Lyme Bay, Lyme Regis beaches.

The Beach, Marine Parade, Lyme Regis. The Cobb in the distance.

This beach is shingle giving way to sand weed and rocks to the east while to the western end by The Cobb, sand is imported for the anklebiters to play in. Most species can be caught here. The rocky parts are home to blennies, little wrasse and other small species to add to your list. Very busy in the summer months. Plenty of facilities nearby. This beach is less 'tackle hungry' than the other beach to the west of The Cobb.

Monmouth Beach to the west of The Cobb.

Monmouth Beach can be a tackle graveyard, be prepared to loose weights. The loss will be worth it if you can connect with a Bull Huss. The Huss is the grumpy cousin of the humble and gentle dogfish, you can tell the difference by looking for the seperated nose flaps and more visible teeth of the Huss but the fact that it tries to bite your arm off is a more obvious clue. A dogfish grows to a couple of pounds, a ten pound Bull Huss would not be rare from this beach. Baits used are squid and ragworm... lots of it for big fish.
If you are a mullet or bass specialist then the junction of this beach and The Cobb will be of interest to you. At times in the summer great piles of seaweed form here. Maggots emerging from the decaying weed are the preferred food of mullet and bass at this time and sport can be good. You should not have too much trouble with holiday makers, the smell of the decaying seaweed will drive them far away.
Shops and facilities are available by The Cobb. There is a tackle shop nearby but it is open only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at weekends. Fossils can be found on the beach and in the cliffs.
The cliffs are soft and are prone to landslips, be careful, do not climb on the cliffs they really are unstable.

Lyme Bay, Charmouth.

Charmouth, looking east.

Charmouth is off the A35 which by-passes the town. Charmouth is popular with geologists and amateur fossil hunters. At the end of the road are car parks; one in a field which is privately owned and the gates locked at nights and a smaller council car park near the shop, café and toilets. In front of the car park there is clean sand, it is possible to fish from the front of the car park over high tide. There is rough ground with weed and stones out to the east where the small river outflows which gives way to a cleaner bottom out past the café/shop cabin which opens in the summer. Fishing can be good with bass and rays on the clean ground and dogfish and bull huss on the rougher marks.

Charmouth, looking west from the concrete prom.

It is possible to fish from the concrete prom when the tide is up, it is clean ground in front but big wrasse are caught along here. Huge baits, huge hooks and patience can be rewarded with double figure bass. Further along the beach there are shallow reefs, that can be seen at low tide, with clean areas between, further on it becomes very rocky and snaggy. The tide can come right up to the cliffs along here, check tide times and heights, look for the high tide line of debris and move well before you must. There are usually plenty of people tapping away with hammers at the soft shale rocks and scree at the base of the cliffs looking for fossils, small fossils are quite common among the shingle of the upper part of the beach.
The cliffs are soft and are prone to landslips, be careful, do not climb on the cliffs they really are unstable.
Update March 2011.
Recent landslips have greatly increased the danger of fishing here during high tides, children have been trapped in soft mud and anglers report large stones, that have loosened from the clay cliff, falling near them. Not a place to fish during spring tides.... try Seatown or Eype instead.

Over high tides, from car park end or prom only

Lyme Bay, Seatown.

Seatown, looking east.

Not to be confused with the bigger place of Seaton which is further west, Seatown is reached by taking a narrow lane from the village of Chideock* on the A35 east of Bridport. The popularity of this beach as a fishing spot could be influenced by the pub next to the car park. There are public toilets by the car turning area next to the beach. In the winter months parking is free at the roadside. Like other beaches along this bit of coast, the ground in front is fairly clean with more broken ground out to either side. Out to the right is favourite for rough ground fishing.

Seatown, looking west.

Bass and small eyed rays are regularly caught along this beach, a whole sandeel is just a snack to either of these species. Dogfish and pouting are always present.

* for the 'sadder' people reading this, CHIDEOCK is the only village name in England that, when written in upper case letters reads the same if the paper is turned upside down, reversed and read from the back...... not a lot of people know that.

Lyme Bay, Eype

Eype, access steps to beach. looking east.

Eype is a tiny village just to the west of Bridport. West Bay Pier can be seen in the distance in the photograph above. Turn off the A35 at the picnic area and take the narrow windy lane signposted Lower Eype. Parking is in a field at the end of the lane. In winter this field is closed and there is no parking anywhere close to the venue. In front of the access steps to the beach there is fairly clean ground, out to the west there is more broken ground where dogfish are more commonly caught along with wrasse and bass. Rays are caught on the cleaner ground along with other species.

Eype, looking west.

There are no facilities at the beach, there is a pub back in the village or a burger bar and cafe by the picnic area back at the main road, there are also toilet facilities. The beach is safe for children but the access steps are steep and could be a problem for less mobile anglers.

Scallop fishing, how to destroy marine habitat.

This is part of a scallop boat's gear.

The metal mesh purses are made of interlinked steel rings. The metal making the rings is about nine millimetres diameter so the purses are heavy. There are four of these on each bar making the assembly about four metres wide. The whole lot is towed over the seabed, one from each side of a boat. Many boats are doing this,six or eight in this area, day after day, week after week, dragging these chunks of metal up and down Lyme Bay at more than walking pace, hour after hour. Out in Lyme Bay there used to be slow growing cold water coral patches and weeded areas where fish, including black bream, gather to breed and lay their eggs.

Why drag the seabed bare?, because it is trendy to order scallops in trendy restaurants. A sustainable scallop fishery is one where divers collect only those fit for the table and who avoid damage to the marine ecosystem. The scallops will of course be more expensive.
Still fancy scallops for dinner ?

Further Reading........Marine Conservation Society Press Release.

Lyme Bay, Lyme Regis Harbour

The North or Canon Wall, Lyme Regis Harbour. Dorset.

Lyme Regis is a quaint town, very popular with tourists and can get very crowded. Parking near to fishing spots can be a problem in season, so travel light. The harbour outer wall is known as The Cobb and has been the setting for many film scenes, that main sea wall is not fished much and is best suited to the more experienced angler. From the end you will be casting over rough ground and tackle loss can be high, expect dogfish or huss with occasional bass plus the usual floatfishing targets in summer.
Most fishing is done from the North, or Canon, Wall, the small beach behind the buildings on the Cobb extension or from the end of the pier past the buildings. A child friendly fishing spot except for the lack of guard rails. The harbour walls are a very popular spot for crabbing. Shops, takeaway food and toilets are found at the side of the harbour. Several angling charter boats work from here.
Fishing from the Canon Wall is mainly onto clean ground, although there are patches of rough near to the rock groyne, some sizeable wrasse lurk in the rough and along the wall close in. Currents are minimal and light tackle can be used. A large number of species can be caught including and mackerel and gar by float fishing during the summer months. Flatfish are quite commonly caught, flounders and sole mainly, after dark expect dogfish and pouting and it is always worth putting a big bait, or a livebait, close in for a bass.
Access to the Canon Wall is via the beach and involves climbing up over some large stones or up a vertical wooden ladder; the storms of early 2014 have scoured sand away from the land end of the wall meaning that the wall becomes an island over the top of larger tides. If you understand graphs look at this tide chart, if the height is over about 3.7m then you will get wet feet or worse when you try to get off. This may change if the currents or the council restores the sand.

The Harbour mouth, at the end of The Cobb.

Fishing at the Harbour mouth is much the same as from The Canon Wall, take care when there is boat traffic, Looking back from here towards The Cobb there is a small beach that can be fished at times; do not fish here when there is a big sea and wind from the west; the sea crashes over the wall.... take care.

The small beach behind the buildings .

There is a tackle and bait shop nearby, just along the narrow street that leads back to the town off the roundabout by at the bottom of the hill. During the winter months you may have to visit the tackle shop in West Bay for bait, ragworm, sandeel and squid seem to work best.
Changes to parking charges in 2011 mean that there is free parking in The Cobb car park after 6pm, it used to be after 9pm when the 40p per night charge was effective; a saving of 3 hours charges + 40p. A rare case of charges coming down..

There is a webcam overlooking the North Wall

Tide Times for the next seven days for Lyme Regis

not from Canon Wall or beach, from Cobb inner wall and end only

updated 26.11.09

Philosophy of fishing

Notice on The Cob, Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Nothing more to be said.

Lyme Bay, West Bay to Exmouth.

Seatown, looking eastward.

Westwards from West Bay fishing venues are; Eype, Seatown, Charmouth, Lyme Regis Harbour, Lyme Regis Beaches, Seaton, Beer, Branscombe and Sidmouth

to be continued