also the fish that ends an afternoon if it is handled carelessly.
Handling and returning
Never grip it. Control it with pliers or a boga grip and unhook it without picking it up, or hold it firmly by the lower jaw with the body hanging clear of the hand. The spines will go through a thin glove.
Safety
Venomous and spined species — Can cause injury needing treatment
The dorsal spines carry venom and drive it in on a puncture. The result is immediate, severe, out-of-proportion pain that can spread up the limb and last for hours, with swelling around the wound. It is rarely dangerous to a healthy adult and it is genuinely disabling for an afternoon.
What reduces it: Unhook with long pliers without taking the fish in the hand at all. If spined, immerse the wound in water as hot as can be tolerated without scalding — heat breaks the venom down and is the standard first aid — and seek medical help for a wound that swells badly, for a spine left in the flesh, or for anybody with a known allergy.
Worse when:
- Lifting the fish by closing a hand around its body, which is when almost every spining happens.
- Handling in the dark or in a hurry, when a small mottled fish on dark rock is not obviously a scorpionfish at all.
- Unhooking with bare hands over rock, where the reflex to drop the fish is what drives the spine deeper.
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 Scorpaena maderensis.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 Scorpaena maderensis, assessed 15 July 2014.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: That this species is taken from named public shore marks on Lanzarote, how many were caught across one week in May, and the light-tackle methods and baits that took them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 4 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.
Japanese rockfish
Sebastes inermis is a north-west Pacific sebastid of rock and structure reaching 35.9 cm; Scorpaena maderensis is a Macaronesian scorpaenid of rock reaching 17.8 cm with venom in the dorsal spines. Both are small spiny ambush predators taken on light tackle over rock, and the handling advice differs sharply between them.
- 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
Red scorpionfish
Scorpaena maderensis reaches 17.8 cm and is a Macaronesian, Moroccan and West African fish; Scorpaena scrofa reaches 50 cm and is principally Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. A small mottled scorpionfish on Canarian rock should not be called the red scorpionfish, and the venom in the dorsal spines is a property of both.
- 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
Reported, not established — 1 connection
Reported, but without independent support. Recorded because it is in circulation, not because it has been shown to hold.
Light rock fishing
Recorded eleven times from the pier and the breakwater on soft plastics and small baits. An ambush predator lying on the bottom is caught by anything worked slowly past it at its level, which is what this method does.
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The light-tackle methods, rigs, lures, baits and hook sizes a species-hunting angler used on Lanzarote, and the species each took.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 20 to 40 m across Macaronesia, Morocco and the Mediterranean, and it is an ambush predator whose entire strategy depends on being invisible against 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 Scorpaena maderensis.States this directlyPassage read and verified
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