Dollymount Strand
Surf beach · Salt water · in Dublin Bay and the Wicklow coast
The seaward face of Bull Island in Dublin Bay, a vast largely featureless sand beach with a network of narrow channels and deep mud in the lagoon behind it. Clean sand on the outside, dangerous ground on the inside.
Safety: slips, trips and falls — can cause serious injury or death. 3 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 · 5
European flounderRegular local target1 placeDollymount StrandOver surf beachPhoto: nbasargin, via iNaturalist, CC BY; resized and trimmed to fit
European sea bassRegular local target1 placeDollymount StrandOver surf beachPhoto: Julien Renoult, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
- Small-spotted catsharkRegular local target1 placeDollymount StrandOver surf beach
Thick-lipped grey mulletRegular local target1 placeDollymount StrandOver surf beachAround Jun–SeptPhoto: Diego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
European plaiceOccasional1 placeDollymount StrandOver surf beachPhoto: Hans Hillewaert, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized
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What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Occasional
- Caught here, and described as unusual rather than normal. Do not plan a session around it.
- 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.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Dollymount Strand 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
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at Wicklow Head; The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay; Howth pier (+3 more)
- Pollack — documented at Wicklow Head; Howth pier; Wicklow East Pier (+3 more)
- Dab — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth (+2 more)
- Saithe — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth (+2 more)
- Ballan wrasse — documented at Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth; Wicklow Head (+1 more)
- Whiting — documented at The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay; Howth pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier (+1 more)
- Atlantic cod — documented at Wicklow Head; Greystones North Beach and Pier; Velvet Strand, Portmarnock
- Conger eel — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth
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
- Garfish — documented at Howth pier
- Grey gurnard — documented at Wicklow East Pier
- Red gurnard — documented at Wicklow East Pier
- Brown trout — documented at Rogerstown Estuary
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.
- Surfcasting
Casting heavy baited tackle from a beach into surf — a method defined by distance, by tide, and by reading water that all looks the same.
- 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.
Baits and lures for these fish
The baits and lures each of the fish above is commonly taken on, from that fish’s own page. This is what works for the fish, not a report of what people use on this particular water — local knowledge and the conditions on the day still decide.
Baits
- Ragworm — for European flounder, European sea bass, Small-spotted catshark, European plaice
- Fish strip and cut bait — for Small-spotted catshark, Thick-lipped grey mullet
- Peeler crab — for European flounder, European sea bass
- Bread — for Thick-lipped grey mullet
- Crab and shellfish — for European sea bass
- Lugworm — for European plaice
- Sand eel — for European sea bass
- Sea deadbaits — for Small-spotted catshark
Also: Squid and cuttlefish
Lures
- Jerkbaits — for European sea bass
- Metal jigs — for European sea bass
- Soft plastics — for European sea bass
- Streamers — for European sea bass
- Surface lures — for European sea bass
How to catch them: Flounder fishing · Bass fishing · Grey mullet fishing · Plaice fishing
The ground and the water
- The ground
- The seaward face of Bull Island in Dublin Bay, a vast largely featureless sand beach with a network of narrow channels and deep mud in the lagoon behind it. Clean sand on the outside, dangerous ground on the inside.
- Exposure
- Open east across Dublin Bay, thronged in summer and, the directory says, deserted at all other times — which is the whole reason it is under-fished.
- Tide and flow
- The directory gives an incoming tide at night as the window, and warns that the beach at the Sutton end floods quickly with a dangerous current.
Through the year
The bass fishery the directory describes is an annual one rather than a seasonal one: it says the beach has a remarkable knack for consistently producing double-figure bass EACH YEAR.
Safety
Slips, trips and falls — Can cause serious injury or death
Wet rock, weed-covered ledges, boulder shores and steep descents to the water. Falls here produce broken ankles and head injuries, and they happen on the walk rather than in the fishing.
What reduces it: Boots with a stiff sole and real grip, both hands free on a descent, and a route down chosen in daylight if the session runs into darkness.
Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death
Narrow sounds, estuary mouths, harbour entrances and channel edges run hard on the tide, and the water moving through them is a whole bay emptying and filling through a gap. Somebody who enters that water is carried, not swum, and shingle and sandbanks shift under the current.
What reduces it: Treat the state of the tide as part of the mark rather than as a timing detail. Do not wade a channel edge. Stay off shifting banks on a making tide.
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.
The flood fills the ground behind an angler before it covers the ground in front, so the water arrives between them and the shore while the position they are standing on is still dry.
What reduces it: Read the tide table before going rather than after arriving, set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing, and identify the exit and how long it takes while the ground is still uncovered.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.
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.
Rules and access
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.
Particular to this water: A nature reserve and biosphere as well as a beach. The directory warns specifically against entering the channel network behind it, where the mud is deep — that is a hazard rather than a permission, and what may be done on the reserve is the manager's decision.
Who holds the answer:
- Inland Fisheries Ireland, which administers angling and fisheries protection.
- The harbour or local authority, for access to structures and the shore.
- The harbour authorities and the owners of individual piers, breakwaters and lighthouse approaches, whose decision about access and angling is theirs and is signed rather than negotiable.
- Inland Fisheries Ireland, for freshwater fisheries, for salmon and sea trout licensing and tagging, and for the sea angling conservation measures it administers.
- The government department responsible for the marine, and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, for sea fisheries measures, minimum sizes, bag limits and protected species.
- The National Parks and Wildlife Service, where a designation constrains access, disturbance or collection.
- The Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the shellfish classification and biotoxin monitoring programme, before anything filter-feeding is taken.
- The harbour authority, local authority, club or landowner controlling the specific structure or shore, whose permission is theirs to give and is not stated here.
- The Irish Coast Guard 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.
- The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay — 2–5 km · Breakwater
- Howth pier — 5–10 km · Pier
- The Nose of Howth — 5–10 km · Rock mark
- Velvet Strand, Portmarnock — 5–10 km · Surf beach
- The Grand Canal, Dublin reach — 5–10 km · Canal section
- Rogerstown Estuary — 10–25 km · Estuary
- Skerries Pier — 10–25 km · Pier
- Greystones North Beach and Pier — 10–25 km · Pier
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
- Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Wicklow, Dublin, Louth and Meath — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A practitioner shore directory describing this mark's ground, species, methods, baits and the character of the access.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.