Ship's Stern

This is a well known fishing mark from years ago and is still very popular with the Angling fraternity today. The Ship’s Stern is found at the mouth of Black Slough on the south side and constitutes a natural and safe place, for up to four people, to fish with modern gear when the weather is good and the seas are light, although it can be a very daunting and tricky area if there is a heavy swell running, then like most places on our coast fishing should not be attempted. 

When we used to go fishing (with our bamboo rods, orange nylon lines, bare hooks, mussels for bait and sheep’s wool to keep the bait on!) this is the place where we would head to. I wouldn’t say that it was our most prolific fishing mark, generally we’d only ever catch a saithe or two and the occasional cod however this was the safest and most comfortable place for a group of kids to congregate for a bit of old fashioned fishing in good weather. 

It’s good to see that today it has become more popular than ever before as a fishing mark and you can find Anglers down there most weekends. It helps that there appears to be more fish being caught nowadays but maybe that’s more to do with the modern gear available now compared to when we were young – we usually ended up fishing with bare hooks and sheep’s wool. 

From the sea it is obvious as to why this area became known as the “Ship’s Stern” as it looks very similar to the stern of a ship.