South Africa's Beautiful Strepie (Karanteen) Fish (Sarpa salpa)
Information On The Strepie Fish Of South Africa; Pictures Too
The Strepie is a truely beautiful South African fish species. It was named the Strepie (Striped) after the +- 10 yellow stripes that run across the longitudinal part of it's plump, but elongated, body. The Strepie also has 2 other names; the Karanteen and the Saupe. The Karanteen can attain lengths of up to 50 centimeters and the South African angling record for this species is almost 1.5 kilograms. The minimum legal catch and keep size is 15 centimeters. The Strepie is very difficult to miss-identify.
The Karanteen is a saltwater inshore coastal fish. It is normally found in rocky areas in cooler water, and the Karanteen comes in and out with the tide. Strepie adults are herbivorous fish, although I have caught many Strepie using squid as bait... The Strepie fry, that can often be seen in rock pools at low tide, feed planktonic on organisms. Juvenile Strepie fish can adapt to drops of salinity in the water. This aquatic gregarious animal is a very fine eating fish and is a fairly popular angling fish, although not appealing to the commercial fish market. The Strepie can also prove to be an excellent live bait fish.
How To Catch The South African Karanteen Or Strepie
Strepie are one of the more commonly caught fish that are landed by South African salt water anglers. The Karanteen is often used as live bait for bigger fish species. The best ways to catch the Strepie include Bait (Float) fishing and Rock and surf Angling.
The Strepie will almost take any one of your well presented
fleshy baits. The Strepie is not a fussy fish species at all and
many can be caught on the following baits: Squid (Chokka), Pink
Prawn, Shrimp, Ocean Worm species, Crayfish, Sardine (Pilchard) and
other fish baits. The larger Karanteen can provide lots of fun for
anglers with light tackle.
Other Strepie General Information
Common Name: Karanteen...
Other Names: Strepie...
Scientific Name: Sarpa salpa...
Size: Average size is approximately 20 CM...
Habitat: Strepie prefer gullies and shallow rocky reefs, and are mainly found in the surf zone. Juveniles inhabit rock pools, shallow reefs and estuaries...
Distribution: Karanteen are widely distributed and occurs in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic around South Africa...
Bait: In nature this fish is mainly a vegetarian, but they will take prawn, sardine and squid...
Fishing Strategy: This fish will take the bait readily and is fun to catch and release...
Eating Quality: Average...
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