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Talland Bay

Bay · Salt water · in The Cornish and Devon coasts

A small south-facing bay between Looe and Polperro with shale reef running out from both headlands and shingle and sand between them. Rock at the edges, clean in the middle, and shelter from the west.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies 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 · 1

From a kayak · 8

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.
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.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Talland 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

  • Thick-lipped grey mullet — documented at Bolt Head and the Salcombe rock; The Salcombe estuary; Mount Batten (+5 more)
  • European flounder — documented at Newton Ferrers and the Yealm; The Salcombe estuary; Whitsand Bay and Tregantle (+4 more)
  • European plaice — documented at Whitsand Bay and Tregantle; The Salcombe estuary; Rame Head and Penlee Point
  • Thornback ray — documented at The Salcombe estuary; The Plymouth rock marks; The Tamar estuary (+1 more)

From a kayak

  • Whiting — documented at Fowey; Newquay and Towan Head; Gribbin Head
  • European plaice — documented at Newquay and Towan Head; The Camel estuary; Widemouth Bay (+1 more)
  • Dab — documented at Newquay and Towan Head; The Camel estuary; Widemouth Bay
  • European flounder — documented at Fowey; Falmouth and Castle Beach; Newquay and Towan Head
  • Gilthead bream — documented at Falmouth and Castle Beach; Fowey; The Camel estuary
  • Tub gurnard — documented at Newquay and Towan Head; The Camel estuary; Gribbin Head

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

  • Pouting — documented at Whitsand Bay and Tregantle
  • Gilthead bream — documented at The Salcombe estuary; The Fal estuary
  • Black seabream — documented at The Salcombe estuary; Falmouth and Castle Beach
  • Whiting — documented at Whitsand Bay and Tregantle; Newton Ferrers and the Yealm
  • Common sole — documented at The Salcombe estuary
  • Turbot — documented at Bolt Head and the Salcombe rock; Gorran Haven harbour wall
  • Twaite shad — documented at Gorran Haven harbour wall

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.

  • 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.

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

Also: Prawns and shrimp

Lures

The ground and the water

The ground
A small south-facing bay between Looe and Polperro with shale reef running out from both headlands and shingle and sand between them. Rock at the edges, clean in the middle, and shelter from the west.
Exposure
Open south into the Channel, with the headlands giving shelter inside the bay.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-25. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
Two small beaches in the same bay. Talland Sand gives the easier way onto the water; Rotterdam Beach has rocky platforms that are covered at high water and in the way at low.
The walk in
Down to Talland Sand via a small slipway; a short path from the spaces above Rotterdam Beach.
Tidal access
Rotterdam Beach is easier at high water, because the rocky platforms that are exposed at low tide are what makes it awkward.

Parking

  • Talland Sand

    Public car park · Charged

    A small pay-and-display car park above the beach, open Easter to October. Some roadside parking on the approach road.

  • Rotterdam Beach

    Informal parking area · Charging not established

    A few spaces above the beach with a small path down to it. Not a formal car park and the charging is not stated.

Where this access information comes from
  • Places to kayak fish in Cornwall — the south coast venue pages — Cornish Kayak Angler (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The pay-and-display car park above Talland Sand, its seasonal opening, the informal spaces above Rotterdam Beach, the slipway, and the effect of the tide on the rocky platforms.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Through the year

Bass, mackerel and pollack through the summer; wrasse and dogfish 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 mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
European sea bass — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
Garfish — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.
Pollack — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.

Recorded here with no season stated: Ballan wrasse, Small-spotted catshark, Ballan wrasse, Pollack, Atlantic cod, Bull huss, Conger eel, European sea bass.

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

The north coast's surf beaches carry strong rip currents, which run seaward through gaps in the sandbars and can take a wading angler off their feet and out beyond the surf line faster than they can walk back.

What reduces it: Do not wade deep in surf; learn to identify the calmer, darker, less-breaking channels that mark a rip and stay out of them; and if caught, do not swim against it — swim across the current parallel to the beach until out of it.

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 national fisheries authority for England, for licensing of freshwater and migratory fishing and for fisheries enforcement
  • The relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority for the district, which sets and enforces local sea fisheries byelaws
  • The body managing any marine protected area on the stretch concerned
  • The local authority environmental health service, for shellfish classification and public health closures
  • The harbour authority for working harbours and quays
  • The relevant estuary or river management body, where an estuary carries its own arrangements

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

Talland BayThe Polperro rock coastLooeFoweyGribbin HeadWhitsand Bay and TregantleRame Head and Penlee PointMevagissey harbourThe Tamar estuary
Talland 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: south coast and south-west England shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named shore mark on the English south and south-west coast, and in which season.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Places to kayak fish in Cornwall — the south coast venue pages — Cornish Kayak Angler (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The two beaches, their parking, and the tidal effect on the platforms.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Places to kayak and fish in Cornwall — Cornish Kayak Angler (Practitioner report)Relied on for: That the named venue is one of the Cornish coastal locations a kayak angler's published venue list gives as kayak fishing ground.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysPassage read and verified

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

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