European Hake

Identification

The European hake has an elongated, silvery-grey body with a large head and conspicuously large mouth. The mouth contains sharp teeth in multiple rows — typical of an active predator. The back is dark grey, the belly white. The hake has two dorsal fins: a short first and a long second. Notable is the black mouth cavity. Hake reaches up to 140 cm but is typically 40 to 80 cm in the North Sea.

Behavior & ecology

Hake is a semi-pelagic predator that lives close to the bottom during the day at 100 to 500 meters depth. At night, it rises to shallower water to hunt herring, sardines, and other small fish. It bites aggressively and is a powerful fighter on the line. Hake prefers soft, muddy bottoms in deeper waters west of the British Isles and in the Bay of Biscay.

Fishing techniques

Hake is rarely targeted by Dutch sport anglers:

• Deep-sea fishing: With pilkers and paternoster at depths of 80+ meters, mainly on boat charters in the Channel.
• Baitfish on the bottom: Fish strips or small whole fish on a bottom rig.

In the Netherlands

Hake is commercially one of the most important fish species in Europe, found on every restaurant menu as merluza, merlu, or hake. In Dutch sport fishing, however, it is a rare catch as the species mainly inhabits deeper waters south and west of the North Sea. Hake is occasionally caught on deep-sea boat trips. The white, tender flesh is highly valued culinarily.