Mark × species · Primary target

Dab at Bray Harbour.

Dab is a primary target at Bray Harbour near Bray. Best window on this ground: October to February. Free parking on Bray seafront; harbour fully accessible on foot.

Full mark guide Dab species guide

Bray Harbour, Wicklow shore fishing mark

Mark type: Pier
Skill: Beginner
Catalogue rank: Primary target

Why fish Dab at Bray Harbour

Dargle-mouth working harbour. LRF-style mixed-species pier; codling, dab, flounder and plaice with summer bass and mullet.

Working harbour at the mouth of the River Dargle, two breakwaters and a slipway.

The most accessible north-Wicklow venue for Dublin-based anglers.

Fishes more like a UK LRF (Light Rock Fishing) venue than a heavy beachcaster mark, small hooks, light leads, rag baits are the productive setup.

Codling, dabs, flounder and plaice are regular catches with bass appearing periodically in summer; shoals of mullet visit the inner harbour.

Clean sandy ground close inshore, often mixed with flounder on Wicklow surf and shingle beaches.

Dargle mouth harbour, mixed LRF species, dab and flounder, summer bass and mullet in the channel.

Bray Harbour fishes like a UK LRF (Light Rock Fishing) venue, small hooks (size 6), light leads, rag baits are repeatedly the productive setup in SAI session reports.

Bites can be in seconds and baits stripped fast, go expecting numbers of small species, not bag-fillers.

Corkwing wrasse, shanny, small pollack, codling, whiting all on the same session is a typical SAI report from here.

Season and tide

At Bray Harbour, Dab is worth targeting in October to February. Coast-wide, Dab runs Year round (peaks February to March and November to December autumn through spring on clean sand).

Wider mark season: Codling: October to February, Dab: October to February, Flounder: year round, Plaice: spring to summer, Mackerel: June to September (HW spinning), Bass: April to November (peak autumn Sep to Nov; periodic summer appearances), Grey mullet: summer shoals in inner harbour, Pollack/Coalfish/Whiting: autumn to winter, Corkwing wrasse and Shanny: year round on light gear, Conger: occasional inner harbour

Tide guidance here: First two hours of the fill is the most-cited productive window. HW for mackerel spinning. Night sessions on the outer wall for codling and dabs.

Two hours either side of high water. Any time of day or night.

Fishable phases: low, first-flood, mid-flood, high, first-ebb, mid-ebb. Peak: mid-flood, high.

Tactics on this mark

Fish short with two-hook flappers or simple ledgers, occasionally twitching baits along the sand to draw in inquisitive fish during the flood and around high water.

Two-hook flapper with size 6 hooks (LRF-style); Light spinning rod; Mackerel feathers at HW; Standard ledger for night codling

Gear: pier wall. Facing NE.

Running ledger or two-hook flapper
Size 2 to 4 hooks, dab have small mouths
Short hooklinks keep baits on the bottom
Two-hook flapper with size 6 hooks (LRF-style)
Light spinning rod
Mackerel feathers at HW
Standard ledger for night codling

Baits and lures

Dab baits and lures: Ragworm; Lugworm; Harbour ragworm; Sandeel strip.

What this mark typically holds: Ragworm; Lugworm; Mackerel strip; Sandeel.

Ragworm; Lugworm; Mackerel strip; Sandeel

Access and ground

Free parking on Bray seafront; harbour fully accessible on foot. The southern end of Bray beach proper, where the Loughlinstown River enters the sea, holds wrasse and rockling on weed-covered rock and occasional specimen autumn bass. Access to the beach is via an underpass from the R119.

Parking: Free parking on Bray seafront.

Safety: Busy with public year-round; family suitable on the inner walls. Standard pier safety; live boat traffic.

Nearest tackle: Bray town has fishing tackle shops within walking distance of the seafront.

Nearest town: Bray. Skill level: Beginner.

Size and identification

Typical shore size: 100 to 250 g from East Coast beaches. Specimen class: Fish over 400 g are very good shore dabs.

Small oval flatfish, light sandy-brown upper surface with a distinctive curved lateral line above the pectoral fin (the best identification feature). Rough to the touch on the upper surface. Eyes on the right side. Much smaller than plaice or flounder.

Tip: Dab respond well to a moving bait, occasionally retrieve a foot or two and pause. In match fishing, dab are a reliable points scorer and teams actively target them alongside whiting. On quiet sessions when the bigger species aren't showing, a single ragworm on a size 4 Aberdeen is rarely ignored.

Irish shore context: record class around 0.74 kg.

Same-mark companions

Other ranked targets on the same mark include Codling, Flounder, Plaice, Mackerel, Pollack, Coalfish. Open those pair pages or the full mark guide when you want a multi-species session.

Live ranked advice for Bray Harbour updates on the daily plan. Pair this page with the Dab species guide for coast-wide season bars and conservation detail.

Conservation

No current restrictions; keep only what you’ll eat fresh.

Guide conservation label: No Restrictions.

Confirm current bag limits and closures on the Dab species guide and /learn/rules before retaining fish.

Other species at Bray Harbour

Full mark guide lists all 16 catalogue pair pages.

Next steps

Live ranked session advice for this mark sits on Today's plan. Rules and bag limits: learn / rules.

NEXT STEP

Open the full mark or species guide.

Pair pages assemble mark and species catalogue facts for this ground. Depth sessions live on today's plan.