Fowey Estuary
A sheltered estuary offering safe paddling, boating and angling, for seven miles up to Lostwithiel and Lerryn, although navigable at high tide only north of Golant.
Polkerris Harbour
A safe harbour, with pub, fish restaurant and watersports facilities, offering a sheltered start point opening to the open sea.
Par Sands
A wide exposed beach, with a steady surf flowing onto it, perfect for more adventurous pursuits, and reaching out into St. Austell Bay.
Always check weather, wind, and tide before setting out to enjoy the water.
The Fowey valley tends to have it’s own micro-climate, rendering long range forecasts useless!
Take it day by day, and work with what you get!
Paddling
SUPing, kayaking, canoeing and a host of other paddlers, enjoy the relative calm and shelter, up and down the estuary.
Paddle about the moored yachts and discover hidden coves and beaches, as cormorants, herons and the odd seal fishes around you.
Dangle a rod overboard or paddle a froth up estuary to the Fisherman’s Arms at Golant or further north to Lostwithiel or Lerryn.
Paddling north of Golant can only be done at high tide.
If travelling as far as Lostwithiel or Lerryn allow enough high tide to get back on. It’s always best to paddle up estuary as the tide comes in and down as it goes out.
There are many access points up and down the estuary. Closest and most convenient to The Bowshot Lady is Caffa Mill car park, where the car ferry crosses to Boddinick. The slipway here is wide, accessible and only half a mile away.
For further info visit PaddlePoints.
Alternatively several of the Watersports Stores and Organisations below offer guided tours and lessons.
Boating
Self-drive motor boats, boating tours, water taxis, ferries and sailing dinghies (for sailing club members) are all available to hire on the river Fowey.
Speak to Steve on the Town Quay or any of the other operators to hire your own motor-boat. Potter around the main estuary, explore the side creeks and tributaries, or make a day of it with a fishing rod and a hearty picnic.
Also leaving daily from the Town Quay are guided tours of the estuary. See Fowey its surrounding towns from the water, learn their history and visit the docks where ships load up on aggregates and china clay. Or take a 3 or 2hr round trip to Lostwithiel or Lerryn, leaving daily from the Town Quay, or simply a ferry to Polruan, Boddinick or out of the estuary to nearby Mevagissey.
If you are affiliated to either The Fowey Royal Yacht Club or The Fowey Gallants Sailing Club there are options to sail and hire various other boats. They are often out in the estuary running races, or training students to sail.
You may even manage to get onboard, or a glimpse of, one of the 2 sailing dinghies unique to the Fowey estuary: The Troy, an 18ft long, 4ft bowsprit, designed by Archie Watty in 1929, each with a letter ‘T’ at the start of it’s sail number; or a Fowey River class dinghy, a 15ft traditional clinker-built wooden dinghy, built in Fowey since the 50s, each with an ‘FR’ at the start of it’s sail number.
Angling
A number of angling opportunities are available all year round: either off the rocks, up and down the estuary; from a boat idling mid river or up a side creek; or chartering a boat and venturing out to sea.
Mackerel, Sea Bass, Pollock, Cod, Whiting, Wrasse, Garfish, Dogfish and even Conger Eels are all possible catches in and around the Fowey estuary.
Reel them in, set them free or haul them back to The Bowshot Lady to BBQ, put in a fish stew or even to Sashimi! Depending on what part of the estuary you are fishing, you may need a rod licence, and always be sure to adhere to season dates and catch sizes and numbers for any species you manage to land.
There are a few online resources with tips and advice for fishing around Fowey: FishMag Angling Guides, FishBrain, Kayak Fishing Blog.
Easy starter sites are off the slipways and carparks from Caffa Mill and up through the town, the old lido at White House Quay, or off the rocks out from Readymoney Cove (be careful not to get cut-off by the tide though!)
Just out of town there are a few fishing tackle shops to stock up from; Lowen-Chy Art & Angling, TJ’s Fishing Tackle, Bait & Dart Supplies, or if spear-fishing is your thing! Spearfishing UK.
To charter a boat, fishing out to sea, your best bet is to have a good Google beforehand and phone around, or ask about on the town quay, as operators and boats change regularly.
Paddling
A great place to start from for paddling out to sea and exploring along the coastline.
It is possible to drop off boats, boards and equipment straight from the car onto the beach, and The Polkerris Car Park is a mere 250 metres further up and is payable for with the JustPark App. At peak times a local farmer usually opens a field for over-flow parking up on the headland.
Be sure to check wind conditions.
Anything above 10mph for SUPers and 20mph for kayakers makes paddling difficult, especially out on the open sea.
For most of the year you can hire wetsuits, paddle-boards, kayaks and even sail-boats from the Polkerris Beach Company, who are either set up on the beach itself and/or behind the shop inside the old Pilchard factory to the left of the beach.
When boats and equipment are hired out, they provide all safety instruction and equipment and have life-guards and safety boats out in the water.
Boating
Sail-boat hire and lessons are available here from the Polkerris Beach Company. Pico, Wanderer and Catamaran sail-boats are on offer, with a range of RYA approved courses that are logged towards your sailing education.
They also offer a range of power-boat courses, with centre console 4.8m RIBs and QuickSilver inflatables with tiller steer, or they can be arranged in your own boat. Check out their website for bookings.
All course bookings are adjustable with the weather. The small harbour of Polkerris provides a calm starting point, and the wide St. Austell Bay that it opens out onto, the perfect arena to explore on your lesson.
RIB rides can also be booked from the Polkerris Beach Company. They are skippered by Malcolm, a local fisherman with many years of experience in the Cornish waters. He will power you round to see the beautiful coast of South Cornwall, including St Austell Bay & Fowey Estuary.
After all your watersports activities, there 2 other main businesses here at Polkerris; the fabulous Sam’s on the Beach, and the wonderful Rashleigh Inn.
Find out more about these and other ‘après-water’ estabilishments on our Food & Drink page.
Angling
A number of fishing techniques and spots are available around the Polkerris harbour.
You can fish off the harbour wall, practise some LRF (light rock fishing) off the rocks that spread out east and west from the beach, or launch out in a kayak or boat.
If the latter is your style, check out the Kayak Fishing Blog. If you’re a rock scrabbler, beach caster or plan to fish off the harbour wall, keep an eye on the tide, as it can come in and go out a long way.
The harbour-wall at the height of summer will have a lot of youngsters hurling themselves off into the water too, so probably not the greatest spot at these times.
Plaice, Gurnards, Whiting, Cod, Pollack, Bass, Garfish, Dogfish, Conger and of course Mackerel, are all possible, as well as more exotic catches, check out the Ben Bassett – LRF Blog.
Bait and tackle shops near here would be; Lowen-Chy Art & Angling, TJ’s Fishing Tackle, Bait & Dart Supplies, Spearfishing UK.
You may even be able to hire a motor boat out from the Polkerris Beach Company situated here, in order to potter out into the St. Austell bay and dangle lines overboard. (Obviously wheather permitting).
Paddling
The moderate surf that rolls in here, offers a great opportunity for kayak and SUP surfing, or an easy launching point for venturing out to explore the coastline around the St. Austell Bay.
With the South West Coast Path Car Park, serviced by the Just Park App, right on the beach, getting your equipment to the water’s edge is easy.
ABC Watersports operate out of the car park providing equipment and lessons.
It is possible to paddle the 3 miles to the west to Charlestown, exploring remote beaches and coves, or it is barely a mile round to the harbour of Polkerris.
Kite & Wind Surfing
The wide open beach receives the full force of Cornwall’s coastal winds, and the large bay is the perfect playground for getting blown back and forth.
Site guide available here from the Kernow Kitesurf Club.
Par Harbour lies to the West of the beach and is mainly used for the local clay industry, but traffic from the harbour is light, keeps well out the way to west, and only operates at high tide.
The bay can be surfed at all stages of the tide, and all hazards are clearly marked.
Jet & Water Skiing
A perfect wide bay, with little boat traffic to hone your jet-ski and water-ski skills.
With multiple access points and places to park, access to the water to the water is straight-forward, or simply travel round from any of the surrounding ports.
Cornwall Waverunner Safaris operate from nearby Carylon Beach offering jet-ski taster sessions and safaris, as well as power-boat, rib-rides and even banana-boat rides.
All hazards are clearly marked and there is plenty of water to stay clear of other crafts and water-users.
