Cellardyke piers
Pier · Salt water · in East Lothian and the Firth of Forth coast
The old harbour arms east of Anstruther, built into a rock shore of low volcanic reef that runs out a long way at low water. The reef around the harbour is the ground; the walls are the standing.
Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies here.
FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.
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, accounts 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. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Cellardyke piers itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.
Widely documented on this ground
Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.
From the shore
- European sea bass — documented at Cockenzie; Torness and Skateraw; The Kirkcaldy rock marks (+1 more)
- European flounder — documented at Portobello; The Kirkcaldy rock marks; Dysart harbour
- Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Cockenzie; Torness and Skateraw; Granton breakwater
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at North Berwick and the Bass Rock; Eyemouth; Torness and Skateraw (+4 more)
Also documented at neighbouring places
One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.
From the shore
- Whiting — documented at Burntisland breakwater; Dysart harbour
- Edible crab — documented at St Abbs Head
- European lobster — documented at St Abbs Head
- Ling — documented at Fife Ness; Anstruther
How people fish it
Practised here: Sea fishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- 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.
- 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.
- Light rock fishing
Ultralight lure fishing from the shore with tackle rated in single grams — a discipline that catches the fish everybody else steps over, and one FishingHQ held every component of and had never named.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- The old harbour arms east of Anstruther, built into a rock shore of low volcanic reef that runs out a long way at low water. The reef around the harbour is the ground; the walls are the standing.
- Exposure
- Open south-east into the outer Forth.
- Tide and flow
- The reef uncovers a long way, which changes the mark completely between high and low water.
Not to be confused with Anstruther, which is a separate record for different ground.
Through the year
Cod in winter; wrasse and pollack in summer.
The months the sources attach to each species here. Where a species carries no season it is listed underneath rather than assumed to run through the year.
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic cod — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February. | ||||||||||||
| Ballan wrasse — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Pollack — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Saithe.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.
What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
Water temperature here is low in every month. Sudden immersion triggers an involuntary gasp and hyperventilation that can cause drowning within the first minute, well before hypothermia is a factor, and it defeats swimming ability regardless of fitness.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid on rock, harbour walls and any elevated mark; assume that going in means being unable to help yourself for the first minute; and fish with somebody who can raise the alarm.
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 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.
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
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- Anstruther — under 2 km · Harbour wall
- Fife Ness — 5–10 km · Headland
- North Berwick and the Bass Rock — 10–25 km · Island
- St Andrews and the Eden estuary — 10–25 km · Estuary
- Dunbar harbour — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- Dysart harbour — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- The Tay estuary and Broughty Ferry — 25–40 km · Estuary
- The Kirkcaldy rock marks — 25–40 km · Rock mark
Sources for this place
- 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
- British Sea Fishing: Scottish shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named Scottish shore mark and how the fishing divides between the winter and the summer half of the year.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.