Bass
A bass is silvery, with two separate dorsal fins. The first carries eight or nine spines, and the fish can reach a metre long, according to the Wildlife Trusts. Young bass have black spots on the upper body, which adults usually lose.
Bass are most common off the south and west coasts. In summer they move inshore, into estuaries and up rivers, and in winter they head offshore. For a lot of shore anglers it's the fish of the year, worth every cold dawn on the rocks and every flask of tea.
Mackerel
A mackerel is metallic blue-green, with darker tiger-like stripes over its back. The Wildlife Trusts put most adults at around 30 cm, with some reaching 60 cm. They travel in dense shoals that move as one.
Most of us caught our first on feathers off a harbour wall, and remember the shoal that came through that evening. That's no surprise: mackerel top the list of fish caught by sea anglers in the UK.
How many of us fish the sea
The Angling Trust reports that between 568,000 and 753,000 UK adults went sea angling in each year of the national diary study. Around 80% of the fish they caught were released. Mackerel, whiting, lesser spotted dogfish and sea bass were the species caught most often.
That puts sea anglers alongside the 934,000 rod licences sold in England in 2024 to 2025, according to the Environment Agency. Plenty of anglers do both, so a sea plate often hangs next to a carp or a pike.
Sea fish on the wall
Sea fish suit cooler colours and lighter rooms. A natural wood frame keeps the plate bright. Hang a bass in the hallway. Simple. That's where the rods and waders end up.
A mug suits sea anglers too. Most of them start the day with a flask on a cold beach.
A mackerel at A3 suits a kitchen wall. The A4 poster, at 210 x 297 mm, fits a standard shop-bought frame. For a bigger space, a 50x70 cm canvas of a bass fills it without the glare of glass. Our print sizes guide lists every size. For a sea mark at dusk, see our fishing scenes.
Your own sea fish
Wedge the phone somewhere steady above the tideline, check the frame, then bring the fish to it rather than the other way round. Sea anglers often fish alone, so self-takes are common, and they work fine for a print as long as the fish is sharp. Set a timer long enough to get back to the fish, and practise the move before there's a fish to hold. Angling Times has the full self-take routine.
Print your photo as it is, or see it in a house style with a free preview. Our catch photo guide covers self-takes in more depth.
A sea fish you'll put back
With most sea fish released, the photo is often all that's left. Keep it quick. Angling Times advises wet hands and a mat. Then let it recover in the water, upright, until it's strong enough to leave on its own. A bass held low over a wet mat, with the sea behind, beats one held up on a dry rock. It's kinder too.
Gifts for sea anglers
A sea fish plate or a mug makes an easy present, and our fishing gifts page sorts the rest of the ideas by budget. For an angler who also fishes rivers for trout, see trout and salmon prints. A bass mug is a good stocking filler for a shore angler. It'll go in the van and come out on every early start.