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St Brides Bay

Bay · Salt water · in Pembrokeshire and the south-west Wales coast

The wide rocky bay between St David's Head and Skomer, with broken ground and kelp round its edges and cleaner sand in the middle. A snaggy seabed, which decides everything: lures and float work here and bottom fishing costs tackle.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — 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

From a kayak · 2

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.
Repeatedly reported
Several independent public accounts. Enough to say it happens more than once; not enough to call it a fishery.
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.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at St Brides 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

  • Atlantic cod — documented at Tenby South Beach; Hobbs Point; Goodwick breakwater
  • Whiting — documented at Tenby South Beach; Hobbs Point; Goodwick breakwater

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

From a kayak

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.

  • Spinning

    Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Feathering and multi-lure traces

    A string of small lures on droppers, worked in the water column — how most people in Britain and Ireland catch their first sea fish, and the method most likely to catch far more than anybody intended.

  • 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
The wide rocky bay between St David's Head and Skomer, with broken ground and kelp round its edges and cleaner sand in the middle. A snaggy seabed, which decides everything: lures and float work here and bottom fishing costs tackle.
Exposure
Open west into the Celtic Sea, with the islands taking the worst of it at the mouth.
Depth
Broken and shallow round the edges, deeper and cleaner in the middle of the bay.

Through the year

Pollack and bass through the summer on lures; conger to big baits on the rough ground.

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
European sea bass — regular local target, recorded in May, June, July, August, September, October.
Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
Pollack — seasonal, recorded in May, June, July, August, September, October.
Atlantic mackerel — repeatedly reported, recorded in July.
European sea bass — repeatedly reported, recorded in July.

Recorded here with no season stated: Ballan wrasse, Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark.

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.

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

Tidal streams through the sounds run faster than a kayak can paddle or a small outboard can push against, and produce standing waves, boils and overfalls on springs. A craft that enters the acceleration is committed to wherever the stream takes it.

What reduces it: Plan every movement around the state of the tide before the wind. Know when the stream turns at the specific sound rather than at a distant standard port. Do not attempt a sound on spring tides. Treat visible overfalls as a boundary and allow a wide margin, since their position moves through the tide.

Worse when:

  • Spring tides, when the streams run hardest and the overfalls are largest.
  • Wind against tide, which stands the race up into breaking water.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

Atlantic water on this coast stays cold enough year round that immersion produces an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control in the first seconds, which is what decides the outcome rather than the swim afterwards.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid, do not fish alone on exposed rock, and carry a means of calling for help on the person.

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.

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.
  • Welsh Government, for sea fisheries policy and measures in Welsh waters, which differ from English ones.
  • Natural Resources Wales, for marine and freshwater licensing, designation and enforcement in Wales.
  • The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and the relevant island or reserve managers, where access, landing and disturbance are constrained by designation.
  • The Milford Haven Port Authority, for navigation, access and exclusion within the haven.
  • The Food Standards Agency and the local authority, for shellfish harvesting area classification and biotoxin closures.
  • 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.

St Brides BayBroad Haven and Little HavenSolvaRamsey SoundWhitesands Bay and St David's HeadMilford Haven waterwayHobbs PointFreshwater WestGoodwick breakwater
St Brides 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

  • 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: Welsh shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Mark-by-mark Welsh shore angling: which species are fished for at each named mark, in which season, and with which baits and methods.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Public fishing video with an explicitly stated location — Various public video platforms (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A dated public video whose uploader states, in their own written description or title, that this named ground was fished from a kayak.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

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

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