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The Yorkshire coast

Fishing regions · Last reviewed 2026-08-16

Hard rock in the north, the fastest-eroding coast in Europe in the south, and the two joined by a chalk headland that sorts them. One coast that is three fisheries because it is three geologies.

Safety

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

Wave-cut rock scars flood from the seaward edge and from behind at the same time, so the route back across the low ground between the platform and the cliff closes while the platform is still dry and while the angler is facing the sea.

What reduces it: Walk the exit before fishing and note the low ground. Set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing. Do not go out onto a scar on a rising tide unless the exit stays above water for the whole session.

Worse when:

  • Spring tides, when the platform covers faster and further.
  • In the dark, when the low ground behind cannot be seen filling.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

On the northern rock coast, a swell that has been below a ledge for twenty minutes arrives above it in a set and takes a person off it. On the southern clay coast, boulder-clay cliffs collapse without warning onto whatever is at their base.

What reduces it: Watch the sea for a full set before committing to any rock position, and choose a position with a way up rather than only a way to stand. Never shelter, sit or set up beneath a clay cliff, and keep back from the cliff edge above, which is undercut.

Worse when:

  • Long-period swell, which arrives in sets far larger than the average.
  • After heavy or prolonged rain, when saturated boulder clay slumps.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

The North Sea here is cold for most of the year and this fishery is weighted to autumn and winter, frequently at night. Immersion produces an involuntary gasp and loss of breathing control within seconds, which removes the ability to swim or to climb out.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, do not fish alone, carry a means of calling for help on the person, and tell somebody the mark and the return time.

Drowning and immersion — Can cause injury needing treatment

The Humber runs a strong tidal stream over extensive soft mudflats with commercial traffic in the channel. Mud that carries weight on the ebb will not on the return, and the flats fill from behind as well as from the front.

What reduces it: Know the state of the tide and the exit before going onto the flats, leave by a set time rather than when the fishing slows, and keep well clear of the navigation channel.

The coast from the Tees round to the Humber is a coast-tier record because a single north-to-south change in geology explains almost everything about the fishing along it, and the change is abrupt rather than gradual.

THE NORTH IS HARD ROCK. From Saltburn to Filey the coast is Jurassic shale, sandstone and ironstone, cut into cliffs with wave-cut scars — flat rock platforms running out under the tide — at their feet. That is kelp, gully, boulder and broken ground: the habitat of wrasse, of codling that hold in weed, of conger in the deeper holes, and of the whole rough-ground shore fishery that this coast is known for.

FLAMBOROUGH HEAD IS THE HINGE. A chalk headland projects several kilometres into the North Sea, with vertical cliffs, stacks, caves and, unusually for chalk, hard enough rock to survive as a promontory. It interrupts the southward drift of sediment, it forces the tidal stream around it, and it separates two entirely different coasts. North of it the shore is rock. South of it, almost immediately, it is not.

THE SOUTH IS MUD, AND IT IS GOING. The Holderness coast from Bridlington to Spurn is glacial till — boulder clay — and it is retreating at a rate that makes it the fastest-eroding coastline in Europe. Dozens of villages have gone into the sea since Roman times. The material eroded here is carried south by longshore drift and is what builds and maintains Spurn Point, the narrow sand-and-shingle spit across the mouth of the Humber. Take the erosion away and the spit dies.

AND THE HUMBER IS A THIRD THING AGAIN. One of the largest estuaries in Britain, draining a fifth of England's land surface, heavily turbid, strongly tidal and industrial along much of its length. It is a nursery and a migration route rather than a rock fishery, and it behaves like an estuary rather than like a coast.

WHAT THE THREE HAVE IN COMMON is a cold, shallow, sediment-rich North Sea whose temperature drives the season. The classic Yorkshire shore fishery is an autumn and winter one, it follows rough weather rather than preceding it, and it has become markedly harder over the past forty years for reasons that have nothing to do with how anybody fishes.

Being listed here is not permission to fish.

Access, fishing rights, seasons, licences, local bylaws and permitted methods vary and can change. Check the current rules and permission for the specific water before fishing. FishingHQ describes what the ground is and names who holds the answer; it does not hold the answer itself, and it does not tell you where to go and catch a fish.

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

What fishing here is like

Two coasts joined by a headland. North of Flamborough: Jurassic cliffs of shale and sandstone with extensive wave-cut rock scars, kelp, gullies and boulder ground, punctuated by harbour towns in the bays. Flamborough itself: chalk, with vertical cliffs, caves, stacks and deeper water close in. South of it: low boulder-clay cliffs retreating fast, fronted by flat sand and shingle beaches with almost no hard structure, running down to the sand and shingle spit at Spurn and the mouth of the Humber. Water throughout is cold, shallow and carries heavy suspended sediment, and it is markedly more turbid south of the headland than north of it.

What dominates

Rough-ground shore fishing from the scars and cliff ledges in the north — heavy ledgering with rotten-bottom rigs, and lure and float fishing for wrasse and pollack over the kelp. Clean-beach surfcasting along the Holderness coast and out to Spurn, weighted hard to autumn and winter. Small-boat and charter fishing out of the harbour towns to wreck and rough ground offshore, and to the codling grounds. Pier and harbour-wall fishing, which is where a great deal of this coast's fishing is actually done. Estuary bass, flounder and mullet fishing in the Humber and its creeks.

The water available

Wave-cut rock scars and kelp forest; Jurassic cliff and gully systems; a hard chalk headland with caves, stacks and deep water close in; rapidly eroding boulder-clay cliffs; long shallow-gradient sand and shingle beaches; a growing sand and shingle spit; a very large, turbid, strongly tidal estuary with mudflat, sandflat and saltmarsh; and offshore wreck and mixed ground on the shallow North Sea shelf.

How the rules are structured

Recreational sea angling in England is not licensed as freshwater angling is, but a substantial framework applies. Minimum conservation reference sizes and species-specific measures — bass measures in particular have changed repeatedly in recent years — are set nationally. Inshore byelaws are made by the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district and differ along this coast. Flamborough Head and much of the coast carries conservation designations for its cliffs, seabird colonies and marine habitats, and those designations constrain access, vehicles and collection independently of any fishing rule. The Humber carries its own protections and its own navigation and port controls. Bait collection on the estuary flats is separately regulated in places. FishingHQ does not state what any current rule is.

Who to ask

  • The relevant Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district, which makes and enforces inshore byelaws including those on bait collection.
  • The Marine Management Organisation, for national recreational sea fishing measures in English waters.
  • Natural England and the site management body, where a marine or coastal designation affects access, vehicles or collection.
  • The harbour authority or commissioners at each port, where fishing is from harbour structures or small craft are launched.
  • The statutory harbour authority for the Humber, for navigation and access on the estuary.
  • The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the RNLI, for safety guidance on this coast.

Words you will meet

Scar
A wave-cut rock platform running out from the foot of the cliff and exposed at low water. Scars are the defining shore-fishing ground of the northern half of this coast, and they are also the reason people are cut off on it: the platform floods from the seaward side and from behind at the same time.
Codling
A small cod, and on this coast the word carries a fishery rather than only a size. The autumn and winter codling run over rough ground is what the northern half of the coast is known for, and it is a fishery that has declined substantially within living memory.
Rotten bottom
A deliberately weak link between the lead and the rest of the rig, so that a lead jammed in the rock breaks free and the fish and the trace are recovered. Over the scars it is the difference between fishing the ground and losing tackle into it every cast.
Coloured water
Sediment-laden water after a sea has been running. On this coast, and particularly south of Flamborough where the cliffs are clay, a blow puts a great deal of material into suspension and it is generally the condition that produces the fishing rather than the one that spoils it.

Conditions and hazards

The northern half of this coast presents the two classic rock-coast mechanisms and both have killed people here. Wave-cut scars flood from the seaward side and from the landward side at once, so the way back closes before the platform covers, and a person concentrating on the fishing discovers it late. Cliff ledges and gully edges are wet, weeded and slippery, and a swell that has been comfortably below a platform for an hour arrives well above it in a set. The southern half is more dangerous than it looks for a different reason: boulder-clay cliffs are actively failing, they collapse without warning and are worst after rain, and sitting at the base of one out of the wind is the natural thing to do and the wrong one. Across the whole coast the North Sea is cold enough for most of the year that cold water shock, not swimming ability, decides what happens on immersion, and most of the fishing is done in autumn and winter, often at night. The Humber runs a strong tide over soft mud with commercial traffic in the channel, and mud that carried weight on the way out will not on the way back. A buoyancy aid worn rather than carried, not fishing alone, and a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag are the measures that address all of it.

Flamborough Head, and why one headland makes two coasts

Almost everything a visiting angler needs to know about this coast follows from one piece of geology, and it is worth understanding rather than memorising.

THE HEADLAND IS CHALK AND IT SURVIVES. Chalk is normally a soft rock that produces low, fast-retreating cliffs. The chalk here is harder and better cemented than the chalk of southern England, so it stands as a promontory several kilometres out into the North Sea while the softer material either side of it goes. That single fact organises the coast.

IT INTERRUPTS THE SEDIMENT. Longshore drift on this coast runs broadly southward. The headland blocks it, so material eroded from the north does not reach the south, and material eroded from the Holderness cliffs south of it is not replaced from above. That is one reason the southern coast is losing so fast: it is being drawn down without being fed.

IT FORCES THE TIDE. A stream running along a coast and meeting a promontory accelerates around it. That produces overfalls and rough water off the point, scour around its base, and — the part that matters to fishing — a persistent concentration of moving water and food that holds fish close to the headland when the open coast either side is quiet.

AND IT PUTS DEEP WATER AGAINST THE ROCK. Where the softer coast to the south shelves for a mile before it reaches anything, the headland drops away close in. That single change is why the north of this coast can be fished from the shore for species the south of it cannot.

WHAT CHANGES ACROSS IT, IN ORDER. North: rock scars, kelp, gullies, boulder ground, wrasse, codling over rough ground, pollack and coalfish, conger in the deep holes, and shore marks that can reach genuinely deep water. South: flat sand, almost no hard structure, a clean-beach fishery of codling, whiting, dab and flounder in winter and bass, smoothhound and rays in summer, and a very different set of rigs and leads to fish it with.

THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE is that 'the Yorkshire coast' is not one plan. Tackle that is right for a scar is wrong for Holderness and the reverse, and the tide state that makes one work has no bearing on the other.

Scientific evidence

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

  • 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, including the physical characterisation of sediment, coastal process and the monitoring programmes that describe them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 assessed.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Designation, habitat description and conservation status of the marine, coastal and freshwater habitats named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 named here.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

A coast being deleted, and the spit that is made of it

The Holderness coast is retreating faster than any other coastline in Europe, and the material it loses builds something at the end of it. Both halves of that matter to anybody fishing here.

THE MATERIAL HAS ALMOST NO RESISTANCE. Holderness is boulder clay — an unsorted mass of clay, sand and stones dumped by ice — sitting on chalk that is mostly below sea level. Waves do not have to abrade it; they undercut it and it slumps. Rain saturates it and it slumps without any waves at all. Cliff faces here are frequently raw, unvegetated and freshly collapsed.

THE LOSS IS MEASURED IN METRES A YEAR, not centimetres, and it is documented over centuries: a long list of medieval villages named in the Domesday survey are now some distance offshore. Sea defences protect particular towns and, by holding the coast in one place, accelerate the loss immediately downdrift of them.

SPURN POINT IS THE OUTPUT. The eroded material moves south and accumulates at the mouth of the Humber as a long, narrow sand and shingle spit. It is not a stable landform: it grows, it is breached in surges, and it has been re-formed repeatedly. In one recent surge it was cut through and the road along it destroyed, and it has been managed as a tidal island since.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR FISHING IT. Beach features on this coast — bars, gutters, scour holes — are not durable and may not survive a single winter. Access points and parking are withdrawn permanently when the land they are on goes. Local intelligence more than a season or two old is a hypothesis rather than a fact, which is a different relationship with local knowledge from the one a rock coast has. And the cliffs are not shelter: they are the failure plane.

THE HUMBER AT THE END OF IT is the other consequence. A vast quantity of fine sediment enters the estuary from this coast, which is a large part of why the Humber is so turbid, and turbidity is why it is a nursery: fine sediment carries food and poor visibility hides small fish.

Scientific evidence

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

  • 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, including the physical characterisation of sediment, coastal process and the monitoring programmes that describe them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 assessed.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Designation, habitat description and conservation status of the marine, coastal and freshwater habitats named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 named here.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

The codling coast, and what happened to it

Yorkshire's shore fishing reputation was built on a winter codling fishery over rough ground, and being honest about its present state is more useful than repeating its reputation.

THE SEASON IS A TEMPERATURE. Cod move inshore as the shallow North Sea cools through autumn, and the timing follows water temperature rather than the calendar. A warm autumn delays it. Anglers on this coast have watched the reliable opening of that season move later and become less certain over decades, and that is a measurable change rather than nostalgia.

ROUGH WEATHER IS THE TRIGGER WITHIN THE SEASON. A sea that has been running lifts worm, crab and shellfish out of the ground and holds them in suspension; the fish come in to it. The productive session is generally on a dropping sea rather than at the height of it, and flat calm clear water in December is usually poor.

THE STOCK PICTURE IS NOT COMFORTABLE. North Sea cod has been under sustained management concern and recovery effort for decades. The decline in the shore fishery is not an artefact of anglers fishing worse or of the fish becoming cleverer. What may be retained, and at what size, is a matter for the responsible authority and it changes, which is why this record does not state it.

WHAT IS ACTUALLY THERE NOW, THROUGH A YEAR. Winter on the open ground: whiting and dab in numbers, codling in fewer numbers than the reputation implies, flounder in the estuary and its approaches. Spring: the rough ground begins to fish for wrasse as the water warms, and thornback and other rays appear over the cleaner ground. Summer: bass along the whole coast and strongly into the Humber, smoothhound over the clean ground on crab, mackerel inshore in settled warm spells, pollack and coalfish over the kelp and around the headland. Autumn: the best of the year on most of it, as the water is still warm and the weather has begun to move.

AND THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH RUN DIFFERENT CALENDARS. The rough ground in the north holds resident fish — wrasse, pollack, conger — through the warm months, so it has a summer fishery that the clean southern beaches largely do not. The southern beaches, in exchange, are far better through the winter when the rock is unfishable in any real sea.

Practitioner consensus

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.

  • Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of regional angling practice, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation 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, including the physical characterisation of sediment, coastal process and the monitoring programmes that describe them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 assessed.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Fishing a scar, and the way it catches people out

The wave-cut rock platforms of the northern half of this coast are the best shore ground on it and the reason it has a rescue history. The two facts are the same fact.

WHAT A SCAR IS. A flat shelf of rock cut by wave action at around the level of the tide, running out from the foot of the cliff, exposed at low water and covered at high. Its surface is fissured into gullies, holed with pools, and generally weeded, and its outer edge drops into deeper water and kelp. That edge is the fishing.

WHY IT HOLDS FISH. A gully or a hole full of water at low tide holds crab, prawn, small wrasse and blennies through the ebb, and the flood brings predators onto the platform to work them. Kelp on the outer edge holds wrasse and pollack permanently. Broken ground beyond it holds conger and, in season, codling.

HOW IT FLOODS. This is the part to understand before going out on one. A scar does not fill like a bath from the outside in. Water comes over the outer edge and it also runs up the gullies behind the platform and fills the low ground between the scar and the cliff. So the route back closes before the platform you are standing on covers, and it closes out of sight behind you while you are facing the sea.

WHAT ADDRESSES IT. Walk the route out and note where the low ground is. Fix a time to leave by the tide rather than by the fishing. Do not go out onto a scar on a rising tide at all unless the exit is above the high-water line for the whole session. Watch the sea for a full set of waves before committing to any position — the swell that has been comfortably below a ledge for twenty minutes arrives above it in a set, and that mechanism, rather than falling in, is how most rock anglers end up in the water.

AND WEAR THE BUOYANCY AID. Cold water shock takes breathing control within seconds in North Sea temperatures, and a person who is gasping cannot swim, cannot climb out onto weeded rock and cannot call for help. A means of calling for help belongs on the person and not in the bag on the rock.

Practitioner consensus

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.

  • 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 fishing hazards, the mechanism by which anglers are swept, and the measures that address it including buoyancy aids and observation before committing to a platform.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 and the advice to carry a means of calling for help on the person.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of regional angling practice, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Two coasts under one name, with opposite dangers

The Yorkshire coast is treated as one place and is physically two, and the hazard on each is not merely different from the other but close to its inverse.

NORTH OF FILEY IT IS HARD ROCK. Cliffs, wave-cut scars running out from their base, and deep water close in. The danger is the sea reaching a position that looked dry, and it does that in two ways. A rock scar floods from its seaward edge AND from the low ground behind it at the same time, so the route back closes while the platform is still dry and while the angler is facing out to sea. And swell arrives in sets: a ledge that has been comfortably clear for twenty minutes is not evidence about the next wave, because the largest wave in a set is substantially larger than the average and the set is what takes people off.

SOUTH OF FLAMBOROUGH IT IS SOFT CLAY. Holderness is among the fastest-eroding coastlines in Europe, and boulder-clay cliffs do not weather gradually; they slump, without warning, onto whatever is at their base. Saturated clay after prolonged rain is the condition to avoid, and the cliff edge above is undercut for the same reason. Nothing about this coast rewards sheltering under a cliff or setting up at its foot.

THE HUMBER IS A THIRD THING AGAIN. Strong tidal streams over extensive soft mudflats with a commercial navigation channel running through. Mud that bears weight on the ebb may not on the return, the flats fill from behind, and shipping in the channel cannot manoeuvre around a person or a small craft.

COLD RUNS UNDERNEATH ALL THREE, AND SO DOES THE FISHING CULTURE. This fishery is weighted to autumn and winter and frequently to night, which is when the North Sea is coldest and when nobody sees an entry. Cold water shock removes breathing control within seconds, before cold has had any effect on the muscles at all, which is why competent swimmers drown close to shore.

WHAT ACTUALLY HELPS is knowing which of the three coasts you are on, walking the exit before fishing a scar and setting a leaving time from the tide, watching the sea for a full set before committing to any rock position and choosing one with a way UP rather than only a way to stand, staying off and away from clay cliffs entirely, wearing a buoyancy aid rather than carrying one, not fishing alone at night, and carrying a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag at the top of the beach.

Authoritative guidance

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

  • 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 fishing hazards, the mechanism by which anglers are swept from platforms by sets rather than by average conditions, and the measures that address it including buoyancy aids and observing the sea before committing to a position.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 and the immersion response, tidal cut-off, and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • 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, including tidal range, coastal process, sediment characterisation and the monitoring programmes that describe them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Some of what lives here

Fish recorded here that FishingHQ holds a reviewed photograph of. It is not a complete list of what The Yorkshire 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.

  • Filey Brigg

    Ledge · Salt water

    A natural rock reef of calcareous grit running roughly a kilometre out to sea from the end of Carr Naze, with a flat scar top, deep gullies along both flanks and heavy kelp. One of the most distinctive pieces of shore-fishing ground on the English east coast because it puts an angler a kilometre offshore on foot.

    Wholly exposed. The Brigg is a low reef surrounded by open North Sea and there is no lee anywhere on it; a swell from any northerly or easterly quarter breaks across the whole structure.

    Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

    Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

  • Flamborough Head and the North Landing

    Headland · Salt water

    A chalk headland — the only chalk sea cliff in northern England — projecting six kilometres into the North Sea, with wave-cut chalk platforms, caves, stacks and boulder aprons beneath cliffs of up to a hundred metres. The chalk gives clean white ground and unusually clear water for the east coast.

    The headland divides two coasts with different weather. The north face is exposed to northerlies and sheltered from the south; the south face is the reverse. That is the single most useful practical fact about the place.

    Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: cold water shock.

    Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

  • Spurn Point

    Headland · Brackish water

    A five-kilometre sand and shingle spit curling west into the mouth of the Humber, breached and reshaped by storms and functionally an island at high water since 2013. Clean sand on the seaward side, mud and sand flats inside, and the Binks — a shifting shingle and sand bank — off the end.

    The seaward side takes the full southern North Sea; the Humber side is sheltered from everything except a westerly blowing down the estuary against the ebb.

    Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, boat traffic and being seen.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: cliffs and rock platforms.

    Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

  • Staithes

    Cove · Salt water

    A narrow beck mouth cut into Jurassic shale and ironstone, with steep rock scars running out on both sides of the harbour and boulder ground beneath the cliffs.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Runswick Bay

    Bay · Salt water

    A sheltered north-facing sand bay held between two shale headlands, with extensive alum-shale scars at both ends and one of the few genuine lees on this coast in a south-westerly.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Robin Hood's Bay

    Bay · Salt water

    A great arc of wave-cut shale scars uncovering hundreds of metres at low water, ribbed into concentric arcs by the eroded flank of a dome — the most extensive rock platform on the Yorkshire coast.

    Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Ravenscar and the Peak rocks

    Rock mark · Salt water

    Boulder-strewn shale ground beneath a two-hundred-metre cliff, reached by a long steep descent, with heavy kelp and broken rock giving way to sand well offshore.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Scarborough Marine Drive

    Promenade · Salt water

    A high sea wall carried round the sandstone headland between Scarborough's two bays, standing over broken rock and kelp with sand a short way out.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Scarborough South Bay pier

    Pier · Salt water

    The stone harbour arms of a working fishing port, enclosing a sand-floored basin with the castle headland's rock ground immediately outside.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Cayton Bay

    Bay · Salt water

    A landslipped bay where soft glacial till slumps over Jurassic clay, giving broken mixed ground, boulder runs and patches of clean sand beneath an unstable wooded cliff.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Bridlington North Pier

    Pier · Salt water

    The northern arm of a harbour sitting exactly on the geological hinge of the coast, with chalk ground to the north and the soft clay of Holderness beginning immediately south.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Hornsea

    Beach · Salt water

    Steep sand and shingle over soft boulder clay on the fastest-eroding coast in Europe, where the beach is fed continuously by the cliff behind it and the ground offshore is soft and featureless.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

  • Withernsea

    Beach · Salt water

    A defended clay coast where groynes and revetment hold a narrow sand and shingle strip against erosion, with soft ground and strong longshore drift running south towards Spurn.

    Severe hazards of The Yorkshire coast apply here: tides and being cut off, cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

Where to go next

What swims here

2 more
What these connections rest on (10)

Scientific evidence — 10 connections

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

  • Atlantic cod

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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

  • Conger eel

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 flounder

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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

  • Pollack

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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

  • Thornback ray

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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

  • Whiting

    A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal 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, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, 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 these connections rest on (1)

Practitioner consensus — 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.

  • Sea fishing

    A claim about angling convention rather than about the world: that this place sits within this branch of fishing, which drives the information architecture as well as the page. It rests on independent practitioner description.

    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of which practices are conventionally used in the waters named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation 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 and by ground type.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How this compares

What these connections rest on (2)

Practitioner consensus — 2 connections

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.

  • The Norfolk and Suffolk sandbank coast

    A claim that two places are worth reading against one another, because a reader choosing between them or generalising from one to the other needs to know how the underlying process differs.

    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of which practices are conventionally used in the waters named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation 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 and by ground type.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • The north-east England coast

    A claim that two places are worth reading against one another, because a reader choosing between them or generalising from one to the other needs to know how the underlying process differs.

    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of which practices are conventionally used in the waters named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation 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 and by ground type.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Environment and conservation

What these connections rest on (1)

Scientific evidence — 1 connection

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

  • Fish stocks and sustainability

    A claim that a place raises a particular environmental question, resting on the scientific and conservation literature for the system rather than on angling practice.

    • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Habitat classification and description for the intertidal, coastal and freshwater habitats named, 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: Characterisation of UK inshore sediment, intertidal habitat and the shellfish beds associated with them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

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

Sources for this page

  • 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, including the physical characterisation of sediment, coastal process and the monitoring programmes that describe them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 assessed.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Designation, habitat description and conservation status of the marine, coastal and freshwater habitats named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 named here.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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 and the immersion response, tidal cut-off, and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Met Office shipping forecast, inshore waters forecast and marine warnings — Met Office, United Kingdom (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That inshore waters forecasts, sea state and swell are the operative inputs for shore and small-craft decisions in these waters.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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