South Stack
Rock mark · Salt water · in Anglesey
Quartzite cliffs of up to a hundred and twenty metres on the western tip of Holy Island, with a lighthouse islet, deep water immediately below and a heavily folded, broken rock coast either side.
Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. 3 more points apply here.
FishingHQ describes what this place is. It does not say whether you may fish it: access rights, permits, licences, byelaws, closures and protected areas all apply, all differ and all change. Who to ask is below.
Also associated with this ground
Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.
Pollack · Ballan wrasse · Atlantic mackerel · Conger eel · European sea bass
How people fish it
Practised here: Sea fishing, Spearfishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- 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
- Quartzite cliffs of up to a hundred and twenty metres on the western tip of Holy Island, with a lighthouse islet, deep water immediately below and a heavily folded, broken rock coast either side.
- Exposure
- Fully open west to the Irish Sea. Atlantic-generated swell wraps round Anglesey and arrives here with nothing in front of it.
- Depth
- Very deep close in beneath the cliffs.
- Tide and flow
- Strong streams run past the stack and set up broken water on the ebb against a swell.
Through the year
Pollack, wrasse and mackerel through the warmer months; bass from late spring to autumn.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.
What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Access to the water here is down long, steep, exposed cliff paths and scrambles above a hundred metres of drop, in a place where the weather changes fast and the return climb is harder than the descent.
What reduces it: Treat the descent as mountaineering rather than as a walk, do not commit to a route you have not seen from below, and turn back when conditions or light change rather than when the climb becomes difficult.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
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.
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
Tidal streams through the Menai Strait and around Anglesey's headlands reach speeds a kayak or small boat cannot make way against, with standing waves and overfalls forming at the constrictions. Slack water does not coincide with high or low tide and the window is short. Extensive intertidal flats along the strait flood rapidly and can cut off a person from behind.
What reduces it: Plan against tidal STREAM information rather than tide tables alone. Treat the Swellies as a slack-water-only proposition in any small craft. Know the exit before committing to a mark on the flats. Carry a means of calling for help and tell somebody the plan.
Worse when:
- Spring tides, when the streams are fastest and the slack window is shortest
- Wind against tide, which builds a short steep sea in minutes
- Fog or failing light, when the visual cues to what the water is doing are lost
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in Wales 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 Natural Resources Wales, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner 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:
- Natural Resources Wales, which administers marine and fisheries regulation in Welsh waters.
- The local authority and, where one exists, the harbour authority, for access, byelaws and shellfish classification.
- The national fisheries authority for Wales, for sea fisheries measures, licensing and enforcement.
- The inshore fisheries and conservation body for the area, for local byelaws, closed areas and gear restrictions.
- The food safety authority and the local authority, for shellfish bed classification and closures, which change continually.
- The harbour authorities and the port authority for the strait, for navigation, launching and access.
- The maritime and coastguard agency and the lifeboat service, for safety information and rescue in an area with genuine tidal hazard.
- The landowner, club or fishery, for permission to fish any freshwater on the island.
- The reserve managers, where seabird nesting restrictions affect access seasonally.
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- Holyhead breakwater — 2–5 km · Breakwater
- Trearddur Bay — 5–10 km · Bay
- Llyn Alaw — 10–25 km · Reservoir
- Cemaes Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Llanddwyn Island — 25–40 km · Island
- Point Lynas — 25–40 km · Headland
- Caernarfon and the Menai south entrance — 25–40 km · Tidal channel
- The Menai Strait and the Swellies — 25–40 km · Tidal race
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
- Rock fishing safety and the declared lifejacket areas of New South Wales — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Surf Life Saving NSW (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Rock-platform fishing hazards, the mechanism by which anglers are swept from platforms by sets rather than by average conditions, and the measures that address it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock, immersion response and the advice to carry a means of calling for help on the person.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.