Saddled seabream
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
A silver sparid with one black saddle at the tail, shoaling over shallow rock from the Azores to Angola — and not the salema it is constantly confused with.
Safety: injury while handling fish — minor injury.
Catching Saddled seabream
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- When
- Feb and May — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 13 places FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: regular local target · From the shore
The galana is a slim, silver, torpedo-ish seabream with a single conspicuous black patch ringed in white on the tail wrist, and that mark is the whole identification. It shoals in midwater over shallow rock, often in numbers and often visible from above, from the Azores and the Bay of Biscay through the Mediterranean and down to Angola, including Madeira, Cape Verde and the Canaries.
It is worth separating carefully from two fish it shoals beside. The salema, *Sarpa salpa*, is deeper-bodied and striped lengthways in gold; the saddled seabream has no gold stripes and one tail spot. The white seabream has a broad dark bar at the tail rather than a rounded spot, and a much deeper body.
Unlike most of the sparids around it, it feeds in the water column as much as on the bottom — small crustaceans, weed and whatever drifts — and that changes how it is caught. Float-fished bait and small baits fished on the drop take it where a leger on the bottom does not, and it will follow a bait up. FishBase records a maximum of 36.6 cm and 0.525 kg over a depth range down to about 30 m.
Three came to a species-hunting angler on Lanzarote in a week, from the rocks at Playa Papagayo and from the sea defences at Puerto del Carmen. It is familiar to anyone who has fished a Mediterranean harbour wall and largely unwritten about in English.
Catching it
How it is caught
Where and when
Where Saddled seabream 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.
Madeira
11 documented places
- Ribeira Brava, Madeira · Harbour wallRegular local target · from the shore
- Porto Novo, Madeira · PierRecorded here · from the shore · around February to February
- Porto da Cruz, Madeira · Rock markRegular local target · from the shore
6 more places here
- Câmara de Lobos · BayRegular local target · from the shore
- The Funchal waterfront · Harbour wallRegular local target · from the shore
- Machico · BayRegular local target · from the shore
- Ponta de São Lourenço · HeadlandRegular local target · from the shore
- Porto Moniz · Rock platformRegular local target · from the shore
- Seixal · CoveRegular local target · from the shore
Lanzarote
2 documented places
- Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote · Harbour wallRecorded here · from the shore · around May to May
- Papagayo and Playa Blanca · CoveRecorded here · from the shore · around May to May
What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
The fish
Identification
No photograph of Saddled seabream has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. A photograph is published only once somebody has checked the animal in it against the diagnostic features described on this page.
- Scientific name
- Oblada melanura
- Family
- Sparidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa
- One conspicuous black spot, ringed in white, on the tail wrist just before the caudal fin. That is the fish.
- Slim, silvery, moderately deep body with faint grey longitudinal shading and no gold stripes.
- The salema, Sarpa salpa, is deeper-bodied and boldly striped in gold along the flank — the two are not alike once both have been seen.
- The white seabream carries a broad dark BAR at the tail rather than a rounded spot, and is much deeper in the body.
- Usually met shoaling in midwater over shallow rock rather than sitting on the bottom.
Size
- Typical
- 150–350 g (5–12 oz)
- Large
- 400–500 g (14 oz–1.1 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 36.6 cm and 0.525 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic and oceanodromous over shallow rock down to about 30 m. Medium resilience. It shoals rather than holding territory, so a mark either has fish on it or does not, and moving is often better than waiting.
Not separately documented on the FishBase record. Sparid reproductive strategies vary considerably even between close relatives, so nothing is carried across from the better-studied members of the family.
Feeding and senses
Takes small crustaceans, weed and drifting material, feeding in the water column as much as on the bottom — which is unusual among the sparids of the same ground and is the practical key to catching it.
Daylight sight-feeding in clear shallow water, shoaling and competitive. A shoal that has found bait competes for it, which is why groundbait or a stream of small scraps holds them where a single bait does not.
Through the year
Present year-round over shallow rock through the warmer parts of its range, moving into very shallow water in the warmer months.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: from Pico Island, Azores to Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean, and from the Strait of Gibraltar to Angola, including Madeira, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands
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 standard shore species across the whole eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, from harbour wall, mole and shallow rock. Because it feeds off the bottom it responds to float-fished and free-lined baits and to a steady trickle of small scraps in a way the bottom-feeding bream do not, and an angler who legers for it in a shoal of them catches far fewer than one who does not.
Handling and returning
Stiff dorsal spines on a lively fish. Fold the dorsal, grip across the flank, unhook with pliers, and return it to the water rather than dropping it from the top of a wall.
Safety and rules
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
The spiny dorsal punctures a hand closed carelessly around the body.
What reduces it: Fold the dorsal flat and grip across the flank, and use pliers to unhook.
More
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
- Salema porgyConstantly confused, and not alike once both have been seen.
Where it lives
- Harbours, piers and breakwatersShoals along moles and walls throughout its range.
- Rocky shores and reefsShoals in midwater over shallow rock rather than sitting on 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: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Oblada melanura.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 Oblada melanura, assessed 16 August 2009.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 5 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.
Salema porgy
Oblada melanura is slim and silver with one black white-ringed spot on the tail wrist and no stripes; Sarpa salpa is deeper-bodied and boldly striped lengthways in gold. Both shoal over the same shallow rock.
- 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 — 2 connections
Reported, but without independent support. Recorded because it is in circulation, not because it has been shown to hold.
Float fishing
The diary records saddled seabream from Playa Papagayo rocks and the Puerto del Carmen sea defences. Because the species feeds in the water column rather than on the bottom, a suspended bait reaches it where a leger fished on the sand does not — which is the practical consequence of the habitat evidence rather than an inference about tackle.
- 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
Light rock fishing
Recorded three times across the week on the light soft-plastic and small-bait tackle the whole diary is fished on.
- 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 — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Harbours, piers and breakwaters
A shallow, shoaling, midwater sparid across the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, which puts it along the hard vertical structure of every harbour on those coasts.
- 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 Oblada melanura.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Rocky shores and reefs
Recorded as benthopelagic and oceanodromous down to about 30 m. `Benthopelagic` is doing real work here: it feeds in the water column above hard ground, which is what separates it from the bottom-feeding bream on the same mark.
- 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 Oblada melanura.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.