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Common dentex: months, bait and the 35 cm rule
Recorded in the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean, but not in the Black Sea. The months, bait and 35 cm minimum size of the common dentex.
In our catalog the common dentex is recorded in 15 sea regions and at 310 fishing grounds; its season opens in March in the south and in April in the north. All the figures below come from those records.
Let us start with a detail: Communiqué No. 2024/21 lists this species under the name “Sinagrit”. All three names are recorded in our catalog — sinarit, sinagrit, adi sinarit — and they all point to the same fish: Dentex dentex, from the family Sparidae, with a recorded habitat of stony ground and reefs.
Which seas?
On the coast of Türkiye, three seas: the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean. We have no common dentex record for the Black Sea — as you go north, the species drops off the list.
Outside Türkiye the band is fairly wide. On the Greek side the North Aegean and Thrace, the Central and South Aegean, the Ionian Sea, and Crete and the Libyan Sea are recorded; on Cyprus, four regions of Northern Cyprus and four regions of Southern Cyprus.
When is it at its best?
| Sea | Peak months |
|---|---|
| Mediterranean | March – October |
| Sea of Marmara | April – November |
| Aegean | April – November |
In the south the season opens a month earlier and closes a month earlier. In the Greek regions the record is March – November; on the coasts of Cyprus it is all year, with all twelve months marked as peak.
Bait and technique
The natural bait list is the same in all three seas: squid, cuttlefish and live bait. What changes is the regional support — anchovy, horse mackerel and shrimp in the Sea of Marmara; sardine, mamun and sülünez in the Aegean; sardine, squid and shrimp in the Mediterranean.
Two lure headings are recorded: jigs and large soft plastics. For technique: trolling, jigging and bottom fishing. If you are fishing from the shore, our recorded tackle recipe is shore jigging, with crab as bait.
Common dentex or pink dentex?
The catalog holds a second fish from the same genus: the pink dentex (Dentex gibbosus), known locally in Türkiye as patlakgöz or kocagöz mercan. It too belongs to the family Sparidae, but its record is much narrower — only the Aegean and the Mediterranean — and its habitat is deep rocky ground.
The distinction does not stay on paper: the common dentex has a size row in the communiqué, while our records hold no such row for the pink dentex. Do not keep a fish before you have identified the species.
Minimum size: 35 cm
In recreational fishing the minimum size for the common dentex is 35 cm and the daily retention limit 5 kg. Release any fish under that size; do not keep one without measuring it.
Legal basis: Communiqué No. 2024/21, Table 7.
No species-specific closed season is specified; the area and method rules still apply. So with the common dentex it is the tape measure, not the calendar, that decides. The same communiqué’s size list, species by species, is on the minimum fish sizes page, and why the measurement matters so much is explained in the article what is a minimum size.
The sea-by-sea month breakdown, the bait list and the regulation entry are together on the common dentex species page; to see which of those 310 grounds lie on your own coast, turn on the common dentex filter on the map.
The size and quantity information is taken from the communiqué of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The communiqué can change; for definite information consult the text in force.
