What you're looking at
The plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) is the most colourful UK flatfish — a smooth-skinned right-eyed flatty with bold, evenly-spaced orange-red spots on a sandy-brown background. A staple of clean-ground beach and boat fishing from spring onward.
Key features
- Body: Classic flatfish oval, both eyes on the right side (right-eyed); the fish lies on its left side on the seabed.
- Skin: Smooth to the touch — no rough scales. A reliable separator from flounder and dab.
- Markings: Bright orange or red spots, evenly distributed across the upper side, usually with pale halos around the brightest. Background is sandy brown to olive.
- Head ridge: A bony ridge of 4–7 raised bumps runs from between the eyes back over the head — diagnostic.
- Mouth: Small, terminal, surprisingly hard for the size of the fish.
- Size: Shore fish 200–600 g; boat fish 1–2 kg common over good ground; specimen at 2.5 kg; UK record around 4.5 kg.
Confusion species
- Flounder: Rough scales along the lateral line and dorsal/anal fin bases — feels sandpapery. Background colour duller, with smaller, less defined spots if any. Will tolerate fresh water and is often caught well inside estuaries.
- Dab: Small, rough-feeling skin (heavy with scales), beige-brown with no orange spots, strongly curved lateral line over the pectoral fin.
- Lemon sole: Smaller mouth, blunter snout, more uniform yellow-brown with subtle marbling rather than spots.
Where to find them
Clean sandbanks, gravel patches, and the edges of mussel beds. Spring (March–May) is the classic plaice season as fish move inshore after spawning. Try traditional bait combos like lugworm tipped with squid, or fish a flowing trace with bright beads above a single hook to attract attention. They feed actively on a moving tide.