Skip to content
FishingHQSearch

Mewslade Bay

Cove · Salt water · in The Gower and Carmarthen Bay

A steep narrow cove on the south-west Gower reached down a valley, with limestone cliff either side and sand that only appears at low water. Deep water close in off the rock at either horn.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. 3 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 · 5

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.
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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

The ground and the water

The ground
A steep narrow cove on the south-west Gower reached down a valley, with limestone cliff either side and sand that only appears at low water. Deep water close in off the rock at either horn.
Exposure
Open south-west, which is the weather quarter, and the cove funnels it.
Tide and flow
The sand covers entirely and the fishing is from rock for most of the tide.

Through the year

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 profiled species is recorded as quarry at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
European sea bass — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.

Recorded here with no season stated: Ballan wrasse, Small-spotted catshark, Thornback ray.

Safety

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.

What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.

Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death

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.

Slips, trips and falls — Can cause serious injury or death

The limestone platform is deeply fissured, holed, undercut and riddled with caves and blowholes. Voids are invisible under water or weed, some sections are structurally unsound, and a fall onto sharp limestone lacerates rather than bruises.

What reduces it: Wear footwear with real grip and ankle support, move deliberately and in daylight where possible, keep off undercut ground and away from blowholes, and treat the walk across the platform as part of the hazard rather than the approach to it.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

The water here is cold for most of the year, and an immersion produces an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control within seconds — which decides the outcome rather than swimming ability afterwards.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, do not fish alone on the rock or the flats, and carry a means of calling for help on the person.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales 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 Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going.

Who holds the answer:

  • Natural Resources Wales, which administers marine and fisheries regulation in Welsh waters.
  • The local authority and, where one exists, the harbour authority, for access, byelaws and shellfish classification.
  • Natural Resources Wales, which administers rod licensing, freshwater and migratory fisheries, cockle fishery regulation and conservation designations in Wales.
  • The Welsh Government, for sea fisheries measures and marine policy in Welsh waters.
  • The local authority and the Food Standards Agency framework, for shellfish harvesting area classification and closures.
  • The relevant site management bodies, where a coastal or estuarine designation affects access, vehicles or collection.
  • The harbour authority at each port, for access to and fishing from harbour structures.

Nearby fishing

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

Mewslade BayRhossili and Worms HeadLlangennith and Burry HolmsPort Eynon PointOxwich BayWhiteford Point and the Burry InletBurry PortCaswell and LanglandMumbles Head
Mewslade Bay and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. 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
  • British Sea Fishing: Welsh shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Mark-by-mark Welsh shore angling: which species are fished for at each named 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.

Share this page