Fishing places
Britain and Ireland
The densest fishing geography FishingHQ holds: a temperate archipelago with an enormous tidal range, a coastline out of all proportion to its area, and freshwater running from chalk stream to hill loch.
Being listed here is not permission to fish.
Access, fishing rights, seasons, licences, local bylaws and permitted methods vary and can change. Check the current rules and permission for the specific water before fishing. FishingHQ describes what the ground is and names who holds the answer; it does not hold the answer itself, and it does not tell you where to go and catch a fish.
Find the authority for a jurisdiction · What FishingHQ does and does not cover
- 54 fishing regions and destinations
- 472 publicly documented places
Regions and destinations
Each of these is a full guide: what fishing there is like, what dominates, the water available, how the rules are structured and who administers them.
- AngleseyA large island off north Wales separated from the mainland by a strait carrying one of the fastest tidal races in Britain — which is why its fishing is organised around water speed rather than around ground.
- Britain and IrelandWhere the modern sport was largely codified, and the origin of the coarse-and-game division that the rest of the world mostly does not use.
- Cardigan Bay and the sarnauA great open bay in the west of Wales with glacial moraine reefs running kilometres out to sea and drying at low water — a ground type with no analogue anywhere else in these islands — and the largest bottlenose dolphin population in Britain.
- Chesil BeachEighteen miles of shingle whose stones are graded from pea gravel at one end to fist-sized cobble at the other, with a tideless lagoon behind it and deep water immediately in front.
- East Lothian and the Firth of Forth coastA short stretch of Scotland's east coast where rock platform, reef, clean sand and estuary alternate within a few miles, on cold, comparatively sheltered water with a long shore-fishing tradition.
- England and WalesA rod licence for freshwater angling, almost no publicly open fresh water, a close season that survives on rivers and not on stillwaters, and sea angling that is largely unlicensed and heavily byelawed.
- Loch LomondThe largest freshwater body in Britain by surface area, sitting across the Highland Boundary Fault — shallow and rich at one end, deep and cold at the other, with a fish community that includes a species found in only two places on earth.
- Lough CorribA very large limestone lough in the west of Ireland whose alkaline water, shallow rocky shoals and mayfly hatch produce one of Europe's best wild brown trout fisheries.
- Lough ErneTwo very different lakes with one name: a maze of drumlin islands and channels above, a deep open lough below, and between them the water that carried Ireland's coarse fishing reputation for half a century.
- Lough NeaghThe largest lake in Britain and Ireland by area, shallow and rich, carrying one of Europe's last great wild eel fisheries and one of its most severe recent algal bloom crises.
- Morecambe Bay and the north-west England coastThe largest continuous intertidal sand and mud flats in Britain. A place defined by what is uncovered rather than by what is underwater — and by how fast it comes back.
- Northern IrelandA rod licence and a separate permit, two different fisheries authorities dividing one small country between them, and the largest lake in these islands sitting in the middle of it.
- OrkneyAn archipelago sitting in one of the strongest tidal streams in the world, where the state of the tide decides not just the fishing but whether a small boat should be on the water at all.
- Outer HebridesA long Atlantic-facing chain with the machair shell-sand coast on one side and a rock-and-loch landscape on the other, and some of the clearest inshore water in Britain.
- Pembrokeshire and the south-west Wales coastOld hard rock pushed out into the Atlantic, with islands off the end of it and tidal races between them. The races are the fishery and they are also the reason the coast is treated with respect.
- Portland Bill and the Portland RaceA limestone headland projecting into the Channel with a tidal race off its tip that is one of the most dangerous pieces of water in northern Europe, and one of the most productive.
- ScotlandNo rod licence for coarse fishing, a wholly separate statutory system for salmon and sea trout, a legal right of responsible access that England and Wales do not have, and a coastline with the strongest tidal streams in these islands.
- Scottish sea lochsGlacial fjords with a shallow sill across the mouth. The sill is the whole point: it makes the deep water behind it a partly separate sea with its own temperature, its own oxygen and its own fish.
- ShetlandFurther north and more exposed than Orkney, with deep water against the shore, a Norse fishing vocabulary and an island group that has always been a fisherman with a croft rather than a farmer with a boat.
- Skye and the Inner HebridesDeep sea lochs cutting far inland beside exposed Atlantic coast, with fresh and salt water within a few hundred metres of each other and a sea trout fishery that collapsed and is being watched.
- Strangford Lough and the Ards coastA large, shallow, island-strewn sea lough fed through a narrows that runs one of the strongest and most reliable tidal streams in Europe — reliable enough that a commercial tidal turbine was tested in it.
- The Atlantic coast of IrelandFull Atlantic exposure with warm water arriving on it — a cold-latitude coast holding fish that have no business being that far north, in front of some of the biggest swell in Europe.
- The Causeway and Antrim coastA basalt coast facing the North Channel, where the whole exchange between the Irish Sea and the Atlantic runs past headlands at speeds that make the tide the governing fact of every session.
- The Channel shingle coastsSteep banks of graded pebbles with deep water a rod's length out. The grading is not decoration — it sorts the seabed by particle size, and the fish distribute themselves along that sorting.
- The Cornish and Devon coastsBritain's south-west peninsula has two coasts with different weather, the warmest sea in the country, deep water against rock, and full Atlantic swell — which together produce the widest shore species list in Britain and its most serious rock-fishing hazard.
- The English canal networkThree thousand kilometres of water dug for freight and now fished by more people than any river in England — shallow, narrow, uniform, and the water on which competitive coarse angling was invented.
- The English trout reservoirsLarge water-supply reservoirs stocked with trout, on which an entire discipline of fly fishing was invented within living memory — and which now hold some of the largest pike and perch in England as well.
- The Fens and their drainsA drained landscape in eastern England where the rivers run above the fields, every water level is set by a pump, and fishing a straight featureless channel is a skill of its own.
- The Firth of ClydeA drowned glacial basin, deep, sheltered and almost enclosed — and the clearest case anywhere in Britain of a sea angling fishery that was famous, then was not.
- The Gower and Carmarthen BayA limestone peninsula between two great estuaries, with the second largest tidal range in Britain running through it and a cockle fishery that has been worked by the same communities for generations.
- The Hampshire chalk streamsClear, cold, spring-fed rivers running off chalk at almost constant temperature and flow — a rare habitat globally, the birthplace of modern dry-fly fishing, and among the most closely managed fisheries anywhere.
- The Isle of ManA self-governing Crown Dependency in the middle of the Irish Sea with its own parliament, its own fisheries law and its own territorial sea — which makes it the clearest illustration in these islands that a coast is a jurisdiction before it is a place.
- The Isles of ScillyA granite archipelago forty kilometres off Land's End with the clearest inshore water in England, almost no fresh water, and a species list that runs warmer than anywhere else in these islands.
- The Lake District lakesDeep, cold, ice-cut ribbon lakes holding fish that have been isolated there since the glaciers left. The rarest freshwater fishes in England live in them, and they are in trouble for reasons that have nothing to do with angling.
- The Moray FirthA great triangular bight in the north-east shoulder of Scotland: deep cold water, a coast of red sandstone cliff and shingle, the mouths of half the country's best salmon rivers, and a resident population of bottlenose dolphins at the northern edge of the species' range.
- The Norfolk and Suffolk sandbank coastA soft, moving coast in front of a field of offshore sandbanks. The banks make the fishing and the softness makes the coast retreat — the same sediment system does both.
- The Norfolk BroadsA network of shallow lakes and slow rivers that everybody assumed was natural until the 1950s, when it turned out to be flooded medieval peat diggings — and one of Britain's great pike fisheries.
- The north-east England coastHard rock scars alternating with sand bays down the cold western edge of the North Sea — a coast where the ground changes every few hundred metres and the fishery changes with it.
- The Republic of IrelandNo general coarse or trout rod licence, a separate state licence and share certificate for salmon and sea trout, a naturally sparse native fish fauna, and some of the most accessible pike and coarse fishing in western Europe.
- The River SpeyThe fastest of Scotland's great salmon rivers, and the one whose name became a casting technique used on every large river in the world.
- The River TayThe largest river in Britain by volume, draining a seventh of Scotland through a chain of lochs to a great tidal estuary — and the river that produced the largest rod-caught salmon ever recorded in these islands.
- The River ThamesA river declared biologically dead in the 1950s that now holds well over a hundred fish species along its length — one of the better environmental recovery stories in Europe, and an unfinished one.
- The River TrentA big lowland river that industry effectively killed and water treatment brought back, and now one of the most productive coarse rivers in England. The recovery is the story.
- The River TweedA large Border river with an autumn salmon run of international standing, governed since the nineteenth century by its own statutory commission across an England-Scotland boundary.
- The River WyeOne of Britain's great mixed rivers — historically a salmon river of the first rank, now better known for barbel and chub — and the clearest current example of what nutrient pollution does to a river system.
- The Severn EstuaryThe second largest tidal range in the world, in a funnel-shaped estuary so turbid that fish hunt by lateral line, with a tidal bore running miles upriver and an elver fishery of real antiquity.
- The Shannon systemThe longest river in these islands, falling barely a hundred metres in three hundred and sixty kilometres — a chain of great limestone loughs joined by slow river, and the most important pike and coarse fishery in western Europe.
- The Solent and the Hampshire coastA sheltered strait between an island and the mainland where the tide does something it does nowhere else in Britain — a double high water that holds the sea up for hours, on top of the country's busiest small-craft water.
- The Solway FirthA shallow funnel between Cumbria and Dumfries with one of the largest tidal ranges in Britain over miles of flat sand, where the flooding tide crosses the ground faster than a person can walk.
- The Thames EstuaryA vast shallow funnel of mud, sand and moving bank between Essex and Kent, biologically dead within living memory and now one of the most productive nursery systems in north-west Europe. The recovery is the record.
- The Wash and the Lincolnshire coastEngland's largest embayment: four rivers, an enormous drying sandflat, the country's biggest shellfishery and a nursery for a substantial share of the southern North Sea's flatfish.
- The Welsh coast and AngleseyA long, varied coast whose defining feature is water speed: the tidal races off Anglesey and the headlands are among the fastest water fished from the shore anywhere in Britain, and they organise both the fishing and the risk.
- The Welsh sewin riversThe sea trout rivers of west and south-west Wales, fished almost entirely in the dark, with their own tackle, their own literature and — on one of them — a licensed net fishery worked from coracles within living memory.
- The Yorkshire coastHard rock in the north, the fastest-eroding coast in Europe in the south, and the two joined by a chalk headland that sorts them. One coast that is three fisheries because it is three geologies.
Every place, listed
472 publicly documented fishing places, grouped by the area they belong to. This is the complete list — everything plotted on the map above is here, and nothing here needs the map to reach it.
Anglesey 9 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Anglesey
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Cemaes Bay
Bay · Salt water
A north-facing bay of sand between low Precambrian headlands on Anglesey's exposed northern shore, with reef ground round both points and a strong coastal stream offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Holyhead breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
The longest breakwater in the United Kingdom: 2.4 kilometres of limestone rubble and masonry running north-east from Soldiers Point to enclose Holyhead's harbour of refuge, with deep water on the seaward face and a sheltered basin behind.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, slips, trips and falls, tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Llanddwyn Island
Island · Salt water
A narrow tidal island of pillow lava and jasper projecting from the dunes of Newborough into Caernarfon Bay, with rock ledges, deep gullies and clean sand either side.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Llyn Alaw
Reservoir · Fresh water
A shallow, fertile, wind-exposed lowland reservoir on Anglesey, with soft margins, extensive weed and a very long fetch across flat country.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Penmon Point
Headland · Salt water
A limestone point at the north-eastern corner of Anglesey looking across a fast channel to Puffin Island, with a rock platform, deep water and a strong stream through the sound.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Point Lynas
Headland · Salt water
A low rocky headland projecting north into the Irish Sea, with deep water close under it and a strong tidal stream that makes it the pilot station for Liverpool.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
South Stack
Rock mark · Salt water
Quartzite cliffs of up to a hundred and twenty metres on the western tip of Holy Island, with a lighthouse islet, deep water immediately below and a heavily folded, broken rock coast either side.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Menai Strait and the Swellies
Tidal race · Salt water
A twenty-five-kilometre tidal channel separating Anglesey from the Welsh mainland, narrowing at the Swellies between the two bridges to a few hundred metres of rock-strewn channel with submerged reefs and islets in the middle of it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything. This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Trearddur Bay
Bay · Salt water
A sand cove set in a coast of hard Precambrian quartzite and schist, with reef, gullies and offshore rocks on both flanks and clean sand in the middle.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms.
Cardigan Bay and the sarnau 11 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Cardigan Bay and the sarnau
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Aberdaron
Cove · Salt water
A sand and shingle cove at the tip of the Llŷn, between rocky headlands, looking out at the tidal stream running through Bardsey Sound.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Aberdyfi and the Dyfi estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A large drying sand estuary behind a dune spit, with a shifting bar, extensive saltmarsh and one of the most closely studied sediment systems in Wales.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Aberystwyth
Promenade · Salt water
A shingle and sand shore beneath a promenade, between two rocky headlands of folded Silurian mudstone, with a harbour at the Rheidol mouth to the south.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Barmouth and the Mawddach estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A steep-sided drowned valley of clean sand and gravel below the Cadair Idris range, with a bar at the mouth and unusually clear water for a British estuary.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Cardigan and the Teifi estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A narrow drowned valley entered over a shifting sand bar, with rock ledges at the mouth, sand and mud inside, and a substantial migratory fish run.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Criccieth
Beach · Salt water
Steep shingle over sand beneath a castle crag of volcanic rock, with rock ledges either side of the headland and the shallow water of Tremadog Bay outside.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
New Quay
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone pier sheltering a small sand bay on the only substantially north-facing stretch of the Cardigan Bay coast, over sand with reef at both headlands.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Porthmadog and the Glaslyn estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A drying sand estuary behind the Cob embankment, with a narrow shifting entrance across Bar Mouth and extensive intertidal sand and marsh inside.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Pwllheli
Harbour wall · Salt water
A drying sand harbour behind a shingle spit on the south Llŷn, with training walls, a fast entrance channel and extensive clean sand outside.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Sarn Badrig
Reef · Salt water
A glacial moraine ridge running some twenty kilometres south-west into Cardigan Bay from the Llŷn coast, built of boulder, cobble and gravel left by an ice lobe. It dries in places at low water and continues as a submerged reef far offshore. There is nothing else like the sarnau anywhere in Britain.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Trefor pier
Pier · Salt water
A granite quarry pier on the north Llŷn coast beneath the Yr Eifl scree slopes, standing in deep water over boulder and rock with steep ground close in.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Chesil Beach 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Chesil Beach
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
Chesil Cove
Beach section · Salt water
The Portland end of Chesil Beach, where the shingle bank meets the Isle of Portland and is at its steepest, coarsest and deepest. Large flint and chert cobbles here, against the rock of Portland, with reef either side of the cove.
Severe hazards here: slips, trips and falls, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
East Lothian and the Firth of Forth coast 11 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in East Lothian and the Firth of Forth coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
Anstruther
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour on the East Neuk of Fife, drying to sand and mud inside, with low rock scars and reef ground running out along the coast either side.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Dunbar harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour blasted through a volcanic headland, with the ruins of a castle over the entrance and hard reef ground running out on both sides.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Eyemouth
Harbour wall · Salt water
A working fishing harbour cut into a hard volcanic and greywacke coast, with a narrow rock-walled entrance, deep water inside and heavy reef ground on both sides outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Fife Ness
Headland · Salt water
A low, flat rock platform of Carboniferous sandstone and limestone at the corner where the Firth of Forth turns into the open North Sea, with extensive drying scars, gullies and offshore reef.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Kinghorn and Pettycur
Rock mark · Salt water
A basalt and sandstone shore on the Fife side of the Forth, with rock scars, a small drying harbour and clean sand bays between the outcrops.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
North Berwick and the Bass Rock
Island · Salt water
A volcanic plug rising a hundred metres sheer out of the outer Firth of Forth, with deep water all round it and no landing except in calm conditions, and a rocky mainland shore of the same volcanic origin two miles inside it.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Port Seton
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small harbour on the shallow southern shore of the Firth of Forth, over sand and mud with low rock scars either side and extensive drying ground at low water.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Portobello
Promenade · Salt water
A long sand beach and promenade on Edinburgh's shore of the inner Forth, over clean sand and mud, with the deep-water channel of the firth some distance offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
St Abbs Head
Headland · Salt water
Hard volcanic rock rising in cliffs of over ninety metres, with clean, exceptionally clear water beneath and a kelp-covered reef system running offshore. The clarity is unusual for the North Sea and is why this is Scotland's best-known shore diving ground as well as an angling one.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Forth bridges and Queensferry
Estuary mark · Brackish water
The narrows of the Firth of Forth, where the firth constricts between rock shores to about a kilometre, with deep scoured water, a strong stream and three major bridges over it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Torness and Skateraw
Rock mark · Salt water
A low rock and boulder shore of Old Red Sandstone and limestone beside a power station cooling outfall, with clean sand bays between the scars and a warmed plume offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
England and Wales 33 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in England and Wales
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
Christchurch Harbour and Mudeford Run
Tidal channel · Brackish water
A shallow drying harbour fed by the Avon and Stour, draining through a single narrow sand-bar entrance — the Run — where the stream reaches several knots and the channel shifts constantly.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
Kielder Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
The largest artificial lake in northern Europe by volume, in a deep afforested valley on the Northumberland border, with acidic peaty water, steep drowned sides and great depth.
Kimmeridge Ledges
Ledge · Salt water
Flat shelves of Kimmeridge Clay and limestone running out from a shallow bay beneath dark shale cliffs, forming a series of parallel ledges separated by gullies. Distinctively flat, dark, slippery rock with dense weed and a rich, sheltered reef community.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Llyn Brenig
Reservoir · Fresh water
A large, high, exposed moorland reservoir on the Denbigh moors, with acidic peat-influenced water, a long fetch and cold conditions well into spring.
Llyn Clywedog
Reservoir · Fresh water
A deep, steeply-sided reservoir in a narrow mid-Wales valley behind a very tall concrete dam, built to regulate the Severn, with a level that varies greatly through the year.
Llyn Tegid
Lake · Fresh water
The largest natural lake in Wales: a glacial ribbon lake in a fault-guided valley in Snowdonia, six kilometres long, with steep sides, a deep central trough and the River Dee running through it.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, biosecurity and disease transfer.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Llyn Trawsfynydd
Reservoir · Fresh water
A shallow upland reservoir in Snowdonia built to serve a hydro and later a nuclear station, with a distinctive warmed history and an exposed moorland setting.
Lyme Regis Cobb
Harbour wall · Salt water
A curving medieval harbour wall of Portland stone enclosing a small drying harbour, standing on the Jurassic clay coast where the ledges are dark blue lias and the ground is soft and slipping.
Poole Harbour entrance and Sandbanks
Tidal channel · Salt water
The mouth of one of the largest natural harbours in the world, constricted to a few hundred metres between sand spits, scoured deep, with a double high water and a stream that runs for far longer on the ebb than the flood.
Swanage Pier
Pier · Salt water
A timber pleasure pier in a sheltered east-facing bay under the Purbeck chalk, standing over clean sand and weed with limestone ledges at both ends of the bay.
The Ancholme
River reach · Fresh water
An entirely artificial straightened river running north across north Lincolnshire to a tidal sluice at South Ferriby, with uniform depth, reed margins and a controlled level.
The Clwyd
River reach · Fresh water
A slow, silt-and-gravel lowland river running north through the Vale of Clwyd to a tidal limit at Rhuddlan, with a modest sewin run and coarse fish in its lower reaches.
The Conwy at Llanrwst
River reach · Fresh water
A fast Snowdonian river running over gravel and bedrock through the Conwy valley to a tidal limit a few miles below, with a substantial sewin run.
The Coquet at Rothbury
River reach · Fresh water
A small, fast, clean upland river of gravel and bedrock running through a wooded Northumbrian valley, with a substantial sea trout run for its size.
The Cotswold Water Park
Gravel pit · Fresh water
A complex of well over a hundred flooded gravel workings in the upper Thames valley, with clear water over clean gravel, steep-shelving margins and extensive weed.
The Dee at Llangollen
River reach · Fresh water
A fast, rocky, regulated river running through a narrow valley below Llyn Tegid, with a horseshoe weir feeding the canal and a flow held up by the lake above.
The Dorset Stour at Blandford
River reach · Fresh water
A clay-and-chalk river with a soft bed, deep slow bends and streamier gravel between, running through open downland farmland.
The Eden at Appleby
River reach · Fresh water
A red sandstone river running north through the Vale of Eden, with gravel glides, deep sandstone-walled pools and a strong grayling population alongside its salmonids.
The Great Ouse at Bedford
River reach · Fresh water
The upper Great Ouse above the fen: a slower clay-bedded river of deep bends, weir pools and long tree-lined reaches, quite unlike the drain-like river downstream.
The Lune at Lancaster
River reach · Fresh water
A wide gravel river running to a tidal limit just below the city, with long streamy glides, unstable shifting gravel bars and a substantial salmon and sea trout run.
The Ribble at Clitheroe
River reach · Fresh water
A limestone-influenced river of fast gravel runs and deep pools below the Bowland fells, with a large migratory run and a flashy hydrograph.
The Severn at Bewdley
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, fast, gravel-bedded reach of the middle Severn running through a wooded gorge below the Wyre Forest, with hard gravel glides, deeper pools on the bends and a well-defined flood plain.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
The Severn at Shrewsbury
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, slow, silt-and-gravel loop of the upper-middle Severn enclosing the town on three sides, with high tree-lined banks and a very flashy response to Welsh rainfall.
The Severn at Tewkesbury and the Avon confluence
Confluence · Fresh water
Where the Warwickshire Avon joins the Severn below a weir and lock complex, giving a slack, a fast tongue and a deep junction pool within a very short distance.
The Severn at Worcester
River reach · Fresh water
A deep, wide, weir-controlled navigation reach below the Teme confluence, with a soft bed, steep banks and one of the longest match-fishing records of any English river.
The Tyne at Hexham
River reach · Fresh water
A wide gravel river below the meeting of the North and South Tyne, and the most productive salmon river in England — a recovery from an industrially dead river within living memory.
The Ure at Ripon
River reach · Fresh water
A limestone river of gravel runs and deep bends below the Yorkshire Dales, joined by the Skell and the Laver at Ripon and becoming the Ouse a short way downstream.
The Usk at Abergavenny
River reach · Fresh water
A fast, clean, freestone river running over gravel and bedrock ledges through the Brecon Beacons foothills, with a celebrated wild brown trout population and an early salmon run.
The Wharfe at Bolton Abbey
River reach · Fresh water
A limestone-gravel river running fast and clear through a wooded valley, with long streamy glides, a narrow rock gorge at the Strid and deep pools between.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Witham at Lincoln
River reach · Fresh water
A canalised, uniform, slow river running dead straight across the fen from Lincoln to Boston, with reed margins, an even bed and almost no natural variation in depth.
The Yorkshire Derwent at Malton
River reach · Fresh water
A slow, deep, clay-bedded lowland river with heavy bankside vegetation, one of the most ecologically protected rivers in England and an unusually rich coarse fishery.
The Yorkshire Ouse at York
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, deep, silt-bedded river through the city, tidal a short way downstream, flashy in response to Dales rainfall and prone to substantial and rapid flooding.
West Bay and Bridport harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A piered river mouth cut into the western end of the Chesil shingle system, beneath the vertical golden sandstone of East Cliff, with steep shingle either side of the entrance.
France 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in France
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Recreational sea fishing in France is not generally licensed for shore angling, but national and European measures on species, sizes, quantities and gear apply, some quarry carries a declaration or marking requirement, and access to structures, beaches and shellfish grounds is governed locally. All of it changes. Check the current position with the maritime prefecture or the departmental directorate for the sea, and with the commune, before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Inland fishing in France runs through membership: an angler joins an approved local fishing association, which is affiliated to a departmental federation, and pays the national levy alongside it — so the permission and the licence arrive together and are bought from the association rather than from a state counter. Waters, seasons, methods and reciprocity arrangements differ by department and change. Check with the departmental fishing federation and the local association before going.
The Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel
Bay · Brackish water
An enormous shallow bay at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, uncovering several hundred square kilometres of sand and mud at low water, cut by shifting channels carrying three rivers, with mussel and oyster ground across the flats and quicksand in places.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything. This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
Lough Corrib 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Lough Corrib
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.
Lough Mask
Lough · Fresh water
A large limestone lough immediately above Lough Corrib and connected to it underground, with a rocky, shallow, boulder-strewn bed over much of its area, sheer cliffs on the western shore and extensive shallow bays on the east.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Lough Erne 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Lough Erne
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
Lough Macnean
Lough · Fresh water
Two connected limestone loughs on the Fermanagh and Cavan border, with clear alkaline water, marl shallows and a mixed coarse and trout population.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cold water shock.
Lough Melvin
Lough · Fresh water
A cross-border lough on the Fermanagh and Leitrim boundary: a shallow-to-moderate glacial lake with rocky shores, islands, gravel spawning tributaries and a short river to the Atlantic.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, biosecurity and disease transfer.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Erne at Enniskillen
River reach · Fresh water
The short river reach joining Upper and Lower Lough Erne through the town, with a controlled level, deep slow water and one of the richest coarse fisheries in these islands.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cold water shock.
Lough Neagh 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Lough Neagh
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
The Maine
River reach · Fresh water
A modest lowland river running south into Lough Neagh through Antrim farmland, heavily modified for drainage, with a dollaghan and salmon run using it to spawn.
Severe hazards here: biosecurity and disease transfer, drowning and immersion.
Morecambe Bay and the north-west England coast 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Morecambe Bay and the north-west England coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
New Brighton and Perch Rock
Promenade · Brackish water
A sandstone outcrop and fort at the north-east tip of the Wirral, where the Mersey meets Liverpool Bay, with a long engineered promenade and sea wall running west from it over clean sand and mud.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
St Bees Head
Headland · Salt water
The only substantial sea cliff on the Cumbrian coast: red St Bees sandstone rising to a hundred metres, with boulder and rock scars beneath, a shingle cove at Fleswick between the two heads, and clean sand to the south.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Walney Island
Island · Salt water
A long, low barrier island of glacial drift, sand and shingle lying off Barrow-in-Furness, with open sand and shingle beaches on the Irish Sea side and the sheltered Walney Channel and its mudflats behind.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Northern Ireland 8 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Northern Ireland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
Islandmagee and the Gobbins
Rock mark · Salt water
A basalt cliff coast with a wave-cut platform, caves, stacks and a cliff path cut into the face, giving deep water close in and heavy broken ground beneath.
Larne Lough
Sea loch · Brackish water
A narrow sheltered sea lough behind the Islandmagee peninsula, with soft mud, extensive intertidal, a fast narrow entrance and a large commercial ferry port at its mouth.
Lough Beg
Lough · Fresh water
A shallow, flooded, reed-fringed lough immediately north of Lough Neagh on the Lower Bann, with extensive seasonally flooded grassland and a soft silt bed.
The Blackwater
River reach · Fresh water
A slow, deep, silt-bedded river forming part of the border and entering Lough Neagh at its south-western corner, with a substantial coarse fishery and a dollaghan run.
The Foyle at Strabane
River reach · Brackish water
Where the Mourne and Finn meet to form the Foyle above a long tidal lough, carrying one of the largest salmon runs in Ireland through a cross-border catchment.
The Lower Bann
River reach · Fresh water
The single outflow of Lough Neagh, running sixty kilometres north to the Atlantic at Castlerock: a wide, slow, canalised navigation with locks and weirs, soft bed, reed margins and substantial flow control structures.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Upper Bann
River reach · Fresh water
A slow, silt-bedded lowland river running north into Lough Neagh through drumlin country, with a well-known bream and roach fishery and a strong dollaghan run.
Whitehead
Promenade · Salt water
A promenade and rock shore at the entrance to Belfast Lough beneath a basalt headland, over boulder and rock ledges with sand patches between.
Orkney 2 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Orkney
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Scapa Flow
Bay · Salt water
A vast natural anchorage enclosed by the southern Orkney islands and the Churchill Barriers, with a sand and mud floor, extensive wartime wreckage and sheltered water in almost any wind.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
The Brough of Birsay
Island · Salt water
A tidal island of Old Red Sandstone at Orkney's north-western corner, reached by a causeway that covers, with a wave-cut platform, geos and a strong stream past the point.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Outer Hebrides 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Outer Hebrides
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Loch Maddy
Sea loch · Salt water
An intricate sea loch on North Uist with an extraordinarily long shoreline for its area, containing dozens of islands, narrows and basins over gneiss and shell sand.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Luskentyre
Beach · Salt water
A vast white shell-sand beach and tidal flat on the Atlantic side of Harris, backed by machair, with gneiss reef at both ends and exceptionally clear shallow water over the sand.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Stornoway harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
The largest harbour in the Outer Hebrides, a deep sheltered inlet in Lewisian gneiss with rock and kelp margins, mud in the inner basin and a working fishing fleet.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
The Sound of Harris
Sound or strait · Salt water
A shallow, reef-strewn channel separating Harris from North Uist, with white shell sand, a maze of skerries and strong tidal streams running through the passages between them.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Pembrokeshire and the south-west Wales coast 9 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Pembrokeshire and the south-west Wales coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Broad Haven and Little Haven
Beach · Salt water
Two adjoining sand bays in St Bride's Bay, with Old Red Sandstone and Coal Measures cliffs, rock ledges at the points and clean sand between.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Freshwater West
Beach · Salt water
The most exposed sand beach in Wales, taking Atlantic swell straight into a west-facing bay, with a strong rip system, reef at both ends and heavy surf for most of the year.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Milford Haven waterway
Estuary · Brackish water
One of the deepest natural harbours in the world: a drowned valley system with deep water carried far inland, energy terminals along both shores, and extensive mud and saltmarsh in the upper reaches.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Ramsey Sound
Tidal race · Salt water
A kilometre-wide channel between Ramsey Island and the St David's peninsula, with a reef of jagged rock fingers — the Bitches — projecting from the island side into the middle of the flow.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Solva
Harbour wall · Salt water
A narrow drowned inlet with a dog-leg entrance between rock walls, drying to sand and gravel inside, on a coast of hard folded Cambrian rock.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
St Govan's Head
Rock mark · Salt water
Vertical Carboniferous limestone cliffs of forty to fifty metres above deep water, with a chapel wedged into a cleft and a coast of stacks, arches and blowholes either side. Hard, sharp, well-fractured rock throughout.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Stackpole Quay
Harbour wall · Salt water
A tiny stone quay cut into Carboniferous limestone, said to be the smallest harbour in Britain, with deep clear water and heavy reef ground immediately outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Strumble Head
Headland · Salt water
A hard igneous headland projecting into the St George's Channel, with a lighthouse islet, deep water immediately off it and a strong tidal stream past the point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Whitesands Bay and St David's Head
Headland · Salt water
A clean Atlantic sand bay backed by dunes with a hard igneous headland at its northern end, boulder ground beneath the head and a strong stream running out to Ramsey Sound.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Scotland 25 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Scotland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
Arbroath
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour beneath red Old Red Sandstone cliffs, with a wave-cut platform, caves and stacks running north along the coast and clean sand to the south.
Loch Assynt
Loch · Fresh water
A deep loch set in Lewisian gneiss and Cambrian quartzite beneath Quinag, with clear cold water, rocky shallows and abrupt drop-offs close to the bank.
Loch Awe
Loch · Fresh water
The longest freshwater loch in Scotland: a forty-kilometre glacial trough in Argyll, steep-sided and forested, with rocky shores, deep water close in, drowned timber and a hydroelectric scheme at its northern end.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Loch Earn
Loch · Fresh water
A straight, deep, steep-sided loch running east to west so that the prevailing wind blows its full length, with a stocked and wild trout fishery and considerable depth close in.
Loch Ken
Loch · Fresh water
A long shallow lowland loch on the Dee in Galloway, dammed for hydroelectricity, with reedy margins, silt bed and one of the very few substantial pike and coarse fisheries in Scotland.
Loch Leven
Loch · Fresh water
A large, shallow, lowland loch in a nutrient-rich agricultural catchment, with a soft bed, islands, extensive shallow margins and no great depth anywhere. Physically the opposite of a Highland loch in every respect.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Loch Maree
Loch · Fresh water
A large, deep, island-studded loch in Wester Ross beneath Slioch, historically one of the great sea trout fisheries of Scotland and still a wild brown trout water of standing.
Loch Ness
Loch · Fresh water
The largest lake in Britain by volume: a fault-guided trench thirty-six kilometres long and over two hundred metres deep, with steep sides, peat-stained water and very little shallow margin.
Loch Rannoch
Loch · Fresh water
A deep, straight glacial loch on the edge of Rannoch Moor, with acidic peat-influenced water, a long fetch and one of Scotland's better-known ferox trout populations.
Loch Shin
Loch · Fresh water
A long, comparatively shallow Sutherland loch, dammed at its southern end for hydroelectricity, with peaty acidic water and a level that moves with the scheme.
St Andrews and the Eden estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A shallow drying sand estuary behind a dune spit next to the West Sands, with extensive intertidal flats, a strong channel stream and a seal haul-out on the banks.
The Annan
River reach · Fresh water
A red sandstone river running south to the Solway over gravel and sand, with deep bends, a large sea trout run and a substantial grayling population.
The Beauly and the Ness
River reach · Fresh water
Two short, powerful, dam-influenced rivers draining the Great Glen and Strathfarrar into the inner Moray Firth over gravel and bedrock.
The Clyde at Lanark
River reach · Fresh water
The upper Clyde above the falls, running over gravel and bedrock through a wooded gorge, with a wild brown trout and grayling fishery recovered from severe industrial pollution.
The Helmsdale
River reach · Fresh water
A short, fast Sutherland river running through a narrow strath over gravel and bedrock, with loch-controlled headwaters that hold its flow up through dry spells.
The Kyle of Tongue
Sea loch · Brackish water
A shallow drying sea loch of clean white sand and rock on the north Sutherland coast, backed by Ben Loyal, with a causeway across its middle and strong streams at the narrows.
The Lake of Menteith
Loch · Fresh water
The only body of water in Scotland conventionally called a lake: a shallow, fertile, wind-exposed lowland water with islands, extensive weed and a long-established boat trout fishery.
The Nith at Dumfries
River reach · Fresh water
A wide gravel river running through the town to a long tidal estuary on the Solway, with a caul weir at Dumfries and a substantial autumn salmon run.
The Oykel and the Kyle of Sutherland
Confluence · Fresh water
Where four salmon rivers — Oykel, Cassley, Shin and Carron — meet at the head of a tidal kyle, giving a concentration of migratory fish unmatched in the north.
The River Dee at Banchory
River reach · Fresh water
A fast, clean, gravel-and-boulder river running off the Cairngorms, snow-fed in spring, and the classic Scottish spring salmon river with an exceptionally stable clear flow.
The River Don at Kemnay
River reach · Fresh water
A slower, richer, more alkaline river than the neighbouring Dee, running over gravel and weed through Aberdeenshire farmland with an exceptional wild brown trout population.
The Tay estuary and Broughty Ferry
Estuary · Brackish water
The mouth of the river carrying the largest freshwater discharge in Britain, with vast drying sandbanks, a strong ebb, a narrow deep channel past the castle and a large migratory run through it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Teith at Callander
River reach · Fresh water
A fast gravel river draining the Trossachs lochs, running clear and cold with long glides and deep pools, and carrying one of the earliest spring runs in Scotland.
The Thurso
River reach · Fresh water
A slow, dark, peat-fed Caithness river running off the flow country over flagstone and sand, with almost no gradient and a flow controlled by a loch at its head.
Thurso Bay and Scrabster
Bay · Salt water
A north-facing bay on the Pentland Firth's southern shore, with a flagstone rock platform, a deep working harbour at Scrabster and clean sand at the Thurso river mouth.
Scottish sea lochs 20 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Scottish sea lochs
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
Applecross and the Inner Sound
Sound or strait · Salt water
The deepest inshore water in British seas — over three hundred metres in the Inner Sound trench — lying between the mainland and Raasay, with a shelving rock and shingle shore at Applecross.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Ardnamurchan Point
Headland · Salt water
The most westerly point of the British mainland: a hard igneous headland of a ring-dyke volcanic complex, with deep water immediately offshore and full exposure to the Atlantic.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Durness and Balnakeil Bay
Bay · Salt water
A limestone-floored bay of white shell sand at the north-western corner of the mainland, backed by machair, with hard quartzite reef at Faraid Head and exceptionally clear water.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Gairloch
Sea loch · Salt water
A wide, comparatively shallow west-facing sea loch with sand bays along its southern shore, rock and kelp on the north, and deeper water out towards the Minch.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Gruinard Bay
Bay · Salt water
A red sandstone bay of pink shell sand and rock between two headlands in Wester Ross, with an island in its mouth and clean shallow water over sand between the reefs.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Broom and Ullapool
Sea loch · Salt water
A long, deep, steep-sided fjordic sea loch running south-east into Wester Ross from the Minch, with rock walls, deep basins, a fishing port halfway along it and the Summer Isles archipelago across its mouth.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, weather and lightning, moving water and currents, boat safety, fish welfare.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything.
Loch Carron and Plockton
Sea loch · Salt water
A sea loch with a shallow rock narrows at Stromeferry dividing a deep outer basin from a quieter inner one, with flame shell beds on the sill and sheltered anchorages at Plockton.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Craignish and the Dorus Mor
Tidal race · Salt water
A narrow island-studded loch opening into the Dorus Mor — the 'great door' — where the tidal stream between Craignish Point and Garbh Reisa runs at up to eight knots.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Duich
Sea loch · Salt water
A steep-sided fjordic loch beneath the Five Sisters of Kintail, joining Loch Alsh through a narrows at Eilean Donan, with deep water and a strong freshwater input at its head.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Etive
Sea loch · Brackish water
A thirty-kilometre fjordic sea loch behind a shallow rock sill at Connel, where the Falls of Lora form. Deep anoxic basins inside, a rapid at the mouth, and steep mountain sides throughout.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, boat safety, fish welfare.
Loch Ewe
Sea loch · Salt water
A north-facing sea loch open to the Minch with an island in its middle, deep basins, and a wartime anchorage history that left extensive structures on its shores.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Hourn
Sea loch · Salt water
One of the most fjord-like lochs in Britain: a long, narrow, extremely steep-sided inlet with a shallow sill at Caolas Mor and deep, poorly-flushed basins behind it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Inchard and Kinlochbervie
Sea loch · Salt water
A short, deep, steep-sided sea loch in Lewisian gneiss with a working fishing harbour partway along it, deep water close to the rock and heavy kelp on the margins.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Laxford
Sea loch · Salt water
A sea loch set in a landscape of bare Lewisian gneiss knock-and-lochan, with dozens of islands and skerries, deep basins between them and very little soft sediment anywhere.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Linnhe
Sea loch · Salt water
A long fault-guided sea loch running along the Great Glen, deep and steep-sided, with the Corran narrows partway along it constricting the whole tidal exchange of the upper loch.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Nevis and Mallaig
Sea loch · Salt water
A deep fjordic loch with a working ferry and fishing port at its mouth, an inner basin behind a shallow narrows at Kylesknoydart, and no road to most of its shore.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Sunart
Sea loch · Salt water
The longest sea loch in the western Highlands, running thirty kilometres inland with a series of sills and basins, ancient oakwood along its shores and a rich sublittoral reef community.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Loch Torridon
Sea loch · Salt water
A deep fjordic loch beneath Torridonian sandstone mountains, with an inner loch behind a shallow narrows, a nationally important prawn ground and very deep water in the outer basin.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Lochinver and Loch Inver
Sea loch · Salt water
A short sea loch with a major working fishing harbour at its head, beneath Suilven and Canisp, with deep water, rock walls and a shelving gravel shore at the river mouth.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Oban Bay and the Sound of Kerrera
Sound or strait · Salt water
A sheltered bay behind the island of Kerrera with a busy ferry port, deep water in the sound, and rock and kelp shores giving way to mud in the bay itself.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock, fish welfare.
Shetland 1 place
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Shetland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Sumburgh Head
Headland · Salt water
A sandstone headland at Shetland's southern tip with a lighthouse on the cliff, deep water immediately off it and the Sumburgh Roost — a violent tidal race — running past.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety, cold water shock.
Skye and the Inner Hebrides 5 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Skye and the Inner Hebrides
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Arisaig and the Sound of Sleat
Sound or strait · Salt water
White shell-sand bays and a maze of gneiss skerries on the mainland shore of the Sound of Sleat, with clear shallow water inshore and deep channel water beyond the islands.
Elgol and Loch Scavaig
Sea loch · Salt water
A short, spectacularly steep sea loch running into the Cuillin, with very deep water immediately off a basalt and gabbro shore and almost no shallow margin.
Kyle Rhea
Tidal race · Salt water
A narrow strait between Skye and the mainland at Glenelg, a few hundred metres wide, with steep rock sides and a deep, scoured bed.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Gulf of Corryvreckan
Tidal race · Salt water
The strait between Jura and Scarba, about a kilometre wide, with an irregular rock bed containing a submerged pinnacle that rises abruptly from deep water — the feature that generates the whirlpool.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Tobermory and the Sound of Mull
Sound or strait · Salt water
A deep straight channel between Mull and the mainland with a sheltered bay at Tobermory, steep rock sides, strong streams down the sound and deep water throughout.
Strangford Lough and the Ards coast 13 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in Strangford Lough and the Ards coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
Annalong
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small granite harbour beneath the Mourne Mountains, built of the stone quarried above it, over granite boulder ground with deep water close inshore.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Ardglass
Harbour wall · Salt water
A deep working harbour on the County Down coast, with stone and concrete arms over rock and sand, and reef ground running out around St John's Point to the south.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Ballywalter
Rock mark · Salt water
A low rock and boulder shore on the exposed eastern side of the Ards peninsula, with drying scars, gullies and clean sand patches, open to the Irish Sea.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Bangor and Ballyholme
Bay · Salt water
A sand bay on the southern shore of Belfast Lough with a marina at its western end, over sand and mud with rock ledges at Luke's Point.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Belfast Lough
Sea loch · Brackish water
A broad, shallow, soft-bottomed sea lough with a dredged shipping channel down its middle, extensive mudflats at its head and reclaimed industrial land on both shores.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Cranfield and Carlingford Lough
Sea loch · Brackish water
A glacial fjord running fourteen kilometres inland between the Mourne and Cooley mountains, with a shallow bar across its mouth, deep water inside, extensive mussel and oyster ground, and a clean sand shore at Cranfield outside.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything.
Donaghadee pier
Pier · Salt water
A stone harbour and pier on the County Down coast facing the North Channel, with the Copeland Islands and their channel a short distance offshore, over mixed rock and clean ground.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, moving water and currents, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Dundrum Bay and Newcastle
Bay · Salt water
A wide, shallow, south-east facing bay of clean sand backed by the Murlough dune system, with the Mourne Mountains rising immediately behind and a tidal inner bay at Dundrum.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Groomsport
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small stone harbour on the Ards shore at the mouth of Belfast Lough, over rock and sand, looking out at Cockle Island and the Copeland channel.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Kilkeel
Harbour wall · Salt water
One of Ireland's largest fishing ports, with concrete arms enclosing a dredged basin, over granite and sand beneath the seaward face of the Mournes.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
Portavogie
Harbour wall · Salt water
A working fishing harbour on the Ards east coast, with concrete arms over rock and sand and a heavily reef-strewn approach that the harbour exists to shelter.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
The Quoile
River reach · Brackish water
A river impounded behind a tidal barrage at the head of Strangford Lough, converting a tidal estuary into a freshwater pondage with a distinctive transitional ecology.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat safety, cold water shock.
The Strangford narrows
Tidal race · Salt water
An eight-kilometre channel a few hundred metres wide connecting Strangford Lough to the Irish Sea, with a rock and boulder bed, deep scoured holes and the Routen Wheel — a permanent whirlpool feature — partway along it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Atlantic coast of Ireland 13 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Atlantic coast of Ireland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.
Ballybunion strand
Beach · Salt water
A long sand strand backed by cliffs and dunes at the northern edge of Kerry, divided by a rock headland, with clean sand and a bar system offshore and the Cashen river mouth to the north.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Bantry Bay
Bay · Salt water
A deep drowned valley running some forty kilometres inland between the Beara and Sheep's Head peninsulas, with rock shores, deep water close in, sheltered mussel ground and a major fishing port at its outer end.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Brandon Bay
Bay · Salt water
A long north-facing sand bay on the Dingle peninsula backed by dunes and by Ireland's second-highest mountain, with clean surf-graded sand, a persistent bar system and rock at both ends.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Clew Bay
Bay · Salt water
A wide shallow bay filled with several hundred drowned drumlins — small rounded glacial hills whose tops form low wooded islands — producing a maze of shallow channels, sand and mud flats and sheltered water quite unlike the open Atlantic outside it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Galway Bay
Bay · Salt water
A broad shallow bay behind the Aran Islands, with limestone shelving and reef along the northern shore, sand and mud in the inner bay, and extensive oyster and mussel ground in the sheltered corners.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Keem Bay, Achill Island
Bay · Salt water
A steep-sided sand bay at the western end of Achill Island, enclosed between high ground on both flanks, with clean sand in the bay itself and boulder and reef along the edges under the cliffs.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, fishing alone.
Kilkee and the Pollock Holes
Ledge · Salt water
A broad flagstone reef running west from the horseshoe bay at Kilkee, with a set of deep natural rock pools in it that hold water and marine life through the ebb and are covered completely on the flood.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, fishing alone.
Killary Harbour
Sea loch · Salt water
A long, narrow, steep-sided glacial inlet running some sixteen kilometres inland between mountains, deep for most of its length with a shallow sill near the mouth and soft mud in the sheltered reaches.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Loop Head
Headland · Salt water
A long low peninsula of layered sandstone and shale ending in vertical cliffs and stacks at the mouth of the Shannon estuary, with deep water close in and reef running off the point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Mizen Head
Headland · Salt water
The south-westernmost point of the Irish mainland: a narrow spine of old red sandstone ending in vertical cliffs and a rock arch, with very deep water immediately offshore and no shelter anywhere.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Portmagee channel and Valentia
Tidal channel · Salt water
A narrow channel between Valentia Island and the mainland, with a working pier at Portmagee, rock and weed along both shores and deep water in the channel itself, opening west towards the Skelligs.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
The Inis Mór cliffs
Rock mark · Salt water
Horizontally bedded limestone forming a stepped cliff and platform system on the Atlantic side of the largest Aran island, with deep water immediately below and almost no beach anywhere along it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, fishing alone.
The Kenmare River
Estuary · Brackish water
A long drowned valley between two mountain peninsulas — an inlet rather than a river despite the name — with deep water, steep rock shores, sheltered inner reaches and extensive shellfish ground.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, fishing alone, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything. This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
The Causeway and Antrim coast 10 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Causeway and Antrim coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.
Ballycastle
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour on the north Antrim coast facing Rathlin Sound, over sand and basalt rubble, with a very strong tidal stream running past the bay mouth.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Carnlough
Harbour wall · Salt water
A limestone-built harbour in a basalt-walled glen bay on the Antrim coast road, over sand and boulder with reef ground round the points.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Cushendun and Torr Head
Headland · Salt water
The closest point of Ireland to Scotland, where a schist headland projects into the North Channel with very deep water immediately offshore and a race running past it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Glenarm
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small marina and harbour beneath the Antrim escarpment, with chalk and basalt shore either side and deep water close in along the coast road.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Portballintrae
Bay · Salt water
A small basalt-bounded sand bay on the Causeway coast, with rock reef at both horns, a drowned Armada wreck site offshore and clean sand in the middle.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Portrush and Ramore Head
Headland · Salt water
A basalt and dolerite headland projecting north from the Antrim coast, with rock platforms, gullies and the Skerries — a low reef chain — lying a short distance offshore. Hard igneous rock, deep gullies and clean sand in the bays either side.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Portstewart Strand
Beach · Salt water
Two miles of clean Atlantic sand backed by a large dune system, running east from a basalt and schist headland to the Bann mouth, with a strong longshore set.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Rathlin Island and the Sound
Island · Salt water
An L-shaped basalt and chalk island five kilometres off Ballycastle, with high cliffs on the west and north, a raised beach shore on the east, and a five-kilometre sound between it and the mainland.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything. This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Bann mouth at Castlerock
Estuary · Brackish water
The single outflow of Lough Neagh reaching the Atlantic between long training walls, over sand, with a strong ebb and a migratory run passing through it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The River Bush
River reach · Fresh water
A small, clean, gravel-bedded north Antrim river with one of the longest-running salmon research programmes in Europe on it, and a full trapping facility at Bushmills.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Channel shingle coasts 14 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Channel shingle coasts
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Beachy Head and the ledges
Ledge · Salt water
Chalk wave-cut ledges beneath the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, with flint reefs, gullies and heavy kelp, and deep water not far off the point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Bexhill
Beach · Salt water
Shingle over a sandstone and clay platform that uncovers as flat scars at low water, giving mixed rough and clean ground within a short cast.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Brighton Marina
Marina · Salt water
The largest artificial marina in Britain, built out onto a chalk platform, with deep water alongside its outer walls and chalk reef either side.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Camber Sands
Beach · Salt water
The only extensive dune-backed sand beach in East Sussex, lying in the lee of Dungeness where the drift system drops its finer material, drying a very long way at low water.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Deal Pier
Pier · Salt water
A concrete-piled pier running out from a steep shingle beach into the Downs — the sheltered anchorage between the Kent coast and the Goodwin Sands. Shingle and clean sand under the structure, with the Goodwins offshore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Dungeness Point
Shingle bank · Salt water
The largest cuspate shingle foreland in Europe: a vast triangular apron of flint shingle projecting into the Dover Strait, built by longshore drift from both sides. The bank is exceptionally steep-to at the point itself, and shingle continues down below the waterline.
Severe hazards here: slips, trips and falls, cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Eastbourne Pier
Pier · Salt water
A Victorian pleasure pier on a shingle shore immediately east of Beachy Head, with chalk ground running out beneath the shingle towards the headland.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Folkestone harbour arm
Breakwater · Salt water
A stone arm and pier enclosing a small harbour beneath the chalk of the East Cliff, standing over mixed chalk rubble, shingle and sand.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Hastings and the Stade
Beach section · Salt water
A steep shingle beach beneath the sandstone cliffs of the East Hill, and the working shore of the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe. Shingle over sand, with rock scars and reef running out at either end of the bay.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Littlehampton and the Arun
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A narrow river entrance between long training walls with a strong stream on both tides, over sand and shingle, with the Arun running fast and coloured behind it.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Newhaven west arm
Breakwater · Salt water
A long concrete breakwater running south from the Ouse entrance, with deep dredged water in the harbour mouth inside and chalk and shingle ground outside.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Ramsgate harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A large enclosed royal harbour with long stone and concrete arms over sand and chalk, at the corner where the Thames estuary turns into the Dover Strait.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Sandwich Bay
Beach · Salt water
A wide sand and shingle bay backed by the largest dune system in south-east England, over the buried medieval channel of the Wantsum, with the Goodwin Sands lying a few kilometres offshore.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Worthing Pier
Pier · Salt water
A pleasure pier standing over very gently shelving sand and shingle, with clay and chalk reef exposed on the lowest tides some way out.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
The Cornish and Devon coasts 30 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Cornish and Devon coasts
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Berry Head
Headland · Salt water
A Devonian limestone promontory with vertical cliffs dropping into deep water, quarried faces, caves and a reef running out from the point — the deepest easily-reached shore water in Tor Bay.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Brixham breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A long stone breakwater enclosing the northern side of Brixham harbour in Tor Bay, with rock armour on the outer face and deep water alongside much of its length. Mixed rock, weed and clean ground beneath.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Bude breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A short stone breakwater sheltering a canal sea lock, on a shale and sandstone coast whose folded rock beds run out across the beach as sharp parallel reefs.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Cape Cornwall
Headland · Salt water
A granite headland with the Brisons reef offshore, deep water immediately below, and a mine-scarred cliff of killas and granite giving broken, snaggy ground throughout.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Exmouth and the Exe estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A large drying sand and mud estuary behind a curving sand spit, with a narrow deep entrance, extensive mussel beds and a strong ebb through the bar.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Falmouth and Castle Beach
Beach section · Salt water
Small shingle and sand beaches on the Pendennis headland at the mouth of the Carrick Roads, over slate reef, eelgrass and clean patches, with unusually sheltered deep water alongside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Fowey
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A deep, steep-sided drowned valley with no bar, carrying deep water right to the quays, with china-clay jetties downstream and rock ground at the entrance.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Hartland Point
Headland · Salt water
A right-angled corner of the coast where folded Carboniferous sandstone runs out as sharp offshore reefs, taking Atlantic swell on one face and Bristol Channel water on the other.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Hayle estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A small drying sand estuary behind a dune-backed bar, heavily modified by centuries of mining sediment, with a fast narrow entrance and extensive intertidal sand inside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Ilfracombe pier
Pier · Salt water
A stone pier in a rock-bound harbour on the Bristol Channel side of north Devon, where the tidal range is already very large and the harbour dries substantially.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Lizard Point
Headland · Salt water
The southernmost point of mainland Britain: a serpentine and schist headland with steep cliffs, offshore reefs and stacks, and deep water close inshore. The rock is unusual — serpentine weathers to a smooth, slick surface quite unlike granite.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Mevagissey harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A double stone harbour on a slate coast, with the outer arm standing in moderate depth over broken rock and the inner basin drying to sand and mud.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Mount Batten
Breakwater · Salt water
A stone pier and rocky peninsula in the eastern side of Plymouth Sound, over mixed rock, weed and clean ground, sheltered by the detached breakwater outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Newquay and Towan Head
Headland · Salt water
A slate headland with sand bays either side, taking Atlantic swell on its north-west face, with reef and gully ground round the point and clean surf beaches inside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Penzance and Mousehole
Harbour wall · Salt water
Granite harbour walls on the sheltered north shore of Mount's Bay, over sand and eelgrass with granite reef at Mousehole and the causeway to St Michael's Mount to the east.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Plymouth Breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A 1.5-kilometre detached stone breakwater lying across the mouth of Plymouth Sound, with deep water on the seaward side, a rubble apron, and the sheltered Sound behind. Not connected to land: it is reached by boat only.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Porthleven
Harbour wall · Salt water
A narrow harbour cut into a granite and slate coast facing directly into the prevailing Atlantic swell, with a stone pier that regularly takes green water over it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Sennen Cove
Cove · Salt water
A granite-bounded sand cove at the western tip of Cornwall, taking the full Atlantic swell, with heavy surf, granite reef at both horns and clean sand between.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Sidmouth
Beach · Salt water
Steep red shingle beneath New Red Sandstone cliffs, with reef and boulder ground at Chit Rocks to the west and clean ground running east.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Slapton Sands and Torcross
Beach section · Salt water
A four-kilometre shingle barrier in Start Bay, separating the sea from Slapton Ley, the largest natural freshwater lake in south-west England. Coarse shingle steep-to at the Torcross end, easing north, with clean sand offshore and reef at both ends of the bay.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Start Point
Headland · Salt water
A long narrow ridge of mica schist running out into the Channel with a lighthouse at its tip, deep water on both sides and a strong race off the end.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Teignmouth
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A narrow river mouth between a sand spit and the Ness headland, with a notoriously fast and shifting bar, a stone pier, and deep scoured water in the entrance.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The Camel estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A drying sand estuary with the Doom Bar across its mouth — a shifting sandbank that breaks in an Atlantic swell — and extensive clean intertidal sand inside.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The Dart estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A deep drowned valley with steep wooded sides, no bar and no shallow entrance, carrying salt water a long way inland over a mud and gravel bed.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The Helford
Estuary · Brackish water
A wooded drowned valley with a wide mouth and no bar, holding one of the largest native oyster beds and eelgrass meadows in Britain over mud and gravel.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The Tamar estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A deep drowned valley forming the Devon and Cornwall boundary, with soft mud, extensive intertidal, a naval dockyard on one bank and salt reaching a long way upstream.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The Taw and Torridge estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
Two rivers meeting behind a shared bar at the head of Bideford Bay, with extensive sand and mudflats, saltmarsh, and the great dune systems of Braunton Burrows and Northam Burrows either side. Sand throughout; almost no hard ground.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Torquay harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
Stone harbour arms on the sheltered northern side of Tor Bay, standing over a mixture of clean sand, weed and limestone rubble.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Trevose Head
Headland · Salt water
A slate promontory with sheer cliffs and offshore stacks projecting into the Atlantic, with deep water close in on the north face and clean sand bays to the south.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Woolacombe and Baggy Point
Beach · Salt water
Three miles of clean Atlantic surf sand between two slate headlands, with a bar and rip system through the surf zone and reef ground round Baggy Point at the northern end.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
The English canal network 10 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The English canal network
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
The Bridgewater Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
The first true canal in Britain, lock-free along its main line, with a wide clay channel, uniform level and heavily urbanised banks through much of Greater Manchester.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A ship canal rather than a narrow canal: wide, deep and straight, built to bypass the Severn's tidal reaches, with steep hard banks and considerable depth.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Grand Union Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
The principal canal of the English system, running from London to Birmingham with branches: a uniform artificial channel of clay puddle and silt, typically narrow, with a defined boat channel down the middle, shallow shelves at each side and a towpath one bank.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Kennet and Avon Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A broad canal braided with the River Kennet for much of its length, so that navigation and river alternate, giving both still canal pounds and flowing river sections.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
The longest single canal in Britain, crossing the Pennines through locks and long summit pounds, with a clay bed, uniform shallow depth and a boat channel down the middle.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Llangollen Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A narrow feeder canal carrying water from the Dee across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, with a noticeable current towards the summit and clearer water than most canals.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Montgomery Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A partially restored rural canal on the Welsh border, much of it isolated from the main network, with exceptionally clear water and nationally protected aquatic plant communities.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Oxford Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A narrow early contour canal that winds extensively to follow the land, giving unusual bank variety, shallow uniform depth and heavy summer weed.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Shropshire Union Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A comparatively straight, deep and wide canal built late in the canal age, running through long cuttings and embankments with clearer water than most of the network.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The Trent and Mersey Canal
Canal section · Fresh water
A narrow contour canal linking the two rivers through the Potteries and Cheshire, with a clay bed, steady boat traffic and heavily coloured water in summer.
Severe hazards here: overhead power lines, drowning and immersion.
The English trout reservoirs 11 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The English trout reservoirs
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Bewl Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
A long, branching, wooded reservoir on the Kent and Sussex border in a Wealden clay valley, with many arms, drowned hedgerows and a soft bed.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Blagdon Lake
Reservoir · Fresh water
The oldest reservoir trout fishery in England, a narrow lake in a wooded Mendip valley with a marl bed, dense insect life and a strong fly-fishing tradition.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Carsington Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
A pumped-storage reservoir in a limestone valley in Derbyshire, with a long dam, shallow bays and a level that varies substantially with the pumping cycle.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Chew Valley Lake
Reservoir · Fresh water
A large, shallow, very fertile lowland reservoir in a limestone catchment, with extensive weed growth, a soft bed and a nationally known pike and trout fishery.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Draycote Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
An open, wind-exposed Warwickshire reservoir with a hard-edged dam and long shallow banks, in a low landscape that gives it a very long fetch.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Farmoor Reservoir
Reservoir · Fresh water
Two concrete-banked basins beside the Thames in Oxfordshire, steep-sided and hard-edged with little natural margin, and a fishery shaped entirely by that engineering.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Grafham Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
A large pumped-storage reservoir in a shallow clay valley, with long open banks, a dam wall at one end and drowned hedge lines that still structure the fish population.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Ladybower Reservoir
Reservoir · Fresh water
A deep upland reservoir in a steep gritstone valley in the Peak District, with acidic peaty inflow, steep drowned hillsides and clear cold water.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Pitsford Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
A shallow, fertile Northamptonshire reservoir divided by a causeway, with a nature-reserve arm, extensive weed and a strong buzzer hatch that shapes its fishing.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Rutland Water
Reservoir · Fresh water
One of the largest artificial lakes in western Europe: a pumped-storage reservoir filling a shallow valley, with two long arms, extensive shallow bays, deeper water near the dam and a bed of drowned farmland with the old hedge and field structure still present beneath it.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
Wimbleball Lake
Reservoir · Fresh water
A deep, steep-sided reservoir on Exmoor with a dam in a narrow gorge, cold clear acidic water and a fishery shaped by its altitude and depth.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety, overhead power lines.
The Fens and their drains 9 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Fens and their drains
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
The Counter Drain
Drain · Fresh water
A narrow shallow drain running beside the South Forty Foot across the south Lincolnshire fen, heavily weeded in summer with a very uniform profile.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Forty Foot Drain
Drain · Fresh water
A seventeenth-century drainage channel running straight across the fen, shallow and uniform, with high steep banks and reed fringes where the level allows.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Great Ouse at Ely
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, deep, slow, embanked navigation running across the peat fen with almost no natural feature, uniform depth and level controlled by pumping and sluices.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Middle Level Main Drain
Drain · Fresh water
The principal artificial artery of the Middle Level system, wide and deep for a drain, running to a tidal outfall at St Germans with a level set by one of the largest pumping stations in Europe.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Nene at Peterborough
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, deep, slow embanked river running through the city towards the fen, with heavy boat traffic, hard banks and a level held by locks and sluices.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Old Bedford River and the Delph
Drain · Fresh water
Two straight seventeenth-century artificial channels running parallel across the Fens with the Ouse Washes flood storage area between them: uniform width, steep clay banks, silt bed, and no natural features at all.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Relief Channel
Drain · Fresh water
A wide, deep, artificial flood channel running beside the Great Ouse to King's Lynn, with steep uniform banks, sluice-controlled level and unusual depth for a fen water.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Sixteen Foot Drain
Drain · Fresh water
A dead-straight artificial channel across the black peat fen with steep smooth clay banks, uniform shallow depth and a level set entirely by pumping.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Welland at Spalding
River reach · Fresh water
A straight embanked fen river with high banks, uniform depth and a level held by the Coronation Channel and the tidal sluice below the town.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Firth of Clyde 9 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Firth of Clyde
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Campbeltown Loch
Sea loch · Salt water
A sheltered sea loch on the east side of Kintyre with an island across its mouth, soft mud and sand inside and rock ground round the entrance.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Dunoon and the Holy Loch
Sea loch · Salt water
A short shallow sea loch off the upper Clyde with soft mud and sand, a marina at its head, and the deeper firth channel immediately outside its mouth at Dunoon.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Girvan
Harbour wall · Salt water
A river-mouth harbour on the south Ayrshire coast over sand and shingle, looking out at Ailsa Craig's granite dome ten miles offshore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Largs and the Cumbrae channel
Sound or strait · Salt water
The channel between the Ayrshire coast and Great Cumbrae, with a deep trench, a marina at Largs and one of the longest-running marine biological stations in Britain on the island shore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Loch Fyne
Sea loch · Salt water
The longest sea loch in Scotland, running some sixty-five kilometres from the Sound of Bute into Argyll, with a deep central channel, soft mud basins, rock shores and extensive shellfish ground.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything.
Loch Long
Sea loch · Salt water
A long narrow fjordic loch running north from the Clyde between steep hillsides, deep throughout, with a naval facility partway along it and very little shallow margin anywhere.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
The Kyles of Bute
Sound or strait · Salt water
A narrow winding channel separating Bute from the Cowal peninsula, with a shallow rock narrows at the Burnt Islands, deep water either side and strong streams through the constriction.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
The Mull of Kintyre
Headland · Salt water
A steep hard headland at the southern tip of Kintyre, twenty kilometres from Ireland across the North Channel, with deep water close in and a powerful race running past it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, boat safety.
Troon and Ayr
Beach · Salt water
Long clean sand beaches on the Ayrshire coast with harbours at both towns, over sand and mud, looking west across the firth to Arran with the deeper channel some way offshore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
The Gower and Carmarthen Bay 11 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Gower and Carmarthen Bay
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Amroth
Beach · Salt water
A sand and shingle beach where a submerged forest of ancient stumps uncovers on the lowest tides, at the western end of Carmarthen Bay.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Burry Port
Harbour wall · Salt water
A drying dock and harbour on the north shore of the Burry Inlet, with training walls over sand and mud and the great cockle beds of the inlet immediately outside.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Mumbles Pier
Pier · Salt water
A Victorian iron pier at Mumbles Head, at the eastern corner of Gower where Swansea Bay meets the Bristol Channel, standing over limestone reef and clean sand with the tidal islands of the head alongside.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Oxwich Bay
Bay · Salt water
A wide south-facing sand bay on Gower held between two limestone points, with dune and marsh behind, clean sand throughout and reef ground at both horns.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Pendine Sands
Beach · Salt water
Seven miles of hard, flat, very gently shelving sand, firm enough that land speed records were set on it, with the Taf and Towy estuaries at its eastern end.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: Part of this shore lies within an active military firing range whose schedule closes it. Check the current firing times with the range authority before going.
Port Eynon Point
Headland · Salt water
A Carboniferous limestone point at the southern tip of Gower, with a wave-cut platform, caves, deep gullies and a strong stream running past it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Rhossili and Worms Head
Headland · Salt water
A serpentine tidal island of Carboniferous limestone at the western tip of Gower, reached by a boulder causeway that uncovers for a few hours either side of low water, with a three-mile clean sand beach running north from it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, slips, trips and falls.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Saundersfoot
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour on the sheltered Carmarthen Bay side of Pembrokeshire, over sand and Coal Measures rock, drying substantially at low water.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Swansea Bay
Bay · Salt water
A large shallow sand bay in the outer Bristol Channel, with a very large tidal range, extensive drying sand and the Tawe's training walls at its northern corner.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
The Towy and Taf estuaries
Estuary · Brackish water
Three rivers meeting behind a common sand-bar mouth in Carmarthen Bay, with vast drying sandbanks, saltmarsh, cockle ground and a strong ebb through the channels.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Whiteford Point and the Burry Inlet
Estuary · Brackish water
A large drying sand and mud estuary between Gower and Llanelli, holding one of the most important cockle fisheries in Britain, with a cast-iron lighthouse standing on the sands at Whiteford.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, slips, trips and falls, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: The cockle beds here are a regulated fishery and shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety, opened and closed on monitoring results. Check the current classification and any permit requirement with the local authority and the regulator before taking anything.
The Hampshire chalk streams 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Hampshire chalk streams
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
The Hampshire Avon at Ringwood
River reach · Fresh water
A chalk-fed river that behaves like a big coarse river in its lower reaches: wide, gravel-bedded, weedy and fast, with a legendary specimen-fishing history.
The Itchen at Winchester
River reach · Fresh water
A classic chalk stream through a cathedral city, running clear and even over gravel with dense ranunculus, braided into carriers and hatch pools among the water meadows.
The Kennet at Newbury
River reach · Fresh water
A chalk-fed river braided with the canal navigation, giving clear gravel runs, weedy glides and slower canalised sections within the same reach.
The Test at Stockbridge
River reach · Fresh water
The archetypal chalk stream: a shallow, clear, gravel-bedded river braided into multiple carriers through a wide flood meadow, with dense ranunculus growth, marl and silt margins and hatch pools at the old mill structures.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Isle of Man 5 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Isle of Man
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The Isle of Man is a Crown dependency with its own fisheries legislation and its own licensing, separate from the United Kingdom's. Access, permits, seasons and measures apply and change. Check the current position with the Manx government's fisheries directorate and with the landowner or harbour authority before going.
Calf Sound
Tidal race · Salt water
The narrow channel between the southern tip of the Isle of Man and the Calf of Man, with the islet of Kitterland in the middle of it, rock and boulder ground on both shores and deep scoured water in the channel.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
Douglas Head
Headland · Salt water
The rocky headland immediately south of Douglas harbour, with slate cliffs, deep water below and the harbour breakwaters and the Battery Pier on its northern side.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Langness Point
Headland · Salt water
A low limestone and slate peninsula running south from the island's southern shore, ending in a wave-cut platform with reef and boulder ground offshore and deep water within a short cast of the point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.
Peel breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A stone breakwater enclosing the harbour on the island's west coast, with deep water on the seaward face, sand inside the harbour and a red sandstone headland and castle island beyond it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Port St Mary and Alfred Pier
Pier · Salt water
A sheltered harbour in the island's south-west with a substantial stone pier, deep water alongside its outer end, and rock, kelp and boulder ground on the coast towards the Calf.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
The Lake District lakes 6 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Lake District lakes
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Bassenthwaite Lake
Lake · Fresh water
A shallow, silt-floored lake at the northern end of the Derwent system, the only water in the district actually called a lake, with a vendace population of national importance.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Coniston Water
Lake · Fresh water
A straight, deep, north-south ribbon lake beneath the Old Man of Coniston, with steep sides, a deep central trough and a long fetch along its axis.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Derwent Water
Lake · Fresh water
A broad, shallow, island-studded lake in a wide glacial trough, with soft margins, extensive shallow bays and a much gentler profile than the district's ribbon lakes.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Esthwaite Water
Lake · Fresh water
A small, shallow, unusually fertile lowland lake between Windermere and Coniston, one of the most studied lakes in Britain and rich in weed and coarse fish.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Ullswater
Lake · Fresh water
A long, deep, zig-zag glacial ribbon lake with steep sides and three distinct basins, cold at depth year-round and holding a schelly population found in only a handful of lakes.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Windermere
Lake · Fresh water
England's largest natural lake: a ribbon lake gouged by ice into a north–south glacial trough, seventeen kilometres long, with two basins separated by a shallow sill and islands, rocky shores and deep cold water.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Moray Firth 17 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Moray Firth
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Banff and the Deveron mouth
Estuary · Brackish water
A small river mouth over gravel and sand at the head of a bay on the Moray Firth's southern shore, with rock scars either side and a migratory run through the estuary.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Buckie
Harbour wall · Salt water
A large stone and concrete harbour on the Moray Firth's southern shore, over sand and rock, with a low rocky coast of quartzite and schist running east and west.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Chanonry Point
Headland · Salt water
A shingle and sand spit projecting from the Black Isle into the inner Moray Firth, constricting the firth to under a kilometre against the matching spit at Fort George. Shingle at the point, sand and mud either side.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Duncansby Head and the Pentland Firth
Tidal race · Salt water
The north-eastern corner of mainland Britain: Old Red Sandstone cliffs and stacks above a strait roughly ten kilometres wide separating the mainland from Orkney, with an irregular rock bed and sills that force the flow.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Findhorn Bay
Bay · Brackish water
A large, almost entirely drying tidal basin behind a shingle spit, filling and emptying through a single narrow entrance with a very strong stream through it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Fraserburgh
Harbour wall · Salt water
A large working fishing harbour at the north-eastern corner of the Scottish mainland, with concrete arms over sand and rock and the exposed Kinnaird Head immediately west.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Girdle Ness and Cove Bay
Rock mark · Salt water
Hard granite and schist headland and cliff south of the Dee mouth, with boulder aprons, deep gullies and clean sand between. The rock is Aberdeen granite: hard, grippy dry and slick wet.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Helmsdale
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small stone harbour at a river mouth on the Sutherland coast, over sand and rock, with a steep shingle shore and the open Moray Firth outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Lossiemouth
Beach · Salt water
Extensive clean sand beaches either side of the Lossie's piered mouth, backed by dunes and forest, with the shallow inner Moray Firth offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Montrose and the South Esk
Estuary · Brackish water
A tidal basin of nearly eight square kilometres emptying and filling through a single narrow entrance, producing one of the strongest estuary streams on the east coast.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Nairn
Beach · Salt water
A long clean sand beach with a small piered harbour at the river mouth, on the sheltered inner Moray Firth where the water is shallow and the range modest.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Peterhead breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
The massive granite breakwaters enclosing Peterhead Bay, one of the largest artificial harbours in Britain, with deep water inside and out and rock armour on the seaward faces.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Stonehaven
Harbour wall · Salt water
A stone harbour in a shingle bay between two hard conglomerate headlands, with deep water off the points and heavy reef ground beneath the cliffs south towards Dunnottar.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Cromarty Firth
Estuary · Brackish water
A deep sheltered firth entered between two steep sandstone headlands — the Sutors — with soft mud and sand inside, oil-platform moorings, and resident bottlenose dolphins at the mouth.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Dornoch Firth
Estuary · Brackish water
A shallow drying firth of sand and mud flats with a bar across its mouth, extensive saltmarsh, and one of the most important migratory salmon systems on the east coast running through it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Ythan estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A narrow drying sand estuary behind the Forvie dune system, with fast channel streams, extensive mussel beds and one of the largest eider colonies in Britain on its banks.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Wick
Harbour wall · Salt water
A large stone harbour built for the herring fishery, on a hard flagstone coast of horizontally bedded Caithness sandstone with vertical cliffs and geos either side.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Norfolk and Suffolk sandbank coast 17 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Norfolk and Suffolk sandbank coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Aldeburgh
Beach · Salt water
A steep shingle beach with deep water close in, at the northern end of the Orford Ness drift system and immediately above the point where the Alde turns south behind the spit.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Blakeney Point
Sandbank · Salt water
A six-kilometre shingle spit built westward by longshore drift, deflecting the Glaven's outfall and enclosing a marsh and creek system, with a fast narrow harbour channel at its root.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Brancaster and the north Norfolk marshes
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A barrier coast of shingle ridges, dune islands and saltmarsh with a network of tidal creeks behind, draining through narrow harbour channels that run hard on both tides.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Cromer Pier
Pier · Salt water
A Victorian pleasure pier on iron piles standing over clean sand with chalk and flint reef — the Cromer Shoal chalk beds — lying immediately offshore and inshore of it. Sand under the pier, hard broken chalk within casting range.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice. This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Dunwich
Beach · Salt water
Steep shingle over the drowned site of a medieval port, with a soft crag cliff to the north and heavy longshore drift carrying material south.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Gorleston pier
Pier · Salt water
The southern training wall of the Yare entrance, running out over sand beside a dredged channel with strong stream on both tides.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Great Yarmouth north beach
Beach section · Salt water
Wide flat sand beside the mouth of the Yare, with the North Denes and the deep Yarmouth Roads channel offshore between the shore and the Scroby Sands.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Happisburgh
Beach · Salt water
Sand and shingle beneath a rapidly retreating soft cliff of glacial till, with failed timber revetment along much of it and a shifting bar offshore.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Kessingland
Beach · Salt water
A steep shingle bank over sand at the seaward end of a shingle-dominated stretch, with a distinct step at the waterline and deeper water closer in than on the Norfolk sand to the north.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Lowestoft Claremont Pier
Pier · Salt water
A timber pleasure pier standing over clean sand at the most easterly point in Britain, close to the deep water of the Stanford Channel between the shore and the offshore banks.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Orford Ness and Shingle Street
Shingle bank · Salt water
A sixteen-kilometre shingle spit built by longshore drift, which has deflected the mouth of the Alde and Ore fifteen kilometres south of where the river reaches the coast. Steep-to shingle on the seaward face, a river and marsh system behind, and a narrow, fast, shifting mouth at Shingle Street.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Sea Palling
Beach · Salt water
Clean sand held in a series of artificial bays behind nine offshore rock reefs, which is unusual ground for this coast: hard structure in a place that has none naturally.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Sheringham
Beach section · Salt water
Steep shingle over a chalk platform, with the Cromer Shoal chalk beds — the largest chalk reef in Europe — lying immediately offshore and outcropping on the beach at low water.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Sizewell
Beach · Salt water
Shingle over sand beside two power station outfalls and their offshore intake rigs, which give this stretch a locally warmed plume and a set of hard structures on an otherwise featureless coast.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
Southwold Pier
Pier · Salt water
A rebuilt pleasure pier over clean sand and shingle, just north of the Blyth entrance and its training walls.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
The Deben estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A drowned valley entered over a shifting shingle bar, with steep-to shingle at the mouth giving way to mud, saltmarsh and oyster ground upstream.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
The Orwell and Stour estuaries
Estuary · Brackish water
Two drowned valleys meeting at Harwich behind a common mouth, with soft mud, extensive saltmarsh, a deep dredged container-port channel and very heavy commercial traffic.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, boat safety.
The Norfolk Broads 6 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Norfolk Broads
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Barton Broad
Broad · Fresh water
A shallow peat-dug lake on the River Ant, extensively restored by sediment removal, with reed margins, a soft bed and clearer water than most of the Broads system.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
Hickling Broad
Broad · Brackish water
The largest of the Norfolk Broads: a shallow, wide, wind-exposed lake formed by medieval peat digging, with reed-fringed margins, a soft silt bed and connections through Heigham Sound to the Thurne system.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Ormesby Broad
Broad · Fresh water
Part of the isolated Trinity Broads group, cut off from the navigation and therefore boat-free and much clearer, with dense weed and a soft peat bed.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Thurne
River reach · Brackish water
A short, wide, saline-influenced Broads river running from Hickling to the Bure, with reed margins, a soft bed and a documented history of salt-driven fish kills.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The Waveney at Beccles
River reach · Brackish water
A wide, slow, tidal Broads river with reed and marsh margins, a soft silt bed and a salinity gradient that moves substantially with river flow.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
Wroxham Broad
Broad · Fresh water
A shallow broad off the River Bure with heavy summer boat traffic, soft silt bed, reed and alder carr margins and a well-known bream and roach population.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion.
The north-east England coast 21 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The north-east England coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
Amble and the Coquet estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A small piered river mouth over sand and mud, with Coquet Island's low sandstone reef a mile offshore and a drying inner harbour behind the training walls.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Bamburgh and Budle Bay
Beach · Salt water
Clean sand beach beneath the dolerite crag the castle stands on, with the Whin Sill outcropping as low reef at either end and the drying sand and mud of Budle Bay behind the northern point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Beadnell Bay
Bay · Salt water
A wide crescent of clean sand between two dolerite points, with a limestone reef running out from the southern horn and the only west-facing harbour on the English east coast at its northern end.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Blyth South Harbour breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A long stone and concrete arm enclosing a working river mouth, with deep dredged water inside and rock armour over clean sand outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Boulmer
Rock mark · Salt water
A low sandstone and limestone scar coast with a shallow rock-fringed haven, weed-covered gullies and clean sand patches between the scars.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Craster and Cullernose Point
Rock mark · Salt water
Columnar dolerite of the Whin Sill forming a low cliff and a jointed rock platform, with deep gullies between the columns and kelp over broken ground immediately offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Druridge Bay
Beach · Salt water
Eleven kilometres of gently shelving clean sand backed by dunes and by the flooded workings of former opencast coal, with no rock anywhere along it and a bar running the length of the surf zone.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Hartlepool Headland
Headland · Salt water
A limestone promontory projecting east into the North Sea, ringed by rough broken rock, scars and gullies, with small sand beaches tucked either side and a heavily engineered harbour arm to the south.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Holy Island and the Lindisfarne causeway
Island · Salt water
A low sandstone and dune island separated from the Northumberland mainland by two miles of drying sand and mudflat, with a metalled causeway across it. Hard rock and boulder on the north and east shores, clean sand elsewhere, and vast intertidal flats to the south and west.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Newbiggin Bay
Bay · Salt water
A shallow sand bay between two low sandstone points, notable for having been artificially renourished with imported sand and for the offshore breakwater that now shelters it.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Redcar
Beach · Salt water
A long sand beach interrupted by Redcar Rocks, a hard dolomite scar drying well out at low water, with the Tees estuary and its industrial channel immediately to the west.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Saltburn
Beach · Salt water
Sand over a shale platform beneath the highest cliffs on the English east coast, with the pier standing on the transition between the soft Holderness-fed sand to the south-east and the hard Jurassic ground north-west.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Seaham
Beach · Salt water
A shingle and sand shore over magnesian limestone, still carrying the coarse black spoil of a century of colliery tipping which gives this coast its distinctive dark beaches and hard bottom.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Seahouses harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small working harbour with stone piers over clean sand, sheltered behind the Farne Islands' reef platform which breaks the worst of the swell a mile offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
South Gare
Breakwater · Salt water
A three-kilometre breakwater built of slag from the Teesside furnaces, running north across the Tees mouth with deep dredged channel inside and boulder armour over sand outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
South Shields and the Tyne piers
Pier · Salt water
The southern of the two great stone arms enclosing the Tyne entrance, with dredged deep water in the river mouth inside and rock armour over sand outside.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay
Island · Salt water
A small limestone island reached by a concrete causeway that covers on the flood, with a wave-cut platform, rock pools and a low reef running north from it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Sunderland Roker Pier
Pier · Salt water
A curving stone breakwater with a lighthouse at its head, enclosing the Wear entrance over mixed sand and rock armour.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
The Tees estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A heavily engineered river mouth between training walls, with reclaimed industrial land on both banks, extensive intertidal mud at Seal Sands and one of the most closely monitored water-quality recoveries in England.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Tynemouth North Pier
Pier · Salt water
A massive stone breakwater running east from the north side of the Tyne mouth, with a rock and boulder apron along its outer face and dredged deep water in the river entrance inside it.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, slips, trips and falls, cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Whitburn and Souter
Rock mark · Salt water
Magnesian limestone cliffs and a broken rock platform with stacks and caves, the hardest ground between the Tyne and the Wear and unusually clear water for this coast.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
The Republic of Ireland 15 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Republic of Ireland
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.
Baltimore and Sherkin
Harbour wall · Salt water
A sheltered natural harbour behind Sherkin Island in west Cork, with a working pier, rock and weed shores, and a narrow entrance past the white beacon into open water and the Fastnet ground beyond.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Carlingford Lough
Sea loch · Salt water
A glacial sea inlet between the Mourne and Cooley mountains with a narrow entrance, deep water inside, extensive oyster and mussel ground on the flats and a shipping channel through the middle.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything.
Carne and the Rosslare shore
Beach · Salt water
A shingle and sand shore at the south-eastern corner of Ireland, backed by low soft cliff, with sandbanks offshore and a working ferry port a few kilometres north.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock.
Cork Harbour and Roches Point
Estuary · Brackish water
One of the largest natural harbours in the world: a drowned river valley with a narrow deep entrance at Roches Point opening into a wide sheltered basin, with mud and sand flats in the upper reaches and a working commercial port throughout.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Dunmore East
Harbour wall · Salt water
A working fishing harbour at the mouth of Waterford estuary, with a substantial breakwater on old red sandstone cliffs, deep water alongside the outer arm and rock and weed either side.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Hook Head
Headland · Salt water
A long low limestone peninsula ending in a wave-cut platform of fossil-bearing rock, with reef running well offshore, deep water close in and one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world on the point.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.
Howth pier
Pier · Salt water
A working harbour on the north side of the Howth peninsula, with two stone piers enclosing it, deep water off the outer arm and rock and kelp along the peninsula's north-facing shore.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Killybegs harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
Ireland's largest fishing port, in a deep sheltered inlet off Donegal Bay, with substantial quay walls, deep water alongside and rock and weed shores outside the harbour mouth.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
Lough Conn
Lough · Fresh water
A large lough in north Mayo with a limestone bed in the northern half and more acid ground to the south, shallow shelving margins, extensive shallow bays and a connection to Lough Cullin at its southern end.
Malin Head
Headland · Salt water
The northernmost point of the Irish mainland: a quartzite headland with stepped rock platforms, storm beaches of large boulders above the high-water line, and deep water immediately offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
The Grand Canal, Dublin reach
Canal section · Fresh water
A late-eighteenth-century navigation running west from Dublin, with stone-lined banks, a controlled level, locks at intervals and dense marginal weed through the summer in the urban reaches.
The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay
Breakwater · Brackish water
A granite sea wall running some four kilometres out into Dublin Bay from the Poolbeg shore, built in the eighteenth century to hold the Liffey channel open, with deep water on the channel side and drying sand on the other.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
The Moy at Ballina
River reach · Fresh water
The lowest reach of the River Moy where it runs through Ballina to the tidal water of Killala Bay: a wide, fast, gravel-bedded river confined between town walls, with a weir and a succession of streamy runs below it.
Wexford Harbour and the Slobs
Estuary · Brackish water
A wide shallow estuary at the mouth of the Slaney, largely drying at low water, with reclaimed polder land — the Slobs — behind the north and south shores and a shifting bar across the entrance.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
Wicklow Head
Headland · Salt water
A rocky headland of ancient metamorphic rock projecting into the Irish Sea, with reef and boulder ground off the point, deep water close in and a substantial tidal race offshore.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms.
The River Spey 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The River Spey
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
Loch Insh and the Spey lochs
Loch · Fresh water
A shallow loch on the Spey's course in Badenoch, joined to the extensive Insh Marshes floodplain, with peat-stained water and a natural flood storage function.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Findhorn at Forres
River reach · Fresh water
A fast, spate-prone river running through a red sandstone gorge to a wide gravel floodplain, rising and falling faster than almost any comparable Scottish river.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Spey at Aberlour
River reach · Fresh water
A fast, clean, gravel-and-boulder reach of the middle Spey through Strathspey, with long streamy glides, defined necks and tails, unstable shifting gravel bars and very little slack water anywhere.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Spey at Grantown
River reach · Fresh water
The upper-middle Spey running fast over gravel through Strathspey below the Cairngorms, with long streamy glides, unstable bars and a strong summer sea trout run.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The River Tay 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The River Tay
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
Loch Tay
Loch · Fresh water
A deep glacial ribbon loch in a steep Perthshire valley, feeding the largest river discharge in Britain, with a substantial salmon run entering through it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Tay at Dunkeld
River reach · Fresh water
A broad, deep, powerful reach below the Tummel confluence running through a wooded Perthshire gorge, with rock ledges, deep holding water and a substantial spring run.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Tay at Stanley
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, powerful, deep reach of the lower Tay above Perth, carrying the largest volume of water of any river in Britain over a bed of gravel, boulder and bedrock, with defined streams, deep holding water and rock ledges.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Tummel and Loch Faskally
River reach · Fresh water
A dam-controlled river and its impounded loch at Pitlochry, with a fish pass and observation chamber, and a flow set by hydroelectric release rather than by rainfall.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The River Thames 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The River Thames
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Marlow weir pool, River Thames
Weir pool · Fresh water
A large navigation weir and lock on the middle Thames with a deeply scoured pool, a fast broken tongue and a long slower tail below it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The Thames at Caversham
River reach · Fresh water
A wide weir-controlled navigation reach at the Kennet confluence, with a deep main channel, marina moorings and slacks behind the islands.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The Thames at Teddington
Weir pool · Brackish water
The normal tidal limit of the River Thames: a large weir and lock complex where the freshwater river meets the tideway, with a deep scoured weir pool, a fish pass and an abrupt change in the whole character of the water below it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, drowning and immersion, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
The Thames at Windsor
River reach · Fresh water
A broad, deep, slow navigation reach past the castle with heavy boat traffic, hard embanked banks in places and long stretches of overhanging bankside trees.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The River Trent 5 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The River Trent
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Gunthorpe weir pool, River Trent
Weir pool · Fresh water
A navigation weir and lock on the middle Trent, with a scoured pool beneath the sill, a fast broken tongue of water, hard gravel and stone in the pool and a slower tail below it.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, drowning and immersion, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
The tidal Trent at Dunham
River reach · Brackish water
The tidal Trent below Cromwell weir, running brown and fast over sand and silt between high flood banks, with a genuine tidal bore — the aegir — on the largest spring tides.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The Trent at Burton Joyce
River reach · Fresh water
A wide gravel-and-sand reach of the middle Trent below Nottingham, with hard gravel runs, defined creases against the far bank and a heavily engineered flood channel behind both banks.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The Trent at Collingham
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, powerful, gravel-and-sand-bedded reach of the lower non-tidal Trent between Newark and Cromwell weir, with hard gravel runs, deeper slacks against the far bank and a heavily engineered flood channel.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, moving water and currents, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
The Trent at Newark Dyke
River reach · Fresh water
The navigation cut and the natural channel dividing round Newark, giving two very different waters within a few hundred metres: a deep slow dyke and a faster gravel river.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
The River Wye 4 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The River Wye
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
The Elan Valley reservoirs
Reservoir · Fresh water
A chain of Victorian masonry-dammed reservoirs in a steep mid-Wales valley, with cold, acidic, very soft water, steep drowned hillsides and high rainfall.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Wye at Hereford
River reach · Fresh water
A wide gravel-bedded reach through the city, with long shallow glides, deeper bends and the summer low-flow and algal problems that have made this river a national water-quality case.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Wye at Monmouth
River reach · Fresh water
The lower Wye below the Monnow confluence, deeper and slower than the reaches above, running towards the tidal limit through a wooded valley.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents.
The Wye at Symonds Yat
River reach · Fresh water
An incised meander of the lower Wye through a limestone gorge, with a genuine rapid at the Yat, hard rock and gravel bed, deep pools between the shallows and steep wooded sides.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Severn Estuary 19 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Severn Estuary
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Aberthaw
Beach section · Salt water
A shingle and boulder shore over flat lias ledges beside a power station outfall, on the Glamorgan heritage coast where the rock steps down to the sea in horizontal beds.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Aust and the Severn crossings
Estuary mark · Brackish water
The narrowest point of the upper Severn estuary, where the bridge crossings span mud, rock ledges and a channel carrying the second-largest tidal range on earth at several knots.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Barry Island and Nells Point
Headland · Salt water
A limestone headland between two sand bays at the edge of a large dock complex, with rock ledges, deep gullies and one of the largest tidal ranges in the world running past it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Brean Down
Headland · Brackish water
A carboniferous limestone ridge projecting nearly two kilometres west into the Severn Estuary, an outlier of the Mendips surrounded by the estuary's mud and sand. Hard rock on the down itself, deep soft mud on both flanks.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Clevedon Pier
Pier · Salt water
A slender iron pier reaching from a rock shore into the deep central channel of the Severn, standing in the fastest and most heavily silt-laden water on the English side.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Hinkley Point and Stolford
Beach section · Salt water
A flat, ledged lias rock foreshore extending a very long way out into the inner Bristol Channel, with mud between the ledges, beside power station outfalls and their warmed plume.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Llandegfedd Reservoir
Reservoir · Fresh water
A fertile lowland reservoir in a shallow Monmouthshire valley, with weedy bays, a soft bed and a long-established stocked trout fishery.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Lynmouth
Cove · Salt water
A boulder and shingle shore at the mouth of two steep Exmoor rivers, beneath wooded cliffs, where the Bristol Channel's range is already over eight metres.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Minehead
Beach · Salt water
Sand and shingle beneath a wooded headland, with a harbour arm at the western end and an increasingly muddy, increasingly tidal shore running east into the inner channel.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Nash Point
Headland · Salt water
Layered Lias limestone and shale cliffs stepping down to a wave-cut platform of the same rock, with the Nash Sands — a long shifting sandbank — lying offshore across the tide.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Penarth Pier
Pier · Salt water
An Edwardian pier standing over deep brown water in the inner Bristol Channel beside the Cardiff Bay barrage, with mud and rock beneath and an enormous tidal range.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Porlock Weir
Harbour wall · Salt water
A tiny shingle-bar harbour behind a breached storm ridge, with a boulder and shingle foreshore and an extensive drying rock scar in front of it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Port Talbot breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A very long rock-armoured breakwater enclosing a deep-water tidal harbour, standing over sand in a heavily industrial stretch of the Bristol Channel.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Porthcawl breakwater
Breakwater · Salt water
A short stone breakwater with a lighthouse, at the corner of a limestone headland, standing over rock and sand where the Bristol Channel's range is already very large.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Portishead
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A rock and mud point at the corner where the Severn narrows towards Avonmouth, with a very strong stream past the point and the deep shipping channel close inshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Sker Point and Rest Bay
Rock mark · Salt water
A jagged Carboniferous limestone reef running out from a dune coast, with deep gullies, drying scars and clean sand bays either side of it.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Usk and Newport
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A deeply incised muddy tidal river in the inner Severn, with the second-largest tidal range on earth producing vertical mud banks, a transporter bridge and a strong bore-like flood.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Watchet harbour
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small harbour on the alabaster and lias cliffs of west Somerset, drying completely at low water onto a flat rock and mud scar that extends a long way out.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Weston-super-Mare
Beach · Salt water
A vast, near-level bay of sand over deep soft mud, drying more than a kilometre, with two piers and a tidal range among the largest anywhere.
Severe hazards here: drowning and immersion, tides and being cut off, moving water and currents, cold water shock.
The Shannon system 2 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Shannon system
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.
Lough Derg on the Shannon
Lough · Fresh water
The largest lake on the Shannon: a long limestone lough some forty kilometres from end to end, shallow and reedy in its bays, deeper in the main channel, with a navigation running through it and a hydroelectric barrage at its outflow.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, boat safety.
The Shannon at Athlone
River reach · Fresh water
The Shannon where it leaves Lough Ree and runs through Athlone: a wide slow navigable river with a weir and lock, quay walls through the town, and extensive reed and callow margins above and below it.
Severe hazards here: boat safety, cold water shock.
The Solent and the Hampshire coast 13 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Solent and the Hampshire coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Bembridge Ledge
Ledge · Salt water
A long limestone and chalk reef running east from the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, drying extensively at low water and continuing well offshore as a submerged hazard. Hard rock, gullies, weed and heavy snagging ground throughout.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, boat traffic and being seen.
Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the local authority before taking anything. This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Calshot Spit
Headland · Salt water
A shingle spit projecting into Southampton Water at its junction with the Solent, with deep dredged channel immediately off it and the double high water at its most pronounced.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Chichester Harbour
Estuary · Brackish water
A large, almost entirely drying natural harbour of mud, saltmarsh and winding channels behind a narrow entrance, with the double high water of the Solent working through it.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Hayling Island
Island · Salt water
A low sand and shingle island between two drying harbours, with a shingle beach on its seaward side and fast entrance channels at both ends.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Hurst Spit and Hurst Castle
Shingle bank · Salt water
A 1.5-kilometre shingle spit running south-east from the Hampshire mainland to a castle at its tip, constricting the western entrance to the Solent to about a kilometre. Steep shingle on the seaward face, saltmarsh and mud in the lee, and deep water immediately off the castle.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Lymington River
Estuary · Brackish water
A short drowned valley draining the New Forest into the western Solent, with soft mud, extensive saltmarsh and a dredged ferry channel through it.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Portsmouth Harbour entrance
Tidal channel · Salt water
A narrow deep entrance to a very large drying harbour, scoured to considerable depth, carrying naval and commercial traffic through a stream that runs hard on both tides.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Ryde Pier
Pier · Salt water
The oldest seaside pier in England, running most of a kilometre across an enormous drying sand flat to reach navigable water on the island's north shore.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Selsey Bill
Headland · Salt water
A low shingle and clay point where the Sussex coast turns west, with extensive rock and clay ledges — the Mixon and the Streets — running offshore and a strong tide over them.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Southsea and Eastney
Beach section · Salt water
Steep shingle on the eastern approach to Portsmouth Harbour, with deep water close in and the strong entrance stream running past the point at Eastney.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
St Catherine's Point
Headland · Salt water
The southern tip of the Isle of Wight: a landslipped undercliff of chalk and greensand above a boulder shore, with a tidal race running off the point and deep water close in.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
The Needles
Headland · Salt water
A line of chalk stacks running west from the island's tip, with a strong race through the passage inside them and very deep scoured water close under the rock.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
Yaverland and Sandown Bay
Beach · Salt water
A clean sand bay between Culver Cliff's chalk and the sandstone of Shanklin, with rock ledges at the northern end and gently shelving sand through the middle.
Severe hazards here: boat traffic and being seen, tides and being cut off.
The Solway Firth 6 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Solway Firth
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Kirkcudbright Bay
Estuary · Brackish water
A drying sand and mud estuary on the Solway's northern shore, with a narrow channel, extensive intertidal flats and a large tidal range typical of the whole firth.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
Loch Ryan and Stranraer
Sea loch · Salt water
A large sheltered sea loch on the north of the Rhins, with a shingle spit narrowing its entrance, soft mud and sand inside and a historic native oyster bed still present.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
Luce Bay and Sandhead
Bay · Salt water
A large, shallow, south-facing bay between the Rhins and the Machars, floored with clean sand and shell, with extensive intertidal flats at the head and rock at both horns.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Portpatrick
Harbour wall · Salt water
A small harbour blasted into a hard greywacke cliff coast on the western Rhins, facing Ireland across the North Channel, with deep water and heavy reef ground immediately outside.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
The Isle of Whithorn
Harbour wall · Salt water
A drying stone harbour behind a rocky promontory at the southern tip of the Machars, over greywacke rock and gravel, looking south across the Solway to the Isle of Man.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off.
The Mull of Galloway
Headland · Salt water
The southernmost point of Scotland: a narrow greywacke peninsula with cliffs on three sides, deep water immediately offshore and a strong race off the head.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, moving water and currents, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
The Thames Estuary 11 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Thames Estuary
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
Canvey Island sea wall
Estuary mark · Brackish water
A continuous concrete flood wall around a reclaimed island lying below high-water level, standing over soft mud that dries a long way out into the Thames.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Clacton Pier
Pier · Salt water
A pleasure pier on a gently shelving sand and mud shore in the outer Thames approaches, with the Gunfleet sands offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Herne Bay
Beach · Salt water
Shingle over a firm chalk and clay platform in the outer Thames, with the isolated stub of a storm-severed pier head standing a kilometre offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Holehaven Creek
Tidal channel · Brackish water
A tidal creek separating Canvey from the Essex mainland, running between soft mud banks past oil terminals with a strong stream on both tides.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Reculver
Beach · Salt water
A shingle and sand shore beneath a low eroding clay cliff crowned by two Roman-founded church towers, with a chalk and clay platform uncovering at low water.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Southend Pier
Pier · Brackish water
The longest pleasure pier in the world, running 2.15 kilometres out across the Thames estuary mudflats to reach navigable water. Soft mud and sand for its whole length, with the deeper Ray Gut channel off the head.
Severe hazards here: cold water shock, tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion.
Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
The Blackwater estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A broad shallow estuary of soft mud, saltmarsh and oyster ground, with an unusually high salinity for an estuary because its freshwater input is small relative to its tidal volume.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
The Medway estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A complex of soft mud islands, saltmarsh and winding creeks behind a single narrow entrance shared with the Thames, with a large tidal range and a long naval and industrial history in its sediment.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
The Swale
Tidal channel · Brackish water
The tidal channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent, joining the Thames at one end and the Medway at the other, floored with soft mud and fringed with saltmarsh throughout.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Walton-on-the-Naze pier
Pier · Salt water
A long pleasure pier over clean sand and mud beside the Naze, a soft crag headland whose erosion feeds the shoals offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
Whitstable and the Street
Beach section · Salt water
A shingle shore fronting an oyster fishery of Roman standing, with the Street — a natural shingle and clay spit — running more than a kilometre out to sea and uncovering on a low tide.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, boat traffic and being seen.
The Wash and the Lincolnshire coast 8 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Wash and the Lincolnshire coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Chapel St Leonards
Beach · Salt water
Wide, very gently shelving clean sand backed by dune and defence, with the offshore banks of the Lincolnshire coast lying a few kilometres out and shaping the surf.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Cleethorpes
Beach · Salt water
An enormous gently shelving sand and mud flat on the south bank of the Humber mouth, drying more than a kilometre at low water, with the deep Haile Sand channel offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Hunstanton
Beach section · Salt water
The only place in Britain where a striped cliff of red and white chalk over carstone stands directly above the beach, with a chalk and carstone scar running out beneath it and clean sand either side.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Mablethorpe
Beach · Salt water
A long, low, defended sand coast where a continuous concrete sea wall and groyne field hold a wide flat beach in front of land that lies below high-water level.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Skegness
Beach · Salt water
A very wide, very shallow sand beach at the corner where the Lincolnshire coast turns into the Wash, with drying banks offshore and a pier standing over sand that dries beneath most of its length.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
Sutton on Sea
Beach · Salt water
Flat clean sand with a groyne field and, unusually for this coast, exposed peat and forest beds uncovering at low water on the lowest tides.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
The Boston Deeps
Tidal channel · Salt water
One of the deep tidal channels cutting across the drying sands of the Wash, carrying the tide in and out of the bay and holding the only water in this part of the embayment at low tide.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
The Humber estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
One of the largest and most turbid estuaries in Britain, draining a fifth of England through a deep central channel between vast mudflats, with a very large tidal range and a heavy commercial shipping load.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.
The Welsh coast and Anglesey 7 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Welsh coast and Anglesey
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Caernarfon and the Menai south entrance
Tidal channel · Salt water
The southern entrance to the Menai Strait, crossing the shifting sand bar of Caernarfon Bar between drying banks, with a strong stream and a channel that is re-buoyed as it moves.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Colwyn Bay
Bay · Salt water
A wide shallow sand bay backed by promenade and railway, with the limestone of Little Orme closing its western end and clean sand throughout.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Llandudno Pier
Pier · Salt water
A long iron pier on the sheltered eastern side of the Great Orme, standing in deeper water than most of this coast over limestone rubble and sand.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Point of Ayr and Talacre
Headland · Salt water
A dune-backed sand point at the mouth of the Dee estuary, with enormous drying sand banks, a lighthouse standing on the beach and the estuary's training channel close by.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
Rhyl
Beach · Salt water
A long, flat, gently shelving sand beach with a groyne field and heavy sea defence, over a bed of sand and mud with almost no hard ground for many kilometres.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
The Conwy estuary
Estuary · Brackish water
A drying sand and mud estuary behind a narrow entrance between the Orme and Deganwy, with a large intertidal mussel fishery and a strong stream through the mouth.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
The Great Orme
Headland · Salt water
A massive Carboniferous limestone headland with vertical cliffs, caves and a wave-cut platform, giving deep water close in and the hardest ground on the north Wales coast.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, cliffs and rock platforms.
The Welsh sewin rivers 3 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Welsh sewin rivers
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in Wales requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with Natural Resources Wales and with the controlling club or owner before going.
The Dyfi at Machynlleth
River reach · Fresh water
A spate river running off the Cambrian Mountains over gravel and boulder to a wide tidal estuary, rising and falling very rapidly with hill rainfall.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, weather and lightning.
The Teifi at Lampeter
River reach · Fresh water
A middle reach of one of the great Welsh sewin rivers, running over gravel between wooded banks, with the coracle tradition still associated with its lower reaches.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, weather and lightning.
The Towy at Llandeilo
River reach · Fresh water
A wide, gravel-bedded meandering reach of the Towy through the Vale of Towy, with long deep pools, gravel glides, undercut banks and heavy tree cover in places.
Severe hazards here: moving water and currents, fishing alone, drowning and immersion, cold water shock, weather and lightning.
The Yorkshire coast 13 places
Who to ask before fishing anywhere in The Yorkshire coast
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Bridlington North Pier
Pier · Salt water
The northern arm of a harbour sitting exactly on the geological hinge of the coast, with chalk ground to the north and the soft clay of Holderness beginning immediately south.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Cayton Bay
Bay · Salt water
A landslipped bay where soft glacial till slumps over Jurassic clay, giving broken mixed ground, boulder runs and patches of clean sand beneath an unstable wooded cliff.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Filey Brigg
Ledge · Salt water
A natural rock reef of calcareous grit running roughly a kilometre out to sea from the end of Carr Naze, with a flat scar top, deep gullies along both flanks and heavy kelp. One of the most distinctive pieces of shore-fishing ground on the English east coast because it puts an angler a kilometre offshore on foot.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Flamborough Head and the North Landing
Headland · Salt water
A chalk headland — the only chalk sea cliff in northern England — projecting six kilometres into the North Sea, with wave-cut chalk platforms, caves, stacks and boulder aprons beneath cliffs of up to a hundred metres. The chalk gives clean white ground and unusually clear water for the east coast.
Severe hazards here: cliffs and rock platforms, cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Hornsea
Beach · Salt water
Steep sand and shingle over soft boulder clay on the fastest-eroding coast in Europe, where the beach is fed continuously by the cliff behind it and the ground offshore is soft and featureless.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Ravenscar and the Peak rocks
Rock mark · Salt water
Boulder-strewn shale ground beneath a two-hundred-metre cliff, reached by a long steep descent, with heavy kelp and broken rock giving way to sand well offshore.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Robin Hood's Bay
Bay · Salt water
A great arc of wave-cut shale scars uncovering hundreds of metres at low water, ribbed into concentric arcs by the eroded flank of a dome — the most extensive rock platform on the Yorkshire coast.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Runswick Bay
Bay · Salt water
A sheltered north-facing sand bay held between two shale headlands, with extensive alum-shale scars at both ends and one of the few genuine lees on this coast in a south-westerly.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Scarborough Marine Drive
Promenade · Salt water
A high sea wall carried round the sandstone headland between Scarborough's two bays, standing over broken rock and kelp with sand a short way out.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Scarborough South Bay pier
Pier · Salt water
The stone harbour arms of a working fishing port, enclosing a sand-floored basin with the castle headland's rock ground immediately outside.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Spurn Point
Headland · Brackish water
A five-kilometre sand and shingle spit curling west into the mouth of the Humber, breached and reshaped by storms and functionally an island at high water since 2013. Clean sand on the seaward side, mud and sand flats inside, and the Binks — a shifting shingle and sand bank — off the end.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Staithes
Cove · Salt water
A narrow beck mouth cut into Jurassic shale and ironstone, with steep rock scars running out on both sides of the harbour and boulder ground beneath the cliffs.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Withernsea
Beach · Salt water
A defended clay coast where groynes and revetment hold a narrow sand and shingle strip against erosion, with soft ground and strong longshore drift running south towards Spurn.
Severe hazards here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.