Cloughton Wyke
Rock mark · Salt water · in The Yorkshire coast
Rough rock north of Scarborough with deep water close in and a long walk to reach it. Broken ground throughout, which decides the tackle before anything else does: heavy gear and a weak link, on the assumption that leads will be lost.
Safety: tides and being cut off — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply 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
Atlantic codEstablished quarry1 placeCloughton WykeOver rock markObserved Jan–Mar, Oct–Dec
PollackEstablished quarry1 placeCloughton WykeOver rock markObserved May–Oct
Atlantic mackerelSeasonal1 placeCloughton WykeOver rock markObserved Jun–Sept
Ballan wrasseSeasonal1 placeCloughton WykeOver rock markObserved May–Oct
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.
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.
- 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
- Rough rock north of Scarborough with deep water close in and a long walk to reach it. Broken ground throughout, which decides the tackle before anything else does: heavy gear and a weak link, on the assumption that leads will be lost.
- Exposure
- Open to the north-east with no shelter, and rough ground taking the sea directly.
- Depth
- Deep water within an ordinary cast, which is the reason for the walk and the reason a lost lead is the normal cost of a session here.
- Tide and flow
- Fishes best around high water, which is also when the ground behind the mark starts to cover.
Through the year
Cod through the winter; pollack, mackerel and wrasse over the rough through the warmer months.
Safety
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
A long walk in along ground that the flood covers, so the water arrives between the angler and the way back while the mark itself is still dry — and the mark fishes best on the tide that does it.
What reduces it: Read the tide before going rather than after arriving, set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing, and walk the exit at low water before ever fishing the flood here.
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 injury needing treatment
Broken, weeded rock above deep water, reached by a descent that is harder in the dark and harder again carrying a full rough-ground outfit.
What reduces it: Fish it first in daylight and in settled weather with somebody who knows the ground, and wear footwear with grip on wet rock rather than boots chosen for the walk.
Rules and access
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.
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 Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district, which makes and enforces inshore byelaws.
- The Marine Management Organisation, for national recreational sea fishing measures in English waters.
- The local authority and, where one exists, the harbour authority, for access, byelaws and shellfish classification.
- The relevant Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district, which makes and enforces inshore byelaws including those on bait collection.
- Natural England and the site management body, where a marine or coastal designation affects access, vehicles or collection.
- The harbour authority or commissioners at each port, where fishing is from harbour structures or small craft are launched.
- The statutory harbour authority for the Humber, for navigation and access on the estuary.
- The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the RNLI, for safety guidance on this coast.
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- Scarborough Marine Drive — 5–10 km · Promenade
- Scarborough South Bay pier — 5–10 km · Pier
- Ravenscar and the Peak rocks — 5–10 km · Rock mark
- Cayton Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Robin Hood's Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Filey Brigg — 10–25 km · Ledge
- Whitby piers — 10–25 km · Pier
- Runswick Bay — 25–40 km · Bay
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: north-east England and Yorkshire shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The mark-by-mark Yorkshire and Humberside shore guide: which species are fished for at each mark, in which season, with which baits, and at which state of tide.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.