Sunny but slow day at Elliot beach

Elliot Beach, Arbroath

With the weather being lovely and sunny and dare I say it a tad warmer than normal I decided to take the opportunity to get out and flex the rods for the first time in a month. I decided to try for a flounder or two over low but just couldn't decide where to head, East Neuk, St Andrews pier, the Tay, Arbroath or St Cyrus. In the end I plumped for Elliot Beach as I hadn't been in a while. Low tide was just after six and I planned to fish two down two up but my impatience to head off turned it into three down one up.

I parked at the back of the golf course and when I crossed the railway crossing found a wooden walk walkway has been put over the back of the  dunes similar to the one at St Cyrus. Good quality and ends right at the top of the dunes, all good. A nice calm sea greeted me and after scanning the beach I decided to go down right and fish what looked to be a wee sand gully. I was pretty hopeful of some fish, but decided to fish one rod close in and fire the other one out (more as casting practice than any hope but you never know).

A wee flounder

The first few baits came back untouched but I was un-surprised as the sea was more coloured than I had hoped and still bloody freezing. At least the air temp was nice, the sun was shining and the dog walkers all had good control of their animals and let me be a good day to be outside all told. After about an hour things started to look better as some bites started showing through and I landed a wee 19cm flounder. Perfectly lip hooked, a quick photo and he was put back to grow up. But rather than being the start of things it was the end. That wee guy must've been responsible for all the bites as once he was caught they stopped. An other three hours of no bites. Still I got some good casting practice in between staring at a stationary rod tip.

Beady Eye

I would have liked to stay and fish the whole tide up but when the sun set the temp plummeted and I realised I had made the error of not bringing warmer gear to fish the darkness so off home it was with the single flounder. No blank and a nice day out at least.