The Don mouth
Estuary mark · Brackish water · in The Fife, Angus and Mearns coast
The last few hundred metres of the Don where it turns behind the dunes and cuts out through the sand north of Aberdeen, with a shifting bar at the mouth and clean beach either side.
Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — 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 · 3
What these strengths mean
- Established quarry
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
- 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 The Don mouth 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
- Saithe — documented at Gourdon harbour; Crawton; Inverbervie beach
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
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at Crawton
- European sea bass — documented at Crawton
- Pollack — documented at Crawton
- Small-spotted catshark — documented at Inverbervie 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.
- 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.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- The last few hundred metres of the Don where it turns behind the dunes and cuts out through the sand north of Aberdeen, with a shifting bar at the mouth and clean beach either side.
- Exposure
- Open east into the North Sea.
- Tide and flow
- The river's flow and the tide meet over a bar that moves with the weather.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Low limestone and shale ledges reached by a descent from a cliff top, fished from a platform that is wet, sloping seaward and lower than it looks from above. A sea that was manageable on arrival can put water across the whole platform, and the way back up is a climb rather than a walk.
What reduces it: Look at the state of the sea from the top before committing to the descent, and look at the forecast for the whole session rather than for the hour. Know where the exit is and how long it takes. Do not fish a ledge alone. Wear a buoyancy aid: a person in the water at the foot of a cliff cannot be reached quickly from the land.
Worse when:
- A rising swell during the session, so the descent was safe and the ascent is not
- Wet weed and algae on the platform, which are as slippery as ice on limestone
- A big spring tide, which reaches ledges that a neap leaves dry
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
Sea temperatures around these coasts stay low enough for most of the year that sudden immersion causes involuntary gasping and rapid loss of useful movement in the hands and arms. Swimming ability makes very little difference to the outcome in the first minute, which is the minute that decides it.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid on any rock, pier or harbour mark, not only on a boat. If you go in, float on your back and let the gasping pass before trying to do anything. Get out and get warm quickly — the danger continues after the water.
Worse when:
- Spring and early summer, when the air feels warm and the sea has not caught up
- Fishing alone, where nobody raises the alarm
- Heavy clothing and waders, which make self-rescue much harder
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
Ledges, sandbanks and beach sections reached at low water and cut off by a flooding tide that comes in behind rather than towards. The route back disappears before the standing ground does, which is why people are caught out on ground that is still dry.
What reduces it: Work out the time of the tide before going, not after arriving. Identify the point at which the way back closes and set an alarm for it. Never rely on being able to wade a channel that was walkable an hour earlier.
Worse when:
- Big spring tides, which flood faster and reach further
- Onshore wind and low pressure, which raise the water above the predicted height
- Fog or darkness, which remove the visual cues people navigate back by
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. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Scotland has no general rod licence, and the fishing rights on almost every river and loch belong to somebody: a proprietor, an estate, an angling association or a district salmon fishery board. Permission is a separate question from access, and both change. Check with the relevant fishery board or association before going.
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 district salmon fishery board for the catchment, where the water holds migratory fish.
- The proprietor, estate or angling association that holds the fishing rights.
- The Scottish Government, for freshwater fisheries policy and protection orders.
- 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.
- Girdle Ness and Cove Bay — 2–5 km · Rock mark
- The Ythan estuary — 10–25 km · Estuary
- The River Don at Kemnay — 10–25 km · River reach
- Stonehaven — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Crawton — 25–40 km · Rock mark
- The River Dee at Banchory — 25–40 km · River reach
- Inverbervie beach — 25–40 km · Beach
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.