Dingle Marina

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Ventry Cliffs

As you are driving along Ventry Strand, take a left-hand turn down towards Cuan pier. You will come to a caravan park before the harbour. Park here and take a 20 min trek through the caravans and across the next 5 or 6 fields. As you walk along you will notice that shallow sandy coves getting replaced with rocks going into much deeper water.
There are a number of rocks that can be fished here but it is very dangerous and should not be attempted in bad conditions.
The fishing here is AMAZING with plenty of wrasse up to specimen size and huge pollack, but unfortunately because of the depth of the water here the fish will often suffer from decompression on the way in.

Slea Head

There are not too many accessible rock that I know of on this stretch of coastline, but one that I have visited can be reached from the car park at the beehive huts. If you park here and continue on foot (towards the blaskets) for about 300 yards, you will notice that the rocks will slightly decrease in gradient (it is mainly cliff face up until this point). From here you can (carefully!) make your way down to the water. You will still be fishing about 12 feet above the water's surface so a drop net is recommended.
We really didn't give this mark the time it deserved, staying for only 2 or 3 hours, but in that time we managed a number of wrasse, mackerel, pout and pollack up to 5lb.

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Dingle Harbour

The only area I have fished with any regularity is the rocks on the Dingle side of the entrance to Dingle Harbour. To get here you can park at the Skelligs hotel and walk around the coastline until you reach a small lighthouse. The rocks at the base of this lighthouse are an excellent and easily accessible area for spinning for pollack and mackerel as well as bottom fishing for wrasse, ray and conger.
Many of the fish here are caught literally at your feet, but we found that the best specimens were to be found beyond the 100yard range in the channel that runs along the entrance to the harbour. The best fish fell to jelly worms or or bottom fished strips of mackerel.

Inch

This beach is famous for its bass and flounder, but is also capable of producing dogfish, ray and the occasional turbot.

Dunmore Head

I've never personally fished the rocks here, but assume it holds the same species as Slea Head (wrasse, pollock, mackerel, conger etc...)

Dún an Óir

This mark is to the westward side of Smerwick harbour and is an ideal place to fish if a strong westerly wind makes other areas unfishable. If you park at the monument (See below) you will find yourself at the start of a path which takes you along a cliff walk. The majority of these rocks are very hard to get down to, so travel light and bring a rope if possible. The first time I fished here was in June 2006 due to a strog westerly and in about 3 hours two of us ended up with numerous pollock to 8.5 lbs (with at least 6 or 7 being over the 5lb mark). Over the next few days we revisited this area and whilst never beating the 8.5lb fish, we came close on many occasions.

This is the monument you need to find to access these marks. the pathway to the majority of the rocks are to the left of this photo

Beenbane Head
Not to be confused with Beenbane in Waterville, this area has 2 notable marks. The first is the small beach at the end of the carpark which, although I have not personally fished it, holds a number of bass close in and ray for those with a good cast. The other mark is a rocky area about 300yards to your left as you face the sea. This mark is a short climb down from the cliffs and holds a good stock of very large wrasse. Unfortunatley, because of the ease of access, you often have to share this mark with other anglers. This is the only rock I know of on this stretch of coastline that is accessible and fishes well for wrasse, pollock and apparently conger, though I have yet to try for them there.

Bob Moss describes this rock as the best place to catch mackerel on the Dingle side of the peninsula and I wouldn't disagree with him - the last 15 minutes of light here has always supplied us with as many mackerel as we have needed for our night sessions.

The Trench

This is possibly the most famous mark for thornback ray on the whole peninsula. I have only fished this area once and although it resulted in only a few dogfish, it is definately somewhere I want to invest more time in. Whilst driving from Castlegregory towards the Magherees, look out for an obvious S bend in the road which goes over a small stream. It is where this stream enters the bay that you should be fishing. The ray here are predominantly thornbacks, but undulates are also a definate possibility.

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