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The Roe estuary

Estuary · Brackish water · in Lough Foyle and its rivers

The mouth of the River Roe where it enters the south-eastern corner of Lough Foyle, six kilometres north of Limavady: salt marsh and wide mud and sand flats exposed at low water, fished from a wall and the large boulders on its seaward side. The mud holds lugworm, ragworm, shrimp and periwinkle in quantity, and it holds shore crab in quantity too.

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 · 4

What these strengths mean
Characteristic of this water
This water is strongly identified with this species by the sources that cover it.
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.

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.

European eel

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.

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

Lures

Also: Wet flies

How to catch them: Flounder fishing · Brown trout fishing · Bass fishing · Grey mullet fishing

The ground and the water

The ground
The mouth of the River Roe where it enters the south-eastern corner of Lough Foyle, six kilometres north of Limavady: salt marsh and wide mud and sand flats exposed at low water, fished from a wall and the large boulders on its seaward side. The mud holds lugworm, ragworm, shrimp and periwinkle in quantity, and it holds shore crab in quantity too.
Exposure
Wholly sheltered. Lough Foyle takes the weather off this water and the estuary itself is a soft-ground fishery rather than an exposed one.
Depth
Shallow over the flats; a defined channel where the river runs out.
Tide and flow
Large flats that uncover completely on the ebb and fill quickly, with the river channel the only water that stays. The fishing follows the tide up and down the wall rather than staying in one place.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-25. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
Reached near the Limavady roundabout by the cricket pitch, with the fishing off a wall and the large boulders on its seaward side rather than off the marsh. A soft-ground estuary where the useful position is the hard edge of it.

Parking

  • Parking by the cricket ground

    Informal parking area · Charging not established

    The shore directory describes ample space to park near the access by the cricket pitch. It is informal rather than a named public car park, and no charging arrangement is established either way.

Where this access information comes from
  • Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Londonderry — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: That the estuary is reached near the Limavady roundabout by the cricket pitch with ample parking, and is fished from a wall and large boulders on the seaward side.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Through the year

Flounder and eel through the year on the bottom, with school bass, sea trout and mullet named by a national guide. The mullet are qualified as needing specialist tactics, which is one of very few places any source in this register says a species needs a different approach rather than a different bait.

Safety

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

Wide soft flats that uncover a long way and fill from the channel inward, so the water arrives behind somebody standing on the mud before it reaches them, and the mud itself slows the walk back at exactly the wrong moment.

What reduces it: Fish from the wall and the boulders rather than from the flats, set a leaving time from the tide table before going out onto soft ground at all, and treat the softness as a multiplier on how long the return takes.

Drowning and immersion — Can cause serious injury or death

Soft intertidal mud over large areas of the lough, which a person can sink into far enough to be held, on ground that floods quickly. Being stuck in soft ground on a flooding tide is a specific and well-documented way of drowning without ever having been out of your depth.

What reduces it: Do not walk out over soft intertidal ground on a flooding tide. Test the ground and keep to firmer sand. Carry a means of calling for help and do not go alone. If stuck, spread your weight, do not struggle, and call for help immediately rather than after trying to free yourself.

Worse when:

  • A big spring tide, which floods the flats faster and further
  • After heavy rain, when the freshwater input softens the ground further
  • Fog or falling light, when the way back is hard to find

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 access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Angling in Northern Ireland generally requires both a rod licence from the relevant fisheries body and a separate permit for the water, and the two are issued by different bodies. Rules, seasons and permit arrangements change. Check with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Loughs Agency where relevant, and the permit issuer before going.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Who holds the answer:

  • The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, for sea fisheries and marine conservation in Northern Ireland.
  • The harbour authority or council, for access to the structure or the shore.
  • The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, for rod licensing and fisheries regulation.
  • The Loughs Agency, in the Foyle and Carlingford catchments.
  • The club, association or owner that issues the permit for the water.
  • The Loughs Agency, the cross-border body that administers fishing throughout the Foyle catchment on both sides of the border, and whose licensing differs from that of either jurisdiction.
  • The Northern Ireland department responsible for agriculture, environment and rural affairs, for sea fisheries measures and marine conservation on the northern shore.
  • The Irish state fisheries and marine authorities, for the parts of the catchment inside the Republic.
  • The Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the site management bodies, where habitat designation on the lough or its flats affects access or collection.
  • The riparian owner or angling club holding the rights on any given river beat.

Nearby fishing

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

The Roe estuaryBenone Strand and MagilliganThe Bann mouth at CastlerockPortstewart StrandPortrush and Ramore HeadPortballintraeThe River BushThe Lower BannRathmullan
The Roe estuary 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: Northern Ireland shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A national shore-mark guide naming this mark, its species, methods, baits and the conditions it fishes in.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Londonderry — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A shore-mark directory describing this mark's ground, species, baits and access character.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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