Streedagh Point
Rock mark · Salt water · in The Sligo and Leitrim coast
A rock point at the southern end of a four-kilometre beach in north Sligo, reached over the dunes fronting a small sandy cove, with extremely foul ground below and remarkably deep water in places. A causeway runs behind the beach with bait ground inside it.
Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 3 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 · 10
Atlantic mackerelRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markAround Jun–SeptPhoto: Hans Hillewaert, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized
Ballan wrasseRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markPhoto: Diego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
Brown troutRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markPhoto: Robermix, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0; resized and trimmed to fit
- Bull hussRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock mark
Conger eelRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markPhoto: Holger Krisp, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0; resized and trimmed to fit
GarfishRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markAround Jun–SeptPhoto: Dmitry Pietrow, via iNaturalist, CC BY; resized and trimmed to fit
PollackRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock markPhoto: Wilhelm Thomas Fiege, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and trimmed to fit
- Small-spotted catsharkRegular local target1 placeStreedagh PointOver rock mark
Also documented from the shore: European sea bass · Thornback ray
What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Occasional
- Caught here, and described as unusual rather than normal. Do not plan a session around it.
- 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.
Recorded here, but not a species to target
These are recorded here, but they are not fish to take. Each is either assessed as Critically Endangered or protected by statute in this jurisdiction, and taking one may be prohibited outright — elsewhere every rod-caught fish must be returned. Read the species page and check the current rules with the authority before fishing.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Streedagh Point 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.
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
- European flounder — documented at Aughris Head; Mullaghmore Harbour
- Atlantic cod — documented at Rosses Point
- Saithe — documented at Rosses Point
- Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Mullaghmore Harbour
- Dab — documented at Aughris Head; Mullaghmore Harbour
- European plaice — documented at Aughris Head; Mullaghmore Harbour
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.
- 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
- Fish strip and cut bait — for Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark, Thornback ray
- Ragworm — for Ballan wrasse, Pollack, Small-spotted catshark, European sea bass
- Squid and cuttlefish — for Bull huss, Conger eel, Small-spotted catshark
- Crab and shellfish — for Ballan wrasse, European sea bass
- Sand eel — for Pollack, European sea bass
- Sea deadbaits — for Bull huss, Small-spotted catshark
- Peeler crab — for European sea bass
- Prawns and shrimp — for Ballan wrasse
Lures
- Metal jigs — for Atlantic mackerel, Pollack, European sea bass
- Soft plastics — for Ballan wrasse, Pollack, European sea bass
- Streamers — for Brown trout, European sea bass
- Dry flies — for Brown trout
- Jerkbaits — for European sea bass
- Jigs and jig heads — for Pollack
- Nymphs — for Brown trout
- Spinners — for Atlantic mackerel
Also: Surface lures · Terrestrial fly patterns · Wet flies
How to catch them: Mackerel fishing · Ballan wrasse fishing · Brown trout fishing · Conger fishing · Pollack fishing · Bass fishing · Thornback ray fishing
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A rock point at the southern end of a four-kilometre beach in north Sligo, reached over the dunes fronting a small sandy cove, with extremely foul ground below and remarkably deep water in places. A causeway runs behind the beach with bait ground inside it.
- Exposure
- The outer rock mark is fully exposed to the Atlantic. The directory says it should only be fished in a group in calm weather, and puts the productive water at the very point where the current swings past it.
- Depth
- Remarkably deep in places off the point, over extremely foul ground.
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 mackerel — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Garfish — regular local target, recorded in June, July, August, September. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Ballan wrasse, Brown trout, Bull huss, Conger eel, Pollack, Small-spotted catshark, Tope, European sea bass, Thornback ray.
Safety
Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death
Narrow sounds, estuary mouths, harbour entrances and channel edges run hard on the tide, and the water moving through them is a whole bay emptying and filling through a gap. Somebody who enters that water is carried, not swum, and shingle and sandbanks shift under the current.
What reduces it: Treat the state of the tide as part of the mark rather than as a timing detail. Do not wade a channel edge. Stay off shifting banks on a making tide.
Fishing alone — Can cause serious injury or death
Much of this coast is remote, has no mobile coverage and is a long way from help, so an ordinary injury — a turned ankle on broken rock, a fall on a wet slope — becomes a serious problem because nobody is coming and nobody knows where to look.
What reduces it: Tell somebody the mark and the return time. Carry a means of calling for help that does not assume mobile coverage. Do not fish exposed rock alone.
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.
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.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
General safety for this kind of ground, not a finding about this place.
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.
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going.
Who holds the answer:
- Inland Fisheries Ireland, which administers angling and fisheries protection.
- The harbour or local authority, for access to structures and the shore.
- Inland Fisheries Ireland, for freshwater fisheries, for salmon and sea trout licensing and tagging, and for the sea angling conservation measures it administers.
- The government department responsible for the marine, and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, for sea fisheries measures, minimum sizes, bag limits and protected species.
- The National Parks and Wildlife Service, where a designation constrains access, disturbance or collection.
- The Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the shellfish classification and biotoxin monitoring programme, before anything filter-feeding is taken.
- The harbour authority, local authority, club or landowner controlling the specific structure or shore, whose permission is theirs to give and is not stated here.
- The Irish Coast Guard 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.
- Rosses Point — 10–25 km · Headland
- Mullaghmore Harbour — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Aughris Head — 10–25 km · Surf beach
- St John's Point, Donegal — 10–25 km · Headland
- Teelin Pier — 25–40 km · Pier
- Killybegs harbour — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- Rossnowlagh Beach — 25–40 km · Surf beach
- Lough Melvin — 25–40 km · Lough
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
- Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Sligo and Leitrim — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A practitioner shore directory describing this mark's ground, species, methods, baits and the character of the access.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.