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Robin Hood's Bay

Bay · Salt water · in The Yorkshire coast

A great arc of wave-cut shale scars uncovering hundreds of metres at low water, ribbed into concentric arcs by the eroded flank of a dome — the most extensive rock platform on the Yorkshire coast.

Safety: tides and being cut off — can cause serious injury or death. 2 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
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.

Also associated with this ground

Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.

Ballan wrasse · Shore crab · European lobster

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Robin Hood's Bay 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

  • Saithe — documented at Skinningrove jetty; Port Mulgrave; Scarborough Marine Drive (+5 more)
  • Pollack — documented at Cloughton Wyke; Scarborough South Bay pier; Bridlington North Pier (+1 more)
  • Atlantic mackerel — documented at Filey Brigg; Scarborough Marine Drive; Scarborough South Bay pier (+4 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

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.

The ground and the water

The ground
A great arc of wave-cut shale scars uncovering hundreds of metres at low water, ribbed into concentric arcs by the eroded flank of a dome — the most extensive rock platform on the Yorkshire coast.

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 species is recorded as caught at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic cod — regular local target, recorded in October, November, December, January, February, March.
Dab — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
European flounder — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
European sea bass — seasonal, recorded in May, June, July, August, September, October.
Whiting — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February.

Safety

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

The scars uncover several hundred metres and the flood returns across a near-level ribbed platform with gullies that fill first, so water appears between an angler and the cliff foot while the rock in front is still dry. The cliffs behind offer no exit for most of the bay.

What reduces it: Walk out only on a falling tide, set a leaving time from the tide table before going out, and know which of the few cliff-foot exits is reachable from where you are standing.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

On the northern rock coast, a swell that has been below a ledge for twenty minutes arrives above it in a set and takes a person off it. On the southern clay coast, boulder-clay cliffs collapse without warning onto whatever is at their base.

What reduces it: Watch the sea for a full set before committing to any rock position, and choose a position with a way up rather than only a way to stand. Never shelter, sit or set up beneath a clay cliff, and keep back from the cliff edge above, which is undercut.

Worse when:

  • Long-period swell, which arrives in sets far larger than the average.
  • After heavy or prolonged rain, when saturated boulder clay slumps.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

The North Sea here is cold for most of the year and this fishery is weighted to autumn and winter, frequently at night. Immersion produces an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control within seconds, which removes the ability to swim or to climb out.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, do not fish alone, carry a means of calling for help on the person, and tell somebody the mark and the return time.

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.

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 Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district, which makes and enforces inshore byelaws including those on bait collection.
  • Natural England and the site management body, where a marine or coastal designation affects access, vehicles or collection.
  • The harbour authority or commissioners at each port, where fishing is from harbour structures or small craft are launched.
  • The statutory harbour authority for the Humber, for navigation and access on the estuary.
  • The Maritime and Coastguard Agency 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.

Robin Hood's BayRavenscar and the Peak rocksWhitby piersCloughton WykeRunswick BayScarborough Marine DriveScarborough South Bay pierPort MulgraveStaithes
Robin Hood's Bay and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. 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

  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Description, designation and habitat characterisation of the named coastal and marine features of the United Kingdom, and the species characteristically associated with them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Marine environmental science for UK shelf seas: sediment characterisation, estuarine process, shellfish bed distribution, tidal range and the monitoring that describes them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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-east England and Yorkshire shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The mark-by-mark Yorkshire and Humberside shore guide: which species are fished for at each mark, in which season, with which baits, and at which state of tide.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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