Runswick Bay
Bay · Salt water · in The Yorkshire coast
A sheltered north-facing sand bay held between two shale headlands, with extensive alum-shale scars at both ends and one of the few genuine lees on this coast in a south-westerly.
Safety: tides and being cut off — 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 · 3
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.
- 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.
Also associated with this ground
Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Runswick 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
- Pollack — documented at Cloughton Wyke; Scarborough South Bay pier; Whitby piers
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at Filey Brigg; Scarborough Marine Drive; Scarborough South Bay pier (+3 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
- Dab — documented at Robin Hood's Bay; Whitby piers
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.
- Kayak fishing
A platform rather than a technique: quiet, shallow-draught access to water no other craft reaches, bought at the price of exposure, and a discipline where the decision not to launch is part of the skill.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A sheltered north-facing sand bay held between two shale headlands, with extensive alum-shale scars at both ends and one of the few genuine lees on this coast in a south-westerly.
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 October, November, December, January, February, March. | ||||||||||||
| Whiting — seasonal, recorded in November, December, January, February. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Saithe.
Safety
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
Wave-cut rock scars flood from the seaward edge and from behind at the same time, so the route back across the low ground between the platform and the cliff closes while the platform is still dry and while the angler is facing the sea.
What reduces it: Walk the exit before fishing and note the low ground. Set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing. Do not go out onto a scar on a rising tide unless the exit stays above water for the whole session.
Worse when:
- Spring tides, when the platform covers faster and further.
- In the dark, when the low ground behind cannot be seen filling.
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.
- Port Mulgrave — 2–5 km · Jetty
- Staithes — 2–5 km · Cove
- Whitby piers — 5–10 km · Pier
- Skinningrove jetty — 10–25 km · Jetty
- Saltburn — 10–25 km · Beach
- Robin Hood's Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Ravenscar and the Peak rocks — 10–25 km · Rock mark
- Redcar — 10–25 km · Beach
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 Northumberland and Durham shore guide: which species are fished for at each mark, in which season, and with which baits.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.