North Berwick and the Bass Rock

Island · Salt water · in East Lothian and the Firth of Forth coast

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.

Safety: cold water shock — can cause serious injury or death. 3 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is. It does not say whether you may fish it: access rights, permits, licences, byelaws, closures and protected areas all apply, all differ and all change. Who to ask is below.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 4

What these strengths mean

Established quarry: Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Seasonal: Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
Places, catches and sources are counted separately: A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one.

Also associated with this ground

Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.

European sea bass

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing, Kayak fishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

Float fishing
Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.
Spinning
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.
Ledgering
Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

The ground and the water

The ground: 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.
Exposure: Wholly exposed in the outer firth, taking swell from north through east. The mainland shore has partial shelter from westerlies.
Depth: Deep all round the rock, shallowing over the reefs inshore.
Tide and flow: Firth streams run past the rock and set up broken water on the ebb against a sea.

Through the year

Mackerel and pollack through the summer, cod and coalfish over the rough ground in the colder months.

Safety

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.

Boat safety — Can cause serious injury or death

The rock is two miles offshore in the outer firth with no shelter, no landing except in calm water, and a sea state that changes quickly when wind opposes the firth streams.

What reduces it: Treat any approach as a boat operation with a weather window and a return margin, and do not plan on landing.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Volcanic rock weathers into steep, broken, weed-covered platforms with deep water immediately alongside. Somebody who slips or is knocked over by a wave is in cold water out of their depth with no gradual shelf to climb out onto, and rock fishing kills more shore anglers than any other ground.

What reduces it: Watch any rock mark for a considerable period before committing to a position, never fish rock alone, wear a buoyancy aid, plan an exit that works in the sea state you may have rather than the one you arrived in, and leave when the sea builds rather than when it becomes difficult.

Worse when:

Easterly weather off the North Sea, which builds a short steep sea quickly on a coast that is usually sheltered
Swell arriving in sets, where one wave runs far higher than the rest
Wet kelp and weed on the platform, and darkness

Encounters with marine life — Can cause injury needing treatment

The rock carries one of the world's largest northern gannet colonies. Gannets dive on baitfish and on moving lures at speed, and a hooked or entangled seabird is a serious welfare problem and an injury risk to the person who has to deal with it.

What reduces it: Do not fish surface lures or feathers where birds are actively diving, retrieve immediately if birds start working your lure, and carry the means to cut line rather than pull on it.

Rules and access

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.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Who holds the answer:

The Scottish Government Marine Directorate, for sea fisheries measures in Scottish waters.
The harbour authority or land manager, for access to the structure or the ground.
The local authority, for shellfish harvesting classification.
The Scottish marine and fisheries authorities, for sea fisheries rules, minimum sizes, protected areas and species restrictions
The relevant district salmon fishery board, for anything concerning migratory salmon and sea trout
The local authority environmental health service, for shellfish harvesting classification and closures
The harbour authority for any working harbour, which is operational infrastructure rather than public space
The body managing any conservation designation on the stretch concerned
The owner of the Bass Rock and the seabird reserve managers.

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

Dunbar harbour — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
Anstruther — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
Torness and Skateraw — 10–25 km · Rock mark
Port Seton — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
Fife Ness — 10–25 km · Headland
Portobello — 25–40 km · Promenade
Kinghorn and Pettycur — 25–40 km · Rock mark
St Andrews and the Eden estuary — 25–40 km · Estuary

North Berwick and the Bass Rock and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Description, designation and habitat characterisation of the named coastal and marine features of the United Kingdom, and the species characteristically associated with them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Marine environmental science for UK shelf seas: sediment characterisation, estuarine process, shellfish bed distribution, tidal range and the monitoring that describes them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Met Office shipping forecast, inshore waters forecast and marine warnings — Met Office, United Kingdom (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That inshore waters forecasts, sea state and swell are the operative inputs for shore and small-craft decisions in these waters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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