Mulranny
Pier · Salt water · in Clew Bay and Achill
A tidal pier and a long beach on the northern shore of Clew Bay where the Corraun peninsula begins, over sand with a golf-course stream running out across the beach and rough ground off the pier.
Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 4 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 · 11
Atlantic codRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierAround Jan–Mar, Nov–DecPhoto: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain; resized and trimmed to fit
Atlantic mackerelRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierAround Jun–SeptPhoto: Hans Hillewaert, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized
Ballan wrasseRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierPhoto: Diego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
- Bull hussRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pier
Conger eelRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierPhoto: Holger Krisp, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0; resized and trimmed to fit
European flounderRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierPhoto: nbasargin, via iNaturalist, CC BY; resized and trimmed to fit
European sea bassRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierPhoto: Julien Renoult, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
GarfishRegular local target1 placeMulrannyOver pierAround Jun–SeptPhoto: Dmitry Pietrow, via iNaturalist, CC BY; resized and trimmed to fit
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Also documented from the shore: Pollack · Saithe · Small-spotted catshark
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.
- 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 Mulranny 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
- Dab — documented at Bertra Strand; An Corraun; Keel Strand
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
- Brown trout — documented at An Corraun; Cloghmore Harbour
- Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Clew Bay; Purteen Harbour
- Thornback ray — documented at An Corraun; Purteen Harbour
- Cuckoo wrasse — documented at Purteen Harbour
- Edible crab — documented at Clew Bay
- Lesser sandeel — documented at Cloghmore Harbour
- Turbot — documented at Keel Strand
- Atlantic salmon — documented at An Corraun
- European plaice — documented at Bertra Strand
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.
- 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
- Ragworm — for Ballan wrasse, European flounder, European sea bass, Pollack and 1 more
- Fish strip and cut bait — for Atlantic cod, Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark
- Squid and cuttlefish — for Atlantic cod, Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark
- Crab and shellfish — for Ballan wrasse, European sea bass, Saithe
- Peeler crab — for Atlantic cod, European flounder, European sea bass
- Sand eel — for European sea bass, Pollack, Saithe
- Sea deadbaits — for Bull huss, Small-spotted catshark
- Lugworm — for Atlantic cod
Also: Prawns and shrimp
Lures
- Metal jigs — for Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel, European sea bass, Pollack and 1 more
- Soft plastics — for Atlantic cod, Ballan wrasse, European sea bass, Pollack and 1 more
- Jerkbaits — for European sea bass
- Jigs and jig heads — for Pollack
- Spinners — for Atlantic mackerel
- Streamers — for European sea bass
- Surface lures — for European sea bass
How to catch them: Cod fishing · Mackerel fishing · Ballan wrasse fishing · Conger fishing · Flounder fishing · Bass fishing · Pollack fishing · Coalfish fishing
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A tidal pier and a long beach on the northern shore of Clew Bay where the Corraun peninsula begins, over sand with a golf-course stream running out across the beach and rough ground off the pier.
- Exposure
- Inside Clew Bay, though the directory warns the beach can produce a large surf and that care is needed.
- Tide and flow
- The pier is tidal and, since remedial work raised the seabed round it, fishes only around high water. The road out to the harbour floods out completely on high spring tides, which the directory states as a warning rather than a curiosity.
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.
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic cod — regular local target, recorded in November, December, January, February, March. | ||||||||||||
| Atlantic mackerel — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Garfish — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Ballan wrasse, Bull huss, Conger eel, European flounder, European sea bass, Pollack, Saithe, Small-spotted catshark.
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.
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Long-period ground swell generated by storms in the open North Atlantic arrives with its energy intact and independently of local wind, so a rock platform can be taking sets that arrive without warning under a blue sky and a flat forecast. The marks with deep water close in are the most attractive and the most exposed, and this is how people are swept off this coast.
What reduces it: Read the swell forecast — period as well as height — rather than the wind forecast. Watch any platform through several full set cycles before committing to it, and pick a position you could leave immediately. Deciding not to fish a mark is routine here rather than cautious.
Fishing alone — Can cause serious injury or death
Much of this coast is remote, has no mobile coverage and is a long way from help, so an ordinary injury — a turned ankle on broken rock, a fall on a wet slope — becomes a serious problem because nobody is coming and nobody knows where to look.
What reduces it: Tell somebody the mark and the return time. Carry a means of calling for help that does not assume mobile coverage. Do not fish exposed rock alone.
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.
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.
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.
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.
- An Corraun — 5–10 km · Headland
- Cloghmore Harbour — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Clew Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Bertra Strand — 10–25 km · Beach
- Roonagh Pier — 10–25 km · Pier
- Keel Strand — 10–25 km · Surf beach
- Purteen Harbour — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Keem Bay, Achill Island — 25–40 km · Bay
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 Mayo — 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.