South Gare
Breakwater · Salt water · in The north-east England coast
A three-kilometre breakwater built of slag from the Teesside furnaces, running north across the Tees mouth with deep dredged channel inside and boulder armour over sand outside.
Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — 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.
- 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 South Gare 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 Tynemouth North Pier; Whitburn and Souter; The tidal Tyne (+7 more)
- Dab — documented at Seaham; Horden beach; Tynemouth North Pier (+3 more)
- European plaice — documented at South Shields and the Tyne piers; Tynemouth North Pier; Horden beach
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
- Pollack — documented at Chemical Beach and the Stack; Tynemouth North Pier
- Common sole — documented at Tynemouth North Pier
- Small-spotted catshark — documented at Horden beach
- Thornback ray — documented at Horden beach
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
- Lugworm — for Atlantic cod, Whiting
- Peeler crab — for Atlantic cod, European flounder
- Fish strip and cut bait — for Atlantic cod
- Ragworm — for European flounder
- Squid and cuttlefish — for Atlantic cod
Lures
- Metal jigs — for Atlantic cod
- Soft plastics — for Atlantic cod
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A three-kilometre breakwater built of slag from the Teesside furnaces, running north across the Tees mouth with deep dredged channel inside and boulder armour over sand outside.
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. | ||||||||||||
| Whiting — regular local target, recorded in November, December, January, February. |
Recorded here with no season stated: European flounder.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
A wave-cut platform gives an angler nowhere to go. A larger set arrives across flat weed-covered rock at sea level, with water on three sides, and a person knocked down slides on kelp into a gully or off the edge into cold water. Sets are irregular and a platform that has been dry for twenty minutes is not evidence about the next wave.
What reduces it: Watch the mark through several full wave-set cycles before walking out onto it. Wear a buoyancy aid. Do not fish a platform alone. Fix the exit and the time to leave before starting, and treat a rising sea as a reason to leave rather than to move back a few metres.
Worse when:
- Long-period ground swell arriving with little local wind, which produces far larger sets than the conditions suggest.
- Wet kelp, which offers effectively no grip.
- Darkness, when a set cannot be seen coming.
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
Scars flood from seaward and simultaneously from behind, as water rises through the gullies that cut them. The route back to the shore may be under water while the platform is still dry, which is the reverse of what somebody watching the sea in front of them expects.
What reduces it: Work out the return route and the time it is lost before going out, not after. Set a leaving time against the tide rather than against the fishing, and treat rising water in a gully behind you as the signal to go immediately.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
North Sea water on this coast is cold year-round, and immersion produces an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control within seconds. Much of the fishing is winter night fishing from rock, alone.
What reduces it: A buoyancy aid worn rather than carried, not fishing alone, a means of calling for help carried on the person, and telling 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.
- The harbour authority or commissioners, for fishing from piers, breakwaters and harbour structures, where permission is a local matter and changes.
- Natural England and the relevant protected site body, where a designation affects access or collection.
- 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.
- The Tees estuary — 2–5 km · Estuary
- Seaton Carew — 2–5 km · Beach
- Redcar — 5–10 km · Beach
- Hartlepool Headland — 5–10 km · Headland
- Steetley Pier and Parton — 5–10 km · Pier
- Crimdon beach — 10–25 km · Beach
- Saltburn — 10–25 km · Beach
- Horden beach — 10–25 km · Beach
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
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.