Morriscastle Strand
Surf beach · Salt water · in The Wexford coast
A long low sand beach on the north Wexford coast backed by dunes, with clean firm sand and no structure other than the offshore banks of the Irish Sea beyond it.
Safety: moving water and currents — 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 · 10
- Bull hussRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beach
- Common stingrayRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beachAround Jun–Sept
- European flounderRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beach
- European sea bassRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beach
- Small-spotted catsharkRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beach
- SpurdogRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beach
- Starry smooth-houndRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beachAround Apr–Jul
- Thornback rayRegular local target1 placeMorriscastle StrandOver surf beachAround Jun–Sept
Also documented from the shore: Dab · Atlantic cod
What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- 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.
- 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.
Recorded here, but not a species to target
These are recorded here, but they are not fish to take. Each is either assessed as Critically Endangered or protected by statute in this jurisdiction, and taking one may be prohibited outright — elsewhere every rod-caught fish must be returned. Read the species page and check the current rules with the authority before fishing.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Morriscastle 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.
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 Kilmore Quay; The Coombe, Tacumshin
- Ballan wrasse — documented at Carnsore Point; The Coombe, Tacumshin
- Saithe — documented at The Coombe, Tacumshin; Carnsore Point
- Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Wexford Harbour and the Slobs; Kilmore Quay
- Whiting — documented at The Coombe, Tacumshin; Carne and the Rosslare shore
- Black seabream — documented at Kilmore Quay
- Brown trout — documented at The Coombe, Tacumshin
- Corkwing wrasse — documented at Carnsore Point
- Pollack — documented at Carnsore Point; The Coombe, Tacumshin
- Conger eel — documented at Carnsore Point
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
- Peeler crab — for Common stingray, European flounder, European sea bass, Starry smooth-hound and 1 more
- Squid and cuttlefish — for Bull huss, Small-spotted catshark, Spurdog, Dab and 1 more
- Fish strip and cut bait — for Bull huss, Small-spotted catshark, Thornback ray, Atlantic cod
- Ragworm — for European flounder, European sea bass, Small-spotted catshark, Dab
- Sea deadbaits — for Bull huss, Small-spotted catshark, Spurdog
- Crab and shellfish — for European sea bass, Starry smooth-hound
- Lugworm — for Dab, Atlantic cod
- Sand eel — for European sea bass
Lures
- Metal jigs — for European sea bass, Atlantic cod
- Soft plastics — for European sea bass, Atlantic cod
- Jerkbaits — for European sea bass
- Streamers — for European sea bass
- Surface lures — for European sea bass
How to catch them: Flounder fishing · Bass fishing · Thornback ray fishing · Cod fishing
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A long low sand beach on the north Wexford coast backed by dunes, with clean firm sand and no structure other than the offshore banks of the Irish Sea beyond it.
- Exposure
- Open east to the Irish Sea, and the surf that makes it fish comes from an easterly rather than from the prevailing wind — which is why an east-coast beach can be flat for weeks.
Through the year
The smooth-hound fishery the directory describes on this coast is a spring and early-summer one, and the reason it falls away afterwards is explicitly not understood: one theory it reports is that the fish move out onto the offshore banks as the water warms.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common stingray — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Starry smooth-hound — regular local target, recorded in April, May, June, July. | ||||||||||||
| Thornback ray — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Bull huss, European flounder, European sea bass, Small-spotted catshark, Spurdog, Tope, Dab, Atlantic cod.
Safety
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
Tidal islands, causeways, strand crossings and rock gullies that are dry ground at low water flood on the tide, and the water arrives behind the angler rather than in front of them. The Irish west and south coasts carry a large number of these and several are the ordinary way onto a mark.
What reduces it: Work out the tide for the day before walking out, and work out the exit rather than the entrance. Set an alarm for the turn. Never assume a crossing that was dry on the way out will be dry on the way back.
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 premier league and international beach competition venue. Whether an event is running is a matter for the organisers, and the directory advises checking before travelling.
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.
- 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.
- Ballinamona — 5–10 km · Surf beach
- Curracloe Beach — 10–25 km · Surf beach
- Wexford Harbour and the Slobs — 10–25 km · Estuary
- Rosslare Strand — 25–40 km · Surf beach
- Carne and the Rosslare shore — 25–40 km · Beach
- Carnsore Point — 25–40 km · Rock mark
- The Coombe, Tacumshin — 25–40 km · Beach section
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 Wexford — 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.