Lake Pier.
Lake Pier is at the northern end of Poole Harbour and is approached from the Hamworthy side of Poole. Follow the brown signs to Rockley Park, look out for Dorset Lake shipyard sign, after the shipyard entrance the road rises and near the top there is a sign to the left for Lake Pier, blink and you will miss it. There is a large car park, pay and display,and toilets at the bottom of the hill. You can fish the pier or the beach to the north of the pier.
The jetty was originally to provide fuelling for flying boat services, the tank storage was where the car park now is; brackets to hold the fuel pipes can still be seen on the side of the pier although the pipes are long gone.
It is fairly shallow water and the target species will be flounder and bass. Small species such as blennies and gobies can be caught from the pier, you will lose tackle as the bottom is snaggy, if float fishing, mullet, mackerel and black bream can be caught if you are lucky in the summer. There have been reports of Gilthead Bream being caught in this area. Sand smelt shoal under the structure, they can be easily caught on small hooks and make a good livebait for bass if free-lined or fished under a float. Recent reports mention turbot being caught here.
Use light tackle, small hooks ( size 2 or 4 ) and ragworm for bait, for float fishing a small sliver of the silver belly of a mackerel or a small sandeel work best.
The jetty was originally to provide fuelling for flying boat services, the tank storage was where the car park now is; brackets to hold the fuel pipes can still be seen on the side of the pier although the pipes are long gone.
It is fairly shallow water and the target species will be flounder and bass. Small species such as blennies and gobies can be caught from the pier, you will lose tackle as the bottom is snaggy, if float fishing, mullet, mackerel and black bream can be caught if you are lucky in the summer. There have been reports of Gilthead Bream being caught in this area. Sand smelt shoal under the structure, they can be easily caught on small hooks and make a good livebait for bass if free-lined or fished under a float. Recent reports mention turbot being caught here.
Use light tackle, small hooks ( size 2 or 4 ) and ragworm for bait, for float fishing a small sliver of the silver belly of a mackerel or a small sandeel work best.
The beach, looking north from the car park
The beach runs north west around Rockley and is shallow firm mud and shingle rising to a low shingle bank; fish can be caught within twenty yards as the flood tide covers the beach. Locals prefer to walk to the headland seen in the distance but fish can be caught within a very short walk from the pier. Be aware that bigger spring tides will force you back to the gorse/shrubs and low sand cliffs, cutting off your retreat and making casting difficult, check the strand line of weed and floating debris left by the last tide.
At low tide it is possible to dig ragworm here, the beach under the water shown in the above photograph is pock marked with shallow depressions where holes have been dug.
A child friendly venue although some areas of the pier have no guard rails.
Tide times for Lake Pier for the next 7 days
pier only
4 comments:
Hi there, nice photos of Poole you have taken. On one of those days were the UK weather is actually good aswell! It certainly brings back memories of my time in Rockley Park, the Haven Caravan site overlooking the harbour. We spent many a time on the blue flag beaches and paddling in the sea. Nice to see the area hasn't changed much.
Look forward to using your site: Thank you
Hi... Nice Blog, thanks.
Particularly liked the comment about child friendly. The pier is very child friendly as all summer long there will be legions of kids jumping off it ! Not so good for the fishing though.
Car park is free and it's a great place to launch a kayak if you fancy a bit of kayak fishing.
Great images. One of the reasons we moved down to Poole 5 years ago is we get to enjoy places like this all the time
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