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St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay

Island · Salt water · in The north-east England coast

A small limestone island reached by a concrete causeway that covers on the flood, with a wave-cut platform, rock pools and a low reef running north from it.

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
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.

Ballan wrasse · Shore crab

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at St Mary's Island, Whitley 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

  • European flounder — documented at Amble and the Coquet estuary; Newbiggin Bay; Sunderland Roker Pier (+17 more)
  • Dab — documented at Seaham; Horden beach; Tynemouth North Pier (+3 more)
  • European plaice — documented at Seahouses harbour; South Shields and the Tyne piers; Tynemouth North Pier (+1 more)
  • Pollack — documented at Craster and Cullernose Point; North Sunderland Point; Embleton Bay (+5 more)
  • Atlantic mackerel — documented at Craster and Cullernose Point; Embleton Bay; Dunstanburgh Castle rocks

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

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.

The ground and the water

The ground
A small limestone island reached by a concrete causeway that covers on the flood, with a wave-cut platform, rock pools and a low reef running north from it.

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.

The months in which each species is recorded as caught at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic cod — seasonal, recorded in October, November, December, January, February, March.
European sea bass — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
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

The causeway to the island covers on every flood and floods from both sides at once across a low concrete surface with no handrail, leaving people on an island with no shelter.

What reduces it: Check the crossing times before walking out, set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing, and do not attempt the causeway once water is running across any part of it.

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.

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.

St Mary's Island, Whitley BayBlyth South Harbour breakwaterTynemouth North PierSouth Shields and the Tyne piersMarsden Bay and Camel IslandWhitburn and SouterThe tidal TyneNewbiggin BaySnab Point
St Mary's Island, Whitley 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

  • 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.

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