Black Sea Bass
Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: a rounded tail with a long trailing filament from the top lobe on larger fish. The look-alike to rule out is Scup: scup are silver, deeper-bodied and have a forked tail with no filament.
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| Scientific name | Centropristis striata |
|---|---|
| Also called | sea bass, humpback, knotty head |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Sea bass |
| Temperature | Feeds well between 55 and 72 °F; moves offshore as inshore water drops through the 50s. |
How to identify a Black Sea Bass
- A rounded tail with a long trailing filament from the top lobe on larger fish.
- A fleshy nuchal hump on the head of large males, which turn iridescent blue-black in spawning condition.
- Dark smoky brown to black body with pale spots forming rough horizontal rows.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Scup | Scup are silver, deeper-bodied and have a forked tail with no filament. |
| Juvenile Grouper | Grouper have a squared or rounded tail without the filament and a much larger mouth relative to the head. |
Read the full entry for Scup.
Where it lives
Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida and into the Gulf. Lives on hard structure — wrecks, reefs, rock piles and rubble — moving offshore to deeper water for winter.
Temperature
Feeds well between 55 and 72 °F; moves offshore as inshore water drops through the 50s.
The conditions that matter
Sea bass are structure-bound, so the fishing is about holding position over a piece and fishing the bottom on manageable current. Water temperature drives the inshore–offshore seasonal movement, and swell and current decide whether a wreck is fishable at all.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about black sea bass into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.