German Bight, Germany

Garfish

Belone belone

A silvery, needle-beaked surface hunter whose spring shoals pack Baltic and North Sea beaches and piers. Famous — and nothing to worry about — are its green bones, coloured by the harmless mineral vivianite. Hornhecht in German, geep in Dutch, orphie in French.

Plaice

Pleuronectes platessa

The staple flatfish of the North Sea and Baltic — a smooth, right-eyed flatfish everyone identifies by its bright orange spots. Scholle in German, plie in French.

Sole

Solea solea

The night hunter of the flatfish — a tongue-shaped sand-dweller that buries by day and emerges after dark to feed, the classic quarry of summer night sessions on sand. Seezunge in German, tong in Dutch, lenguado in Spanish.

Turbot

Scophthalmus maximus

The king of flatfish — a broad, left-eyed ambush predator whose eyed side carries bony tubercles instead of scales. It eats fish, not worms, and lives over sand and gravel banks off Europe's coasts. Steinbutt in German.

European Flounder

Platichthys flesus

The estuary flatfish of the Baltic and Wadden Sea — rough, warty and one of the few sea fish that tolerate fresh water and run far up rivers in summer. Its rough skin separates it from the smooth, orange-spotted plaice. Flunder in German, flet in French.

Whiting

Merlangius merlangus

The winter staple of North Sea piers and boats — a slender silver cod-family fish that arrives inshore in big hungry shoals as the water cools. It bites freely after dark on simple bottom rigs, which makes it a first sea fish for many beginners, and fresh whiting is mild and sweet despite its modest size.

Dab

Limanda limanda

The rough-skinned little flatfish of sandy North Sea and Baltic ground — modest, numerous and a mainstay catch on light gear with simple worm rigs. Its calling card is the lateral line curving in a semicircle over the pectoral fin, and its skin feels like fine sandpaper, quite unlike the smooth plaice.