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Loe Bar

Shingle bank · Salt water · in The Cornish and Devon coasts

A steep bar of flint shingle between Porthleven and Gunwalloe, damming the freshwater Loe Pool behind it and facing straight into Mount's Bay. There is a good depth of water close in, which is why an angling title compares it with Chesil Beach on a much smaller scale.

Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 2 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 · 11

Also documented from the shore: Whiting · Atlantic cod · Small-eyed ray

What these strengths mean
Seasonal
Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
Recorded here
At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
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 Loe Bar 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 St Ives harbour and piers; Porthmeor and Carbis Bay; The Helford (+12 more)
  • European flounder — documented at St Ives harbour and piers; Porthmeor and Carbis Bay; Hayle estuary (+2 more)
  • Ballan wrasse — documented at St Agnes Head; Nare Head; Newlyn North Pier (+6 more)
  • European plaice — documented at Porthmeor and Carbis Bay; Mevagissey harbour; Hayle estuary
  • European lobster — documented at Lizard Point; Sennen Cove; Cape Cornwall
  • Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Falmouth and Castle Beach; The Helford; Hayle estuary (+1 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

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.

  • 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.

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

  • Fish strip and cut bait — for Garfish, Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark and 2 more
  • Squid and cuttlefish — for Bull huss, Conger eel, Dab, Small-spotted catshark and 1 more
  • Lugworm — for Dab, Pouting, Whiting, Atlantic cod
  • Ragworm — for Dab, Pollack, Pouting, Small-spotted catshark
  • Sand eel — for Garfish, Pollack, Small-eyed ray
  • Sea deadbaits — for Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark
  • Peeler crab — for Atlantic cod

Lures

How to catch them: Mackerel fishing · Conger fishing · Pollack fishing · Whiting fishing · Cod fishing

What guides and anglers say

These are statements other people have published about fishing here, summarised and attributed. Where one is a catch, it is that angler’s own report of one day; a recommendation is not a catch, and neither is a forecast.

  • A safety remark

    The angling title says the bar is exposed to the south-west and that care is needed at all times, especially at night in any swell. The Cornish mark guide says the same of this stretch: a south-westerly makes it dangerous quickly.

    A published angling guide: Sea Angler, published 2021. Another source read for this page says the same.

  • A safety remark

    The National Trust, which owns the bar, says swimming is not permitted there because of dangerous currents and tides. Its page is about walking and says nothing about angling from the beach.

    The body responsible for the place: National Trust. Another source read for this page says the same.

  • Getting there, as described

    In 2021 the angling title reported that parking on the approach road was restricted and signed. That is a five-year-old account of somebody else's road and may no longer describe it.

    A published angling guide: Sea Angler, published 2021.

  • How it is said to be fished

    The angling title's page for the bar describes legering at night with a two-hook trace and a breakout lead, and switching to lighter float or spinning tackle for the summer daytime high tides. It names no bait.

    Rig as described: A two-hook trace behind a four-ounce breakout lead and a shock leader. Given as fishing best after dark over slack low water.

    See Ledgering.

    A published angling guide: Sea Angler, published 2021.

  • A doubt or a correction

    The Cornish mark guide praises the bass fishing on a bar towards Porthleven with beach-casting gear, under a spelling that is another town's. It very probably means this beach. The angling title's own species list for Loe Bar does not include bass, so bass is not listed as documented here.

    Fish named: European sea bass.

    A published angling guide: Fishmag. Another source read for this page does not agree.

The ground and the water

The ground
A steep bar of flint shingle between Porthleven and Gunwalloe, damming the freshwater Loe Pool behind it and facing straight into Mount's Bay. There is a good depth of water close in, which is why an angling title compares it with Chesil Beach on a much smaller scale.
Exposure
Open to the south-west with nothing between it and the Atlantic. The angling source says care is needed at all times and particularly at night in any swell.
Depth
Deep close in: the bank shelves steeply and a short cast reaches water that a flat beach would need a long one for.
Tide and flow
Described as fishing best after dark over slack low water for the bottom species, with the summer float and spinning fishing done over daytime high tides.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-10-15. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
The council says the bar is reached on foot, by the South West Coast Path from Porthleven or from Helston. It gives no parking. The council also says it is not safe for swimming because of strong currents.
The walk in
On foot along the coast path from Porthleven, by the council's account; it does not give the distance.
Where this access information comes from
  • Visit Cornwall: Loe Bar beach — Cornwall Council, on its Visit Cornwall site, 2026 (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: Foot access by the coast path from Porthleven or Helston, and the warning about strong currents.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Through the year

Mackerel and garfish in summer, on float and spinner over daytime high tides; dogfish, conger, pouting and whiting legered after dark over slack low water; and in some winters big cod and small-eyed rays, which the angling title treats as occasional rather than a run.

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.

The months in which each species is recorded as caught at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August.
Garfish — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August.

Recorded here with no season stated: Bull huss, Conger eel, Dab, Pollack, Pouting, Small-spotted catshark, Whiting, Atlantic cod, Small-eyed ray.

Safety

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

The bank is steep, loose and has deep water against it, so a swell breaks directly onto the slope an angler is standing on rather than on a bar offshore. A larger wave runs well up the shingle, the backwash drags down a face that gives no footing, and there is no shallow water to stand up in. The landowner refuses swimming here because of the currents and tides.

What reduces it: Stand well up the bank rather than at the water's edge, watch a full set of waves before settling, and treat any south-westerly swell as a reason to fish somewhere else rather than to take care. Do not fish it alone at night, wear a flotation aid, and never follow a snagged rig or a fish down the slope.

Worse when:

  • Any swell from the south-west, which the bar faces directly
  • Darkness, when the size of an incoming set cannot be judged
  • A falling tide over spring low water, when the steepest part of the bank is exposed

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.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.

Atlantic groundswell arrives from storms thousands of miles away, on days that are locally calm and sunny, and it comes in sets in which one wave runs far higher than the rest. Anglers are swept from rock platforms that had been dry for twenty minutes, into deep water with no shelf to climb out onto and frequently with a long, hard climb back to the access path.

What reduces it: Check the swell forecast rather than the wind forecast; watch any mark for a long period before committing, and assume the sets you have seen are not the largest; never fish rock alone; wear a buoyancy aid; and plan the exit for the sea state you might have rather than the one you arrived in.

Worse when:

  • Any Atlantic swell forecast on the north coast, regardless of local wind
  • Rising tide, which brings the sets progressively higher up the platform
  • Descents that are hard to reverse, wet rock and weed, and darkness
  • Stretches with no mobile coverage, where raising the alarm is not possible

Rules and access

Particular to this water: The bar and the land behind it are National Trust. The Trust states that fishing, swimming, boating and watersports are not allowed in Loe Pool, the freshwater lake behind the bar, and that swimming is not permitted from the bar itself. What applies to angling from the seaward side is the Trust's to say and can change; ask it rather than assume.

Beyond what is stated above, 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.

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 national fisheries authority for England, for licensing of freshwater and migratory fishing and for fisheries enforcement
  • The relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority for the district, which sets and enforces local sea fisheries byelaws
  • The body managing any marine protected area on the stretch concerned
  • The local authority environmental health service, for shellfish classification and public health closures
  • The harbour authority for working harbours and quays
  • The relevant estuary or river management body, where an estuary carries its own arrangements
  • The National Trust at Penrose, which owns Loe Bar and Loe Pool

Nearby fishing

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

Loe BarPorthlevenPrussia CoveCudden PointThe HelfordLizard PointHayle estuaryPenzance and MouseholeNewlyn North Pier
Loe Bar 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

  • 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 Angler: Loe Bar sea fishing mark — Sea Angler, 2021 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: The ground at Loe Bar, the species taken from it, the state of tide and light it fishes best in, and its exposure to the south-west.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • National Trust: Chyvarloe to Gunwalloe Fishing Cove walk, Penrose — National Trust (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: That the landowner refuses swimming at Loe Bar because of dangerous currents and tides, and does not allow fishing in Loe Pool behind it.States this directlyPassage read and verified

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

Before you go

Fish documented here
11 at this place itself. See them.
Getting there
Described from public sources, last checked 2026-10-15. Getting there.
Rules particular to this water
  • The bar and the land behind it are National Trust. The Trust states that fishing, swimming, boating and watersports are not allowed in Loe Pool, the freshwater lake behind the bar, and that swimming is not permitted from the bar itself. What applies to angling from the seaward side is the Trust's to say and can change; ask it rather than assume. From the body that sets it: National Trust, read 2026-10-10. Applies to: Loe Pool and Loe Bar, National Trust land.

Nothing here is watched for change. Sources and who to ask.

Hazards particular to this place
2 recorded. Safety.

Check before you travel

  • Whether you may fish here, and whether a licence or permit is needed — start with the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district.
  • The tide times and the forecast for the day you go.
  • Anything recorded here was true when it was read; it is not watched for change.
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