Which fish is caught in which month in the Sea of Marmara?

The Sea of Marmara is a small sea, but because it is fed from two straits the traffic of species through it is heavy. Our catalog holds month-by-month peak data for the species recorded in the Sea of Marmara; the figures below come from there.

How many species through the year?

• October — 61 species. The peak of the year. The migration is coming down, the water is still mild.
• November — 56 species. Bluefish and Atlantic bonito are at the top of their season.
• April — 55 species. The second peak; the migration upward begins.
• September — 53 species. The opening of autumn.
• August — 48 species. The water is warm, fishing is squeezed into morning and evening.
• June and December — 47 species.
• January — 44 species. The bottom of the year, but not the end of it.

What stands out is this: even the worst month means 44 species. In the Sea of Marmara, “there is no fish” is usually not an absence of species but the wrong species with the wrong method.

The three fish that set the season

Bluefish

On record in all twelve months of the year, but its size changes: çinekop in summer, lüfer in autumn, kofana as winter comes on. September – November is the classic stretch.

Atlantic bonito

Present from August through December. It passes in shoals; one week it is everywhere, the next week nowhere. That is why “has it gone through yet” is asked every year in the Sea of Marmara.

Gilthead seabream and European seabass

On record through all twelve months. Fish with no season but a technique — shallow shore, stream mouth and patience.

The year-round residents

These species show as peaking in all twelve months: Atlantic horse mackerel, flathead grey mullet, picarel, white seabream, striped red mullet, big-scale sand smelt, European squid, European anchovy, European sardine, gilthead seabream, European seabass, bluefish, garfish.

For someone just starting, that is the right list. It is possible to learn without chasing the season, by concentrating on a single technique.

Not month by month, but condition by condition

The calendar is a rough frame. Within the same October, a day with a lodos and a day with a poyraz go entirely differently. The species pages carry the wind, water temperature and pressure ranges for each fish; the map carries the values measured at that moment.