Passage East
Tidal channel · Salt water · in The Waterford coast
A village on the western shore of Waterford Harbour where the estuary narrows and deep water runs close to the quay. Mud and sand with a hard channel, and a car ferry crossing the mark itself.
Safety: cold water shock — 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 · 8
Atlantic codEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channelAround Jan–Mar, Nov–Dec
Atlantic mackerelEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channelAround Jun–Sept
European flounderEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channel
Grey gurnardEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channel
SaitheEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channel- Small-spotted catsharkEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channel
WhitingEstablished quarry1 placePassage EastOver tidal channelAround Jan–Mar, Nov–Dec
Ballan wrasseOccasional1 placePassage EastOver tidal channel
What these strengths mean
- Established quarry
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Occasional
- Caught here, and described as unusual rather than normal. Do not plan a session around it.
- 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.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Passage East 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 Ballyquin Strand; Helvick Head; Tramore 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 Tramore Strand; Ballyquin Strand
- Conger eel — documented at Helvick Head; Dunmore East
- Dab — documented at Ballyquin Strand; Tramore Strand
- European plaice — documented at Ballyquin Strand; Tramore Strand
- Garfish — documented at Dunmore East; Helvick Head
- Pollack — documented at Dunmore East; Helvick Head
- Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Dunmore East; Helvick Head
- Bull huss — documented at Helvick Head
- Common sole — documented at Ballyquin Strand
- Small-eyed ray — documented at Ballyquin Strand
- Thornback ray — documented at Ballyquin 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.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A village on the western shore of Waterford Harbour where the estuary narrows and deep water runs close to the quay. Mud and sand with a hard channel, and a car ferry crossing the mark itself.
- Exposure
- Inside Waterford Harbour and sheltered, with the weather that matters being wind against tide.
- Depth
- Immediate access to very deep water from the shore, which the directory names as the mark's whole point.
- Tide and flow
- The practitioner directory gives two hours either side of high water for the flatfish and says grip leads are essential and the channel is only fishable on slack water. That is a strong tide described honestly.
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 — established quarry, recorded in November, December, January, February, March. | ||||||||||||
| Atlantic mackerel — established quarry, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Whiting — established quarry, recorded in November, December, January, February, March. |
Recorded here with no season stated: European flounder, Grey gurnard, Saithe, Small-spotted catshark, Ballan wrasse.
Safety
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
The water is cold enough to trigger the involuntary gasp and hyperventilation of cold water shock for most of the year, which incapacitates a swimmer in the first minute regardless of how well they swim, and it does not stop being cold in a warm summer week.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid so the first minute does not have to be survived by swimming. Fish with somebody. Know where you would get out before you need to.
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.
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 working car ferry slip and village quay. The directory also records that a seal population uses the main channel, which is a fact about the fishing rather than a hazard.
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.
- Dunmore East — 5–10 km · Harbour wall
- Hook Head — 10–25 km · Headland
- Tramore Strand — 10–25 km · Surf beach
- Kilmore Quay — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- The Coombe, Tacumshin — 25–40 km · Beach section
- Wexford Harbour and the Slobs — 25–40 km · Estuary
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 Waterford — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A practitioner shore directory describing this mark's ground, species, methods, baits and tide window.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.