The sargo is the largest of the Pacific grunts and is commonly caught incidentally by anglers fishing for other species, primarily during the summer.
Identification
The body of the adult sargo is a compressed oval
shape, and the back is elevated. The head has a steep, straight upper profile and a small mouth. The sargo’s coloring is a metallic silver, with a grayish tinge on the back. It is silvery below, and there is a distinguishing dark vertical bar running across the body from the dorsal fin to the base of the pectoral fin. Occasionally, sargo are entirely bright
yellow, orange, or pure white.
A young sargo, up to 4 inches, has several dark horizontal stripes. The vertical bar begins to appear when the fish is 2 to 3 inches long.
Size
These fish can reach a maximum length of 22 inches. Life history/Behavior. Sargo
swim close to the bottom in loose schools. The fish spawn in the late spring and the early summer. Spawning first occurs when the fish are
about 7 inches long and 2 years old.
Food and feeding habits
Sargo are bottom feeders that primarily forage on small shrimp, crabs, clams, and snails.
Other Names
China croaker, blue bass, black croaker, grunt, xantic sargo; Spanish: burro piedrero.
Distribution
Sargo occur in the eastern central
Pacific from Magdalena Bay in Baja
California, Mexico, to Santa Cruz, California.
Habitat
Sargo are found inshore and in bays over rocky and
rock-sand bottoms, often near kelp beds, and around pilings or submerged structures. Although they can dwell in up to 130 feet of water, they are most
common in water between 8 and 25 feet deep.
