The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay

Fishing regions · Last reviewed 2026-08-28

The stretch south of the Strangford narrows where a low reef coast of harbours and points turns west into a long sand bay under the Mourne Mountains.

Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 6 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

Being listed here is not permission to fish. What that means

Access, fishing rights, seasons, licences, local bylaws and permitted methods vary and can change. Check current access, permission, local regulations, closures and restrictions before you travel or fish. FishingHQ describes what the ground is and names who holds the answer; it does not hold the answer itself.

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Between the mouth of Strangford Lough and the foot of the Mournes the County Down coast does two distinct things, and they are described together because an angler treats them as one trip.

THE LECALE SHORE IS LOW ROCK AND HARBOURS. From Ballyhornan south past Guns Island to Ardglass, Killough and St John's Point, the coast is fractured greywacke reef, small headlands and sheltered inlets, with sand between. It is close-in ground — reef, kelp and gutters within casting range — and it produces the mixed rough-ground list: wrasse, coalfish, codling, conger and dogfish, with flatfish and ray over the clean patches. Ardglass is a working fishing port. St John's Point is a genuine point with deeper water and a harder stream than the shore either side of it.

THEN THE COAST TURNS AND BECOMES SAND. West of St John's Point the shore swings round into Dundrum Bay: several kilometres of open strand backed by dune, with the Mourne Mountains standing directly behind it at Newcastle. This is surf ground rather than reef ground, and it fishes as such — bass, flatfish, dogfish and ray in the tables, and a genuine surf fishery when there is a sea running.

THE BAY IS SHALLOW AND IT MATTERS. Dundrum Bay shelves gently and a long way out, so a moderate onshore wind produces a substantial and confused surf across a wide area, and the tide covers a great deal of flat sand quickly.

WHAT AN ANGLER SHOULD TAKE FROM THE RECORD is that the choice here is reef or surf, and the weather usually makes it: an easterly that turns Dundrum Bay into unfishable brown water can leave the Lecale rock, tucked behind its own points, perfectly workable.

What fishing here is like

Two grounds meeting at a point. East of St John's Point the coast is low fractured reef, small headlands and working harbours, fished close in and partly sheltered by its own irregularity. West of it the coast becomes a long shallow sand bay under a mountain range, fully open to the south-east and fishing as surf ground.

The point itself is the hinge and the best of both: deeper water, a harder stream, and rock on one side with sand on the other.

What you can target here

One entry per fish, grouped by how you would be fishing — because the answer is a different one from the rocks and from a boat. Each entry says how strongly the sources support it and how much evidence sits behind it. This is documented quarry, not a forecast, and none of it is a statement that you may fish any particular ground.

From the shore · 11

Also documented from the shore: Small-spotted catshark · Atlantic mackerel · European sea bass · European flounder · Ling

Spearfishing · 2

What these strengths mean

Established quarry: 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.
Recorded here: At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
Places, accounts and sources are counted separately: A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.

How people fish here

4 methods are recorded on the places documented here, counted from the records themselves rather than from what is practised in the country. Each opens a full guide to the technique.

Ledgering
Recorded at 4 places here, over bay, beach, harbour wall, rock mark.
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.
Documented on the same ground: Atlantic cod, Ballan wrasse, Bull huss, Conger eel, Pollack, Saithe.
Float fishing
Recorded at 2 places here, over harbour wall, rock mark.
Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.
Documented on the same ground: Atlantic cod, Ballan wrasse, Bull huss, Conger eel, Pollack, Saithe.
Kayak fishing
Recorded at 2 places here, over bay, harbour wall.
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.
Documented on the same ground: Bull huss, Pollack, Saithe, Small-spotted catshark, Atlantic mackerel, Ballan wrasse.
Spinning
Recorded at 2 places here, over bay, rock mark.
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.
Documented on the same ground: Atlantic cod, Ballan wrasse, Bull huss, Conger eel, Pollack, Saithe.

These are the methods documented at the places FishingHQ holds here. A species listed beside a method is documented on the same ground, which is not the same as being taken that way — where a source establishes the method a fish was caught on, it is stated on that place’s own page. All fishing methods.

The fishing year here

The months the records under this area actually name, tightest season first. This is “observed in these months” rather than a season: a species whose months nobody recorded is not listed, because a gap in the evidence is not a year-round fishery.

Atlantic codNovember to February
Atlantic mackerelJune to September
Ballan wrasseMay to October

What dominates

Rock and reef fishing on the Lecale shore for wrasse, coalfish, codling, conger and dogfish. Beach and surf fishing in Dundrum Bay for bass, flatfish, dogfish and ray. Bass lure fishing along the reef edges and in the bay's gutters. Small-boat and charter fishing out of Ardglass over the reef and the deeper ground offshore.

The water available

Fractured greywacke reef, low headlands, kelp and sand gutters along the Lecale shore, with small harbours and a working fishing port. A tidal point with deeper water off it. West of the point, several kilometres of gently shelving open strand backed by dune, with a river entering at the western end and mountains immediately behind.

How the rules are structured

Northern Ireland administers its own sea fisheries measures, distinct from those in the rest of the United Kingdom. Ardglass is a working commercial fishing port and its structures are operational infrastructure. Conservation designation applies along parts of this coast and to the dune systems behind Dundrum Bay, affecting access independently of any fisheries measure. FishingHQ does not state what any current rule is: measures, designations and local byelaws change, and the answer differs by species and by stretch of coast.

Who to ask

The Northern Ireland department responsible for agriculture, environment and rural affairs, which administers sea fisheries measures and marine conservation here.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the site management bodies, where a coastal or marine designation affects access or activity.
The harbour authority at each port, for access to and fishing from harbour structures. Several of these are working fishing ports rather than public quays.
The landowner, where access to the shore crosses land in private or National Trust ownership.

Words you will meet

The Point: St John's Point, used locally without qualification. It marks the hinge between the reef coast to the east and the sand of Dundrum Bay to the west, and the tidal stream off it is noticeably harder than the shore on either side.

Conditions and hazards

Two different hazards on two halves of one record.

On the Lecale reef the risk is the usual low-rock combination: slippery weed-covered greywacke, gutters that fill behind you, and deep water a step from a comfortable stance. It is close to a road and easy to reach, which tends to mean people fish it in weather they would not walk far for.

In Dundrum Bay the risk is the surf itself. The bay shelves very gently over a long distance, so a moderate onshore wind produces a wide, confused, powerful surf and a strong lateral run along the beach. Wading into that in chest waders is how people get into difficulty on shallow strands, and the tide covers a great deal of flat sand quickly.

Cold water applies year-round on both halves, and Ardglass is a working fishing port.

Places within this area

Publicly documented fishing geography. FishingHQ describes what the ground is; it does not say whether you may fish it, and every one of these sends that question to the body that holds the answer. Browse every place in this part of the world.

Who to ask before fishing any of these

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.

Dundrum Bay and Newcastle
Bay · Salt water
A wide, shallow, south-east facing bay of clean sand backed by the Murlough dune system, with the Mourne Mountains rising immediately behind and a tidal inner bay at Dundrum.
Open south-east to the Irish Sea, so an easterly blows straight in with a long fetch and produces a genuine surf on the sand.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock, moving water and currents.
Severe hazards of The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay apply here: tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
Ardglass
Harbour wall · Salt water
A deep working harbour on the County Down coast, with stone and concrete arms over rock and sand, and reef ground running out around St John's Point to the south.
Severe hazards of The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Ballyhornan and Guns Island
Beach · Salt water
A kilometre of mixed sand and shingle on the Lecale coast backed by low cliffs and grassy dune, with Guns Island lying a couple of hundred metres offshore and shallow water between the two. Clean beach ground below the car park; the sharp slate-like rock of Killard Point closes the bay to the north and is treacherous underfoot.
Open east into the Irish Sea with the Isle of Man visible on the horizon, and no shelter from that quarter.
Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.
Severe hazards of The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay apply here: moving water and currents.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.
St John's Point
Rock mark · Salt water
A low rocky point running south from the Lecale coast below Killough, marked by the tallest lighthouse in Ireland in black and yellow bands. The ground around the lighthouse is described by a national guide as very rough indeed — hard broken rock into deep water, on which a rotten-bottom rig reduces the losses without preventing them.
Open from east through south into the Irish Sea, and exposed enough that the swell rather than the wind decides whether the point is fishable.
Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock, entanglement.
Severe hazards of The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Safety

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

This shore faces east and south-east into the Irish Sea with several hundred kilometres of open water in front of it, so an onshore blow builds a genuine sea against rock and shingle with no shelter behind it. Waves break well up the shore on a rising tide and take people off low rock.

What reduces it: Read the fetch rather than the wind speed: a moderate easterly here does what a strong westerly does not. Fish rising tides from ground you can leave upward, and treat any mark that requires crossing low rock as closed once a sea is running.

Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death

This is flat reef fished at low water, and the gutters between the scaurs fill from the LANDWARD side while the angler is watching the sea. Ground that was walked across dry becomes a channel, and the tide crosses flat rock much faster than its apparent rate of rise suggests.

What reduces it: Identify the way back and the time it stops working before walking out, not afterwards. Watch the ground behind rather than the water in front, and leave on the clock rather than on the fishing.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

Irish Sea temperatures stay low well into summer and rise little at the surface even in warm weather. Cold-water shock causes an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control within seconds of immersion, and it incapacitates strong swimmers before any question of endurance arises.

What reduces it: Treat every mark that puts you over deep water as a mark where a fall means immersion, and dress for the water rather than the air. A buoyancy aid works in the first minute, which is the minute that decides the outcome.

Slips, trips and falls — Can cause injury needing treatment

These are working fishing ports, not promenades. Quay edges are unfenced and often high above the water at low tide, vessels manoeuvre without warning, and gear, ropes and ice are moved across the quay by machinery. A person in the water inside a harbour has vertical walls on every side and nothing to climb.

What reduces it: Treat access as the harbour authority's to give and to withdraw, and expect it to be withdrawn while vessels are working. Stay off the fairway side, keep clear of moving gear, and know where the nearest ladder and lifebuoy are before starting.

Precautions that always apply here

Check the tide before you go and know your exit route. Being cut off is the commonest way a shore session becomes a rescue.
Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back.
Carry a charged phone in a waterproof case, or another means of calling for help.

Check the rules before you fish

Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.

Check with:

Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
Current local bylaws
The relevant fisheries authority
The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use

Where to go next

What swims here

European plaiceDundrum Bay shelves gently over several kilometres of clean sand under the Mournes, which is plaice ground, and it is the half of this coast that the reef either side of St John's Point is not.

More fishing regions

Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.

Sources and evidence

General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of the Lecale shore and Dundrum Bay marks, their ground and the species reported from them, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Why the 1 connections on this page are here, and the sources

What swims here

Backed by research — 1 connection

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

European plaice
A claim that a coast or region contains the ground and conditions this species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the reference literature and on the institute that surveyed it, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of the marine fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe, including which coasts and ground types a species occupies.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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