FISHING
Fishing
Cottages within reach of the water — harbour charters, rock marks, moorland trout reservoirs and the shark grounds off Looe.
THE COLLECTION
St Ives
Hillside
Sleeps 8 · 3 Bed · 4 Bath
From £1,235/Week
St Ives
Treleigh
Sleeps 12 · 5 Bed · 4 Bath
From £4,535/Week
St Ives
Beach Haven
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £585/Week
St Ives
Springfield Villa
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,430/Week
Mousehole
Trevene
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,285/Week
Bude
Halekulani
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
Crackington Haven
Trevigue Cottage
Sleeps 6 · 4 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,358/Week
Crackington Haven
Atlantic Haven
Sleeps 2 · 1 Bed · 1 Bath
From £975/Week
Portreath
Harbour Heights
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,230/Week
St Ives
Salubrious House
Sleeps 9 · 4 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,530/Week
Carbis Bay
No 5, Gwel Marten
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,235/Week
Falmouth
Waves
Sleeps 9 · 4 Bed · 4 Bath
From £2,035/Week
Mawgan Porth
6 The Shore
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 3 Bath
From £2,730/Week
Padstow
The Grain Store
Sleeps 5 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,330/Week
Perranuthnoe
Trekoa
Sleeps 8 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
St Ives
Porthminster Mews 2
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £830/Week
St Ives
Vitamyn Sea
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,435/Week
St Ives
Sea View House
Sleeps 10 · 5 Bed · 5 Bath
From £1,530/Week
St Ives
Tresillian
Sleeps 12 · 6 Bed · 4 Bath
From £1,530/Week
Porth
Seascape
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
Charlestown
Orchard Cottage
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,285/Week
Porthtowan
The Beach House
Sleeps 10 · 5 Bed · 4 Bath
From £3,535/Week
Carbis Bay
Tintin Cottage
Sleeps 2 · 1 Bed · 1 Bath
From £505/Week
Carbis Bay
Hummingbird
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,205/Week
Where these cottages are
Fishing across Cornwall
The fishing cottages we look after, grouped by where they are
Where these cottages are
Locations approximate — exact addresses provided on booking confirmation.
EDITORIAL
Sea, river, reservoir — Cornwall fishes every way
Fishing in Cornwall isn’t one sport, it’s four or five. Cornwall has 422 miles of coast, a moor full of trout reservoirs, and rivers running off it. You could fish a different way every day of the trip. Shore angling off rocks, beaches and breakwaters. Charter boats out of the harbours for reef, wreck and shark. Fly fishing for trout on the high moorland reservoirs. Wild brown trout and sea trout in the rivers. Coarse fishing on the day-ticket lakes. Whichever one you’ve come for, the practical question is the same — which water do you want to be near, and which cottage puts you closest to it.
Sea fishing is what most people picture. Shore fishing needs no licence and no boat — Cornwall’s rock marks, beaches, breakwaters and harbour walls produce bass, pollack, mackerel, wrasse, mullet, garfish, plaice and flounder through the year, with conger and ray after dark. Charter boats run from harbours all round the county — Looe, Mevagissey, Falmouth, Padstow, Newquay, Penzance and others — for reef and wreck trips after pollack, ling, cod and conger. Shark fishing is Looe’s speciality: the town has been the centre of UK shark angling since 1953, when the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain was founded there, and charter skippers run trips to the shark grounds 12-20 miles offshore. Blue sharks visit from roughly June to September; the modern trips are tag-and-release. Mackerel trips — short, cheap, two-hour harbour runs — are the easy family option, and a good way to catch your own supper.
Inland, Cornwall fishes differently. Game fishing for trout centres on the high reservoirs — Siblyback and Colliford on Bodmin Moor, Stithians, Argal, College and Crowdy elsewhere — most managed by South West Lakes Trust and stocked with rainbow trout, fly-only or mixed-method depending on the water. The rivers — the Camel, the Fowey, the Lynher and the Tamar on the Devon border — hold wild brown trout, sea trout (Cornish anglers call them peal) and salmon, fished by day ticket through local clubs and estates. Coarse fishing for carp, tench, bream and roach is on commercial day-ticket lakes dotted across the county. One thing to know: freshwater fishing in England needs an Environment Agency rod licence (quick to buy online, valid across the country) — sea fishing doesn’t.
Where the cottage sits decides what’s easiest to reach. Looe and the south-east coast put you closest to the shark grounds and the biggest concentration of charter boats — the natural base for a serious sea-fishing trip. The harbour towns — Padstow, Mevagissey, Falmouth, Newquay, Penzance — give you shore marks on the doorstep and charter boats in the harbour. Bodmin Moor and the inland villages are the base for the trout reservoirs and the upper rivers. The estuary villages on the Camel, the Fal and the Helford suit anglers who like to mix shore fishing, small-boat work and river fishing in one trip. If a specific kind of fishing is the point of your holiday, sort the cottage grid by location and check what each property page says about the nearest water.
A few practical notes. Licences: a freshwater fishing trip needs an Environment Agency rod licence (buy online before you travel — it’s quick and inexpensive); sea fishing from shore or a licensed charter boat needs no licence. Charter boats supply the gear — rods, reels, tackle and bait are almost always included, so you can turn up empty-handed; shore and freshwater fishing means bringing or hiring your own. Tackle and catch at the cottage: storage for rods and somewhere to deal with a catch varies from property to property — some have a garage, outbuilding or utility that works well, others less so; the property page is the place to check if it matters to you. Best seasons: shark and mackerel are summer fishing (June-September); trout reservoirs run roughly spring to autumn; shore fishing produces something all year, with bass strong from late spring into autumn. Cross-list with: Country for the moor-and-river cottages, and Sea Views for the harbour and estuary properties.
Good to know
Questions
The things people ask before they book
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Most of them. Sea fishing from the shore — off rocks, beaches, breakwaters and harbour walls — for bass, pollack, mackerel, wrasse, mullet and more; no licence or boat needed. Boat and charter fishing from the harbours — reef and wreck trips for pollack, ling, cod and conger, plus shark fishing off Looe and short mackerel trips for families. Game fishing — fly fishing for trout on the moorland reservoirs, and wild brown trout, sea trout and salmon in the rivers. Coarse fishing for carp, tench, bream and roach on commercial day-ticket lakes. The variety is the point — many anglers mix two or three kinds of fishing across a single Cornwall trip. Each property page notes the nearest water so you can pick a cottage to match.
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It depends what you're fishing for. Freshwater fishing — trout, salmon, coarse fish in rivers, lakes and reservoirs — requires an Environment Agency rod licence in England, for anyone aged 13 and over. It's quick to buy online, inexpensive, and valid across the whole of England, so sort it before you travel. Many fisheries and reservoirs also charge a separate day ticket on top of the rod licence — that's the fishery's own charge, not the licence. Sea fishing — from the shore or from a licensed charter boat — needs no licence at all in England. There are still rules worth knowing (minimum sizes for some species, bag limits on bass, seasonal restrictions on a few marks), and responsible anglers follow catch-and-release for undersized and large fish. If you're unsure, the charter skipper or local tackle shop will put you right.
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Yes — and Looe is the place to do it. The town has been the centre of UK shark angling since 1953, when the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain was founded there, and several charter skippers run shark trips through the season. Blue sharks are the main species, visiting Cornish waters from roughly June to September; porbeagle and, less often, thresher and mako are also caught. A typical day starts early, with a stop to catch mackerel for bait before steaming 12-20 miles out to the shark grounds. Modern shark fishing is tag-and-release — the fish are measured, tagged for conservation data, and returned. Trips are open to non-members; you book the charter directly or through the club. It's a genuine bucket-list day out and one of the things Cornwall does that nowhere else in Britain really matches.
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Very. The easiest entry point is a mackerel trip — short two-hour harbour runs, available all summer from most fishing harbours, cheap, and almost guaranteed to catch something, which keeps children interested. Shore fishing is the other easy start: a beach or harbour wall, simple tackle, and no licence needed for sea fishing. Charter skippers running reef trips are used to first-timers and will set everyone up, bait hooks, and help land fish — you don't need any experience or your own gear. For freshwater, several stocked trout fisheries are set up for beginners and offer instruction. The one thing to sort in advance is the rod licence if you're fishing freshwater. Cornwall is a forgiving place to learn — plenty of fish, plenty of people happy to help.
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The high moorland reservoirs are the heart of it. Siblyback Lake and Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor, plus Stithians, Argal, College and Crowdy reservoirs, are mostly managed by South West Lakes Trust and stocked with rainbow trout — some fly-only, some mixed-method, with day tickets available. The rivers — the Camel, the Fowey, the Lynher and the Tamar — hold wild brown trout, sea trout (peal) and salmon, fished by day ticket through local angling clubs and estates; river fishing is more about local knowledge, so a day with a guide or a chat in the nearest tackle shop pays off. All freshwater fishing needs an Environment Agency rod licence. Cottages around Bodmin Moor and the inland river valleys are the natural base — see Country.
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It depends on the kind of fishing. For sea and charter fishing, especially shark, Looe and the south-east coast put you closest to the boats and the offshore grounds. For a mix of shore marks and harbour charters, the harbour towns — Padstow, Mevagissey, Falmouth, Newquay, Penzance — are ideal, with fishing on the doorstep. For trout reservoirs and river fishing, cottages around Bodmin Moor and the inland valleys are the base. For mixing shore, small-boat and river fishing, the estuary villages on the Camel, Fal and Helford work well. Sort the cottage grid by location and check each property page for what it says about the nearest water and harbour.
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It varies by property, and the property page is the place to check. Some cottages have a garage, outbuilding, boot room or utility space that's well suited to storing rods, drying waders, and dealing with a catch. Others have less obvious space for fishing kit — worth knowing if you're travelling with a lot of gear or long rods. A note on the catch: if you're planning to bring fish back to cook, a cottage with a decent kitchen, or an outdoor or utility area for cleaning fish makes life easier — again, the property page and photos give you the picture. If it matters to your trip, check before booking or message us and we'll confirm with the owner. Charter-boat anglers travelling light will find this far less of a concern.
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It depends on the target. Shark fishing is firmly a summer activity — blue sharks are in Cornish waters from roughly June to September. Mackerel are a summer fish too, best from June through September, which is also peak season for the family harbour trips. Trout reservoirs generally fish from spring into autumn, with the season varying by water. Shore fishing produces all year — winter is prime time for some species, and bass fish strongly from late spring through autumn. Charter reef and wreck trips run year-round, weather permitting, with the calmer months naturally more reliable. In short: come in summer for shark, mackerel and the easiest family fishing; come in spring or autumn for trout and quieter shore marks; come any time for reef trips if the forecast holds.
Still have questions? Talk to us →