Chanonry Point

Headland · Salt water · in The Moray Firth

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.

Safety: moving water and currents — 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, 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 · 2

What these strengths mean

Recorded here: At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
How breadth is counted: A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.

Also associated with this ground

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

European flounder · European sea bass · Atlantic mackerel · European plaice · Atlantic salmon

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Chanonry Point 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.

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

Dab — documented at Brora beach; Embo beach
Turbot — documented at Embo beach

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.
Spinning
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.

The ground and the water

The ground: 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.
Exposure: Inner firth: no ocean swell, and the water state is governed by wind over the tidal stream rather than by fetch.
Depth: The channel runs deep and very close to the point; shallow sand either side.
Tide and flow: The entire inner Moray Firth exchange passes through this narrows, producing a strong stream and a well-known standing wave and eddy system off the point. This is why the place is famous and why it is dangerous.

Through the year

Flatfish through the year, mackerel in summer, and a migratory salmon and sea trout run passing through the narrows in season.

Safety

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

The stream through the narrows runs hard enough that a person entering the water is carried, and the eddy line off the point is a genuine hazard to small craft and swimmers alike.

What reduces it: Stand well back from the water's edge at the point on a run tide, do not wade, and treat the tidal stream table rather than the tide height as the planning input.

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.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Rock ledges and boulder ground with deep water close in are the productive shore fishing here, and North Sea swell arrives on them in sets. A ledge dry for twenty minutes gives no information about the next wave, and being swept off rather than falling in is the mechanism.

What reduces it: Watch a mark through several full set cycles before committing, choose a position with a way up behind it, wear a buoyancy aid on the rocks, and do not fish exposed rock alone.

Worse when:

In an easterly airflow, which has a long open fetch onto this coast and no shelter.
In the dark, when a set cannot be seen coming, which is when much of this fishing is done.

Encounters with marine life — Minor injury

The narrows is one of the most reliable places in Europe to see bottlenose dolphins from the shore, and they feed in the stream on the same fish anglers are targeting. A hooked or disturbed cetacean is a serious welfare and legal matter.

What reduces it: Stop fishing and retrieve while dolphins are working the narrows, and never attempt to attract or approach them.

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.
Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government, for sea fisheries measures, conservation designations and marine licensing in Scottish waters.
The district salmon fishery board for the river concerned, which administers salmon and sea trout fishing on each of the rivers entering this firth.
The proprietor, estate or angling association that holds the fishing rights, since freshwater and migratory fishing rights in Scotland are private and permission is required.
NatureScot and the relevant site management bodies, where a marine or coastal designation affects access or activity.
The harbour authority or trust at each port, for access to and fishing from harbour structures.
The local authority and the Food Standards Scotland framework, for shellfish harvesting area classification.
The Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation managers, where disturbance restrictions apply.

Nearby fishing

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

The Cromarty Firth — 10–25 km · Estuary
Nairn — 10–25 km · Beach
The Beauly and the Ness — 10–25 km · River reach
Findhorn Bay — 25–40 km · Bay
The Findhorn at Forres — 25–40 km · River reach
The Dornoch Firth — 25–40 km · Estuary
Loch Ness — 25–40 km · Loch
Embo beach — 25–40 km · Beach

Chanonry Point and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. 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
RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock and the immersion response, tidal cut-off, and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users.States this directlyPassage read and verified
FISHMAG Scotland east and west coast sea fishing guides — FISHMAG (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The mark-by-mark north-east Scottish shore guide: which species are fished for at each mark, in which season, and with which baits and methods.States this directlyPassage read and verified

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

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