Maryport harbour and promenade
Harbour wall · Salt water · in The Solway Firth
The old harbour arms at the Ellen mouth and the promenade wall running north from them, over a shore of sand with stone rubble along the wall's foot. Sheltered ground on a firth where shelter is the scarce commodity.
Safety: tides and being cut off — can cause serious injury or death.
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 · 8
European flounderRegular local target1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wall
Atlantic codSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jan–Feb, Nov–Dec
European plaiceSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jun–Sept
PollackSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jun–Sept
SaitheSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jan–Feb, Nov–Dec- Small-spotted catsharkSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jun–Sept
Tub gurnardSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jun–Sept
WhitingSeasonal1 placeMaryport harbour and promenadeOver harbour wallAround Jan–Feb, Nov–Dec
What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- 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.
- 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 Maryport harbour and promenade 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 Silloth promenade and Tommy Legs; Mersehead Sands; Brighouse Bay (+3 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
- Conger eel — documented at Burrow Head; Balcary Bay
- Dab — documented at Silloth promenade and Tommy Legs; Balcary Bay
- Starry smooth-hound — documented at Wigtown Bay; Silloth promenade and Tommy Legs
- Bull huss — documented at Balcary Bay; Burrow Head
- Thornback ray — documented at Silloth promenade and Tommy Legs; Mersehead Sands
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at Burrow Head
- Turbot — documented at Fleet Bay
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.
- 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 old harbour arms at the Ellen mouth and the promenade wall running north from them, over a shore of sand with stone rubble along the wall's foot. Sheltered ground on a firth where shelter is the scarce commodity.
- Exposure
- Open west and south-west down the firth.
- Tide and flow
- Very large Solway range, and the harbour dries.
Through the year
Plaice, dogfish, pollack and gurnard in summer; cod, whiting and coalfish in winter.
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.
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic cod — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February. | ||||||||||||
| European plaice — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Pollack — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Saithe — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February. | ||||||||||||
| Small-spotted catshark — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Tub gurnard — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Whiting — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February. |
Recorded here with no season stated: European flounder.
Safety
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
On flat sand with one of the largest tidal ranges in Britain, the flooding tide advances horizontally faster than a person can comfortably walk. It fills the drainage channels first and spreads sideways, so ground is cut off from behind while the view seawards still looks open. People are cut off and drowned on this coast, and most of them were bait digging or walking rather than fishing.
What reduces it: Decide the time you will leave before you go out and set an alarm for it; never go onto the flats alone; carry a means of calling for help that works when wet; treat local knowledge of channel positions as safety information; and abandon the ground early rather than at the last moment.
Worse when:
- Spring tides, when the range and the speed of advance are greatest
- Fog, which removes every reference on ground with no landmarks
- Onshore wind and low pressure, which raise the actual water level above the predicted one
- Channels that have shifted since the information you are relying on was accurate
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 is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.
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 national fisheries administration for the shore concerned — different bodies apply on the English and Scottish sides of the same firth
- The relevant salmon fishery board or migratory fisheries authority, for anything concerning salmon and sea trout
- The local authority environmental health service, for shellfish harvesting classification and public health closures
- The coastguard, for tidal and safety information, and as the service that will be called if somebody is cut off
- Local clubs and long-established practitioners, whose knowledge of channel positions is operative safety information rather than a courtesy
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- Workington Rocks — 5–10 km · Rock mark
- Silloth promenade and Tommy Legs — 10–25 km · Promenade
- Whitehaven north and west piers — 10–25 km · Pier
- Bassenthwaite Lake — 10–25 km · Lake
- Mersehead Sands — 10–25 km · Beach
- St Bees Head — 10–25 km · Headland
- Balcary Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Derwent Water — 25–40 km · Lake
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-west England shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named north-west England shore 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.