Fishing in Lyme Regis
Crabbing
An ideal beginners' sport. Crabs can be caught off the harbour wall using just a length of line, a weight, a hook and a piece of bacon or mackerel.
Mackerel fishing
Mackerel is plentiful around Lyme, and many boats offer one-hour fishing trips from the harbour. For more information, please see our Boat and fishing trips page.
Deep-sea fishing
Lyme Bay, with its many rocky reefs and marks, is an ideal place for deep-sea angling as it is home to a variety of species, such as conger eels, bass, pollack, skate, cod and black bream. Charter boats regularly run three-hour and eight-hour fishing trips from the Cobb, and most have rods and equipment available. The skippers are only too pleased to help a first timer or they will target a particular species for the more experienced angler.
Beach fishing
Looking to the southeast on a clear day, Portland can be seen in the distance, and stretching from there almost to Golden Cap lies Chesil Beach. This beach is very popular for anglers, producing mackerel, plaice and dabs in the summer, and codling, whiting and dogfish in the winter. Lyme Regis offers good fishing from the north wall of the Cobb and Monmouth Beach. Both of these spots produce sea bass, mackerel, garfish, mullet and dogfish in the summer months, with winter months producing dogfish, pout and whiting.
Fly fishing
Fly fishing from the shore for mullet and bass has become more popular in recent years, and there are five small freshwater lakes fed by the River Lym in Uplyme that are regularly stocked with rainbow trout.
The River Axe is a good little trout and sea trout river which rises near Beaminster in Dorset and flows in a westerly direction towards Chard in Somerset before turning south and on to Axminster in Devon before running into the sea at Axmouth.
