BAITS
Fresh crab, if you can get it, is the best for both the flounder and the bass. Also try fresh blow lug tipped with razorfish, or rag worm tipped with a tiny strip of mackerel.

TACKLE AND TACTICS
No need for heavy gear here. Use either a 2-4oz bass rod and a reel loaded with 12lb line and 30lb shock leader, or a carp rod and reel, again with 10 to 12lb line and a 30lb shock leader.

Although a three-hook or two-hook rig using size 2 Kamasan Aberdeen hooks will catch plenty of flounder, the bigger fish, and the numbers, tend to fall to a three-boom rig using short 10-inch hook links to either a size 4 or 2 Kamasan Aberdeen. Use a 2 to 3oz release wire lead to maximise bites, but either side of slack water change to a plain lead and twitch the baits back towards you an inch or two at a time to draw the flounder's attention.

The bass are better targeted with a simple one-hook sliding ledger rig and a hook trace about 18-inches long ending in a size 2/0 to 3/0 Viking pattern hook.

The main mid channel section of the estuary can produce well as the tide starts to flood through, but the flounder are mostly caught close in off the bank edges towards high water in daylight. The bass also favour either side of high water.

The ground is mud mixed with shingle and stone, with short weed towards the high water line. Be careful of the boat mooring ropes.

LOCATION
From Aberystwyth take the A487 directly for Fishguard and as you come over the narrow estuary bridge in Lower Town look for a car park on your right hand side. From Carmarthen and the M4 take the A40 to Fishguard and follow the signs through the town for Cardigan. As you come down the steep hill towards Lower Town the car park in on the left immediately before the bridge. Locals fish in to the estuary from the car park and from the bank below the car park wall.

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