The Wexford coast

Fishing regions · Last reviewed 2026-08-27

The county where the discovery of smooth-hound in numbers turned a run of featureless east-coast surf beaches into destinations, and the richest shore documentation in Ireland.

Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 8 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.

Find the authority for a jurisdiction · What FishingHQ does and does not cover

Wexford occupies the south-eastern corner of Ireland, with a south coast of rock and reef running from Hook Head to Carnsore Point and an Irish Sea coast of long surf beaches running north from Rosslare. It is the richest county page in the Irish source set and the reason is a single species.

SMOOTH-HOUND CHANGED THIS COAST. The discovery of large numbers of them here produced what its own source calls a revolution in east-coast fishing, and — outside the Shannon estuary — this is where an angler goes in Ireland to catch one. The evidence is a competition rather than an anecdote: thirty anglers, four hours, a hundred and sixteen smooth-hounds, averaging over two and a half kilos. That is a fishery, and the honest part of the account is that nobody understands why it falls away after early summer.

THE BEACHES ARE OTHERWISE FEATURELESS AND THAT IS THE POINT. These are long, shallow-gradient Irish Sea surf beaches whose species lists — dabs, flounder, dogfish, bass in a surf, winter codling, occasional ray and tope — would not on their own make them destinations. Smooth-hound at night in spring and early summer, on crab, is what does.

THE SOUTH COAST IS ROCK AND COMPETITION GROUND. Hook Head is a match venue with the rocks numbered, giving pollack, coalfish and mackerel in season to spinner and float with wrasse of quality, and conger, rockling and dogfish over rough ground with flatfish and the odd bass over sand. Carnsore Point is known specifically for the quality of its wrasse, and the local knowledge is precise about it: the better fish are under the angler's feet, on lugworm, on a single-hook paternoster, either side of high water.

SHORE TOPE ARE HERE TOO. A deep channel fished on the flood with a large bait, and summer tope reported from the beaches, put Wexford with Sligo and the Shannon in the small group of Irish shore tope geographies.

AND ONE MARK RUNS ON A LAKE OUTFLOW. A steep shingle and sand strip is fished three hours either side of low water specifically when a coastal lagoon's outflow is running, for bass, dogfish, flounder, winter codling, coalfish, pollack, whiting and wrasse, with summer ray, tope and mackerel. The outflow is the mark.

What fishing here is like

Two coasts at right angles. The south coast is rock, reef and headland — numbered competition marks, quality wrasse, pollack and conger over rough ground — with a working fishing harbour on it. The east coast is a run of long, shallow, comparatively featureless Irish Sea surf beaches with a large tidal harbour behind them. What makes the eastern beaches destinations rather than filler is smooth-hound in numbers in spring and early summer, fished at night on crab, and the county is where that fishery was found.

Competition angling is unusually well established here, and several marks are documented through club match results rather than through individual reports.

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 · 22

Also documented from the shore: Tope · Thornback ray · Dab · Starry smooth-hound · Atlantic cod · Atlantic mackerel · Ballan wrasse · European eel · Saithe · Thick-lipped grey mullet · Whiting · Black seabream · Brown trout · Common stingray · Corkwing wrasse · Spurdog

What these strengths mean

Established quarry: Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
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

5 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 10 places here, over surf beach, beach, beach section, estuary.
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, Atlantic mackerel, Ballan wrasse, Black seabream, Brown trout, Bull huss.
Surfcasting
Recorded at 6 places here, over surf beach, beach, beach section.
Casting heavy baited tackle from a beach into surf — a method defined by distance, by tide, and by reading water that all looks the same.
Documented on the same ground: Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel, Ballan wrasse, Brown trout, Bull huss, Common stingray.
Spinning
Recorded at 4 places here, over estuary, harbour wall, headland, 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 mackerel, Ballan wrasse, Black seabream, Conger eel, Corkwing wrasse, European eel.
Float fishing
Recorded at 3 places here, over harbour wall, headland, 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 mackerel, Ballan wrasse, Black seabream, Conger eel, Corkwing wrasse, European flounder.
Kayak fishing
Recorded at 1 place here, over estuary.
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: European eel, European flounder, European sea bass, Thick-lipped grey mullet.

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.

Small-spotted catsharkAugust to August
Bull hussAugust to August
PollackAugust to August
Conger eelAugust to August
Black seabreamAugust to September
TopeJune to September
Thornback rayJune to September
Starry smooth-houndApril to July
Atlantic mackerelJune to September
Thick-lipped grey mulletJune to September
Common stingrayJune to September
Atlantic codNovember to March

What dominates

Beach and surf fishing at night for smooth-hound on crab in spring and early summer, and for bass, dabs, flounder, dogfish, bull huss and winter codling through the rest of the year. Bottom fishing with large baits into deep channels for shore tope on the flood. Rock fishing on the south coast: float and leger for ballan wrasse close in, spinning and float for pollack, coalfish and mackerel, and bottom fishing for conger, rockling and dogfish over rough ground. Pier and harbour fishing for bass, mackerel and float-fished mullet. Match and competition shore fishing, which is a strong local tradition. Charter fishing out of the south-coast harbour.

The water available

A south coast of rock, reef, headland and shingle with numbered competition marks and heavy ground. A working fishing harbour with piers and a shingle beach beside it. A major headland at the corner known for wrasse. Long shallow-gradient Irish Sea surf beaches of sand backed by dune, several kilometres each. Coastal lagoons behind barrier beaches, one of which discharges through a shingle strip that is itself a mark. A large shallow tidal harbour and slob lands. Deep channels close inshore at the point marks, fished for tope.

How the rules are structured

Sea angling is unlicensed and governed by sizes, bag limits, protected species and area measures. Bass carries specific and long-standing national conservation measures — a size limit, a bag limit and a closed period — and the local practitioner source states them to its own readers unprompted, which is rare enough to note; FishingHQ still does not state what any current rule is. Tope and several ray species carry their own measures, which matters on a coast where both are shore targets. Salmon and sea trout require a state licence with annual river assessment. Shellfish gathering is governed by classification and biotoxin monitoring. The harbour, slob lands and lagoons carry conservation designations of international standing that constrain access and disturbance independently of any fishing rule. FishingHQ does not state what any current rule is: establish licensing, sizes, bag limits, closed periods and any protected-area constraint with the statutory bodies before fishing.

Who to ask

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.

Words you will meet

Smooth-hound: A small crab-eating shark of shallow sandy and mixed ground that fights hard and is taken on crab baits. Its arrival in numbers on this coast is what turned these beaches into destinations, and the season is spring into early summer.
Numbered marks: Rocks physically numbered for shore competition draws. Where a coast carries them, it is a coast with an organised match scene, and the numbering is a fact about the ground rather than a ranking of it.
The Burrow: A local term on this coast for the low dune and shingle ridge behind a beach, and by extension for the shore in front of it. Used as a mark name and worth recognising in local reports.

Conditions and hazards

The corner of Ireland is a tidal corner, and the streams round the headlands and off the points here run hard. One of the shingle marks is documented as carrying dangerous currents and is fished only in a specific window either side of low water, which is a timing instruction and a safety one at once.

Most of the productive fishing is at night — the smooth-hound, the codling, the bass — on beaches that shelve gently and flood a long way over flat sand. Knowing where the water will be in two hours matters more here than knowing where it is.

The south-coast rock is heavy ground with slippery weed-covered ledges, and the marks that produce the better wrasse are close-in positions low on the rock.

The water is cold enough for cold water shock through the year, and the Irish Sea coast gets a short steep sea in an easterly that is more dangerous to stand in than its height suggests.

Some of what lives here

Fish recorded here that FishingHQ holds a reviewed photograph of. It is not a complete list of what The Wexford coast holds, and it is not a prediction that you will catch any of them — it is a way in to the ones we can show you.

Ballan wrasseA long-lived rocky-ground resident that begins life female and may change sex — and the species that turned rock marks into a lure fishery.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
European sea bassA fast, predatory inshore fish that hunts in broken water and surf, and one of the most closely managed recreational species in European seas.
Julien Renoult — CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Atlantic codA large, heavily-built demersal predator of the North Atlantic, and the species whose commercial history is the standard example of stock collapse.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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 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. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.

Hook Head
Headland · Salt water
A long low limestone peninsula ending in a wave-cut platform of fossil-bearing rock, with reef running well offshore, deep water close in and one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world on the point.
Exposed on three sides with tide and swell meeting off the point, and no high ground anywhere to shelter it.
Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Carne and the Rosslare shore
Beach · Salt water
A shingle and sand shore at the south-eastern corner of Ireland, backed by low soft cliff, with sandbanks offshore and a working ferry port a few kilometres north.
Faces east and south-east into the Irish Sea approaches, with a shorter fetch than the Atlantic coast and a shorter, steeper sea.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Wexford Harbour and the Slobs
Estuary · Brackish water
A wide shallow estuary at the mouth of the Slaney, largely drying at low water, with reclaimed polder land — the Slobs — behind the north and south shores and a shifting bar across the entrance.
Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, cold water shock.
Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.
Morriscastle Strand
Surf beach · Salt water
A long low sand beach on the north Wexford coast backed by dunes, with clean firm sand and no structure other than the offshore banks of the Irish Sea beyond it.
Open east to the Irish Sea, and the surf that makes it fish comes from an easterly rather than from the prevailing wind — which is why an east-coast beach can be flat for weeks.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: A premier league and international beach competition venue. Whether an event is running is a matter for the organisers, and the directory advises checking before travelling.
Ballinamona
Surf beach · Salt water
A clean sand beach on the Wexford Irish Sea coast north of Curracloe, low and featureless with the offshore banks a long way out.
Open east to the Irish Sea and dependent on an easterly for its surf.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: One of several beaches on this stretch used regularly for club competitions. Whether an event is running is a matter for the organisers.
Curracloe Beach
Surf beach · Salt water
A long dune-backed sand beach running north from the Raven Point in Wexford, with a river mouth at the Blackwater end and the Wexford Harbour entrance to the south. Clean sand throughout with a bird sanctuary behind part of it.
Open east to the Irish Sea, and a very popular summer beach — the directory says it is only fished at night or in the autumn, ideally with a decent surf.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: Part of the beach backs onto a bird sanctuary with road access. What may be done there is the site manager's decision.
Rosslare Strand
Surf beach · Salt water
A sand beach with groynes running north from Rosslare towards the point, with a channel off the point itself and clean sand between the groynes.
Open east and south-east, sheltered from the prevailing westerlies by the land behind.
Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents.
Carnsore Point
Rock mark · Salt water
The south-eastern corner of Ireland, a low rough-ground point of broken rock and boulder where the Irish Sea meets the Celtic Sea. The best fish are directly under the angler rather than at range.
Exposed on two sides at the corner of the country, with the tide running hard round the point between two seas.
Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.

2 more places in this area

Kilmore Quay
Harbour wall · Salt water
A working fishing harbour and marina on the south Wexford coast opposite the Saltee Islands, with rock at the bridge outside the harbour and a shingle strand along the coast to the east.
Sheltered by the harbour arms with the Saltees offshore, on a coast that takes weather from the south and east.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, cold water shock, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: A busy working fishing port with a marina and charter fleet operating to the Saltees. Where a rod may be used is the harbour's decision.
The Coombe, Tacumshin
Beach section · Salt water
A steep shingle and sand beach on the south Wexford coast directly outside Tacumshin Lake, with the lake outflow cutting through it and rough ground at the point. Swift currents run along the face.
Open south to the Celtic Sea, with the lake and its outflow behind.
Particular to this ground: cold water shock.
Severe hazards of The Wexford coast apply here: moving water and currents, tides and being cut off.
Particular to this water: The directory warns that the best fishing is on the point, where a severe current runs over rough ground, and advises picking a weak tide. Wading is specifically ruled out along this beach.

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.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

The water is cold enough to trigger the involuntary gasp and hyperventilation of cold water shock for most of the year, which incapacitates a swimmer in the first minute regardless of how well they swim, and it does not stop being cold in a warm summer week.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid so the first minute does not have to be survived by swimming. Fish with somebody. Know where you would get out before you need to.

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

Tidal islands, causeways, strand crossings and rock gullies that are dry ground at low water flood on the tide, and the water arrives behind the angler rather than in front of them. The Irish west and south coasts carry a large number of these and several are the ordinary way onto a mark.

What reduces it: Work out the tide for the day before walking out, and work out the exit rather than the entrance. Set an alarm for the turn. Never assume a crossing that was dry on the way out will be dry on the way back.

Slips, trips and falls — Can cause injury needing treatment

Wet rock, weed-covered ledges, boulder shores and steep descents to the water. Falls here produce broken ankles and head injuries, and they happen on the walk rather than in the fishing.

What reduces it: Boots with a stiff sole and real grip, both hands free on a descent, and a route down chosen in daylight if the session runs into darkness.

Weather and lightning — Can cause injury needing treatment

Weather on this coast changes faster than a forecast granularity of a few hours can express, and a wind shift onshore turns a fishable platform into an unfishable one inside a session.

What reduces it: Check the forecast for the coast rather than the county, watch the sky and the sea rather than only the phone, and leave early rather than late.

Precautions that always apply here

Wear a buoyancy aid or lifejacket. Cold water incapacitates strong swimmers within a minute, long before swimming ability matters.
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.

Further safety reading

Tides and being cut off — The corner of Ireland is a tidal corner and the streams round its headlands and points run hard. One shingle mark here carries documented dangerous currents and is fished only in a window either side of low water, which is a timing instruction and a safety one at once.

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

Local knowledge

Water temperature and fish activityThese are long, shallow-gradient, comparatively featureless surf beaches whose ordinary species list would not make them destinations. What does is a warm-season crab-eating shark arriving in numbers in spring and early summer — a temperature-driven inshore movement, and the reason the whole coast's reputation rests on three or four months.

Sources and evidence

Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Wexford — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A practitioner shore directory's account of the Wexford south and Irish Sea shore marks: the ground, the species, the methods, the tide windows and the character of the fishing, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and biology of the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe named as characteristic of this coast.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Why the 9 connections on this page are here, and the sources

What swims here

Backed by research — 6 connections

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

Atlantic cod
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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
Ballan wrasse
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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
Dab
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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
European sea bass
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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
Starry smooth-hound
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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
Tope
A claim that a coast contains the ground and conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, 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 and estuarine 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 people fish here

What experienced anglers do — 1 connection

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

Match fishing
A statement about which branch of angling dominates on a coast. It is consensus about practice rather than a fact about the world, and it is carried at that level.
- Inland Fisheries Ireland regional sea angling guides — Inland Fisheries Ireland, 2013 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The Irish statutory fisheries body's own sea angling guides, describing the marks of each coast with the species taken and the state of the tide.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice and local fishing character for these coasts, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Local knowledge

Backed by research — 1 connection

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

Water temperature and fish activity
A link from a coast to the physical mechanism that governs its fishing, which is a claim about coastal process or hydrography rather than about angling.
- ICES Advice on fishing opportunities, catch and effort — International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Ecoregion description, stock distribution and the hydrography of the sea areas named, including seasonal inshore movement.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 north-west European shelf seas, including sediment character, coastal process and inshore monitoring.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Safety reading

Official guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Tides and being cut off
A statement that a coast presents a particular hazard, resting on water-safety guidance issued by bodies with responsibility for it rather than on angling practice.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock, immersion response, tidal cut-off and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Rock fishing safety and the declared lifejacket areas of New South Wales — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Surf Life Saving NSW (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Rock-platform hazards, the mechanism by which anglers are swept, and the measures that address it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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