Cod fishing in Ireland

Howth East Pier is the open-water side of the harbour: a public pier mark with deep wall edges, rougher pier ground, summer mackerel crowds and enough year-round variety to justify its own entry rather than folding everything into one generic Howth page. Published Dublin Bay shore notes consistently point to mackerel, pollack, coalfish, whiting, dogfish, codling, conger and grey mullet, with the east arm better suited to spinning and wall work than quiet flatfish ledgering. The setting is accessible and familiar, but it is still a working harbour edge with tourist pressure, seals, boat movement and seasonal crowding.

Balscadden Bay is the more rock-and-gully side of Howth, close enough to the village to be practical but less forgiving than the harbour piers. Published reports around Cat Rock and Split Rock point to pollack, coalfish, wrasse, mackerel, codling, conger and dogfish. Structure and variety are what make it worth the walk, and the rock ground rewards a careful approach on the way in and out.

Loughshinny is a small north Dublin harbour, pier and slipway mark over mixed ground, best treated as a compact tidal session rather than a big all-day venue. Published patterns include summer mackerel on high water, plus coalfish and codling in autumn night conditions, with flounder possible over cleaner patches. The mark is accessible and familiar, but it is still a working coastal harbour with a tidal pier, slipway activity and Fingal rule uncertainty. The honest appeal is a manageable pier session when tide, season and local activity line up, not a guaranteed deep-water destination.

Portmarnock Velvet Strand is a long north Dublin sand beach with room to move, shallow surf character and a published species pattern that includes flounder, bass, smoothhound, dab, dogfish, plaice, codling and whiting. It is not a deep-water pier mark and it should not be sold as a guaranteed bass beach. The honest appeal is mobile surf fishing on clean sand, especially after easterly wind puts colour and life into the beach. Night summer sessions toward the northern rocks are a recurring public pattern, but local access rules and proposed Fingal beach bye-law changes need checking before any session.

Skerries is the north-county harbour anchor in this Dublin coast: an easy town wall with enough depth for summer mackerel and pollack, plus winter whiting, flounder, codling and dogfish when colour and darkness suit. This is not a secret or private mark. It is a compiled public harbour pattern, useful because access, shelter and species mix are predictable by Dublin standards.

Sandymount Strand is the broad south-bay sand sheet: shallow, open, often wind-exposed and better understood as a flood-tide flats mark than a deep-water beach. Published Dublin reports focus on bass, flounder, dab, dogfish and codling, with bait beds and old place names such as Cockle Lake giving context. The value is honest pattern reading, not invented hot pegs.

Balbriggan Harbour is a north Fingal pier and harbour mark with a straightforward public shape but an honest uncertainty around current species strength. Published and historical notes support mackerel, grey mullet, flounder, whiting and codling, with high water over sand the basic pattern for bait fishing. Older references speak well of mullet, but present confidence is lower because commercial harbour use, fleet activity, water clarity and local pressure can all alter practical results. This entry keeps the mark live as a published option while avoiding the false certainty of claiming the harbour fishes today exactly as older reports describe.

Killiney Beach is the south edge of the Dublin coast: steep shingle and sand in Killiney Bay, railway behind, deep water close enough to matter and published patterns for bass, flounder, codling, coalfish, mackerel, dab and dogfish. It feels closer to a Wicklow shingle beach than Sandymount does, but it stays in the Dublin scoring region with Port tide timing.

Red Rock at Sutton is a channel-edge and mixed-ground mark rather than a simple beach. The public pattern is bass and flatfish moving over Sutton channel and the Martello-side ground, with dab, dogfish, codling and whiting possible when conditions suit. It is useful planning water for Dublin Bay planning, researched from published notes rather than first-hand Wicklow experience.

Dollymount Strand is the broad Bull Island beach option: firm sand, big sky, room to move and a published pattern for bass, flounder, dab, dogfish, coalfish and winter codling. Evening autumn tides are the classic published pattern, but the mark is also shaped by Bull Island reserve rules, birdlife, walkers, wind and the need to read channels rather than just cast far.

The North Bull Wall is a long exposed stone walk from Dollymount and Clontarf into Dublin Bay, giving shore anglers access to wall edges, flats, channel influence and lighthouse-end water. Published notes cover flounder, dab, dogfish, whiting, codling, pollack, mullet and occasional bass. It is a serious public wall session, not a gentle beginner pier in rough weather.

Coliemore Harbour is a small Dalkey shore mark with big surrounding context: harbour wall, rocky edges, Dalkey Sound, boat traffic and island water nearby. Published notes support codling, pollack, coalfish, conger, mackerel, whiting and dogfish from the shore, but this page deliberately excludes boat drifts, island landings and private foreshore shortcuts. It is a compact public harbour mark.

Dún Laoghaire West Pier is the quieter partner to the East Pier, still beginner-friendly and public but usually better framed as a bait and mixed-bottom option than as the first-choice summer spinning wall. The point gives access to mixed and sandy ground that supports dab, whiting, codling, pollack, bass, conger and grey mullet in published Dublin Bay shore notes. It can be simple in daylight and more serious after dark. Autumn and winter night ledgering is the honest published pattern, especially when colour, tide and reduced foot traffic make bait fishing more practical.