When you say 'the tides are good', what do you mean?

Nemytalu

Nemytalu

Active Member
When people say "the tides are good for fishing", what are we meaning? I think - don't know - but think that there is a prolonged slack tide as I've marked 'great' below. Presumably this means that the slack lasts longer, with a longer potential for a bite period. 'Good' is less time at flood slack, and 'ok' is low slack (which I understand to be the least favourable. Day / night aside, do we have this right? How much is this guiding your decisions to go out?

1665027873749.png
 
I would agree. A lot of people more care about currents than tides.
I think that ebb at first light at the beginning looks good.
I personally go whenever I have a chance to. Hard to come by these days.
I know someone who caught their personal best, a 44 pounder at middle of a tide at 10:00am so you never know…
 
Nemytalu said:
When people say "the tides are good for fishing", what are we meaning? I think - don't know - but think that there is a prolonged slack tide as I've marked 'great' below. Presumably this means that the slack lasts longer, with a longer potential for a bite period. 'Good' is less time at flood slack, and 'ok' is low slack (which I understand to be the least favourable. Day / night aside, do we have this right? How much is this guiding your decisions to go out?

View attachment 85950
Click to expand...
the wind and weather will be perfect for
“ boating” but the tides will suck for fishing so i’ll stay home and cut the grass.

it depends on an area and current. for example where i live in CR i’ll take low slack over any other tide. especially close to town. on the flood tide everything is work. still very fishable and produces but not like the ebb. that the beauty of fishing though. i know my area well. air drop me into sooke and i’m lost untii figure it out. that’s fishing
 
Since I'd way rather be floating than working, there pretty much no such thing as a bad tide, to me anyway. Other than tide rips, or tide lines full of weeds, it's give er...but for sure some locations will produce way more action on a given tide. Take the cap for example, that's always been a high slack + / - 1 hour producer. For those time I'm waiting around for things to happen, aka "bad tides" it's tidy the boat time. Beats spreadsheets 1000 times over, 7 x 24.
 
I always say "the tides are good for fishing" whenever I'm telling my wife why I need to go fishing. I was shocked 20 years ago the moment I realized that marriage and family responsibilities meant I couldn't go fishing whenever I wanted. Still dealing with PTSD on this.

When I get the green light then I look at tides - for sure slack tides and prolonged slower currents are best but fish get pushed around differenty in different places. Weather permitting the currents definitely dictate where I will fish. But that comes with putting in the time and getting to know your fishing grounds.
 
For chinooks slack tides for me are generally the most productive always try and plan my days around fishing slack for salmon
Bottom fishing up where I’m at doesn’t matter what tide is doing bigger the better lol generally fishing the ebb it’s faster fishing
There’s areas that fish good on the ebb and areas the fish good on the flood it takes alot of time to figure out the difference between the spots once you understand how the water is moving and where there is going to be back Eddie’s behind islands/ points your catch rates will go up substantially over fishing an area that is “blown out” from the tide
Fish are lazy and hungry they don’t like hanging out in a 2 knot current with no bait
 
Ask any successful commercial fisherman or guide - people who earn a living from fishing that knowing when the better tides, currents, weather and even moon phase does effect catch rates. The key is you need to find out/research which ones are the best for the area you are fishing. Every place is different.
 
For me I have always used the rule to have my lines in the water at least 1 hour before either high slack or low slack and troll until at least 1 hour or so after the tide change to hit the optimum fishing window. Any fish outside that window is a bonus. For me a good tide is one where there isn’t a big difference between low tide height and high tide height and vice versa. Which usually is governed by the moon phase, crazy tide changes near full the full moon where bottom fishing gets interesting trying to hold your lure or bait on the bottom. But as mentioned big tides move a lot of bait in certain spots as well.
 
ebrench said:
Can you elaborate on the theory behind the "where" part?
Click to expand...
the tides push baitfish around. so if there’s a structure that the bait can get pushed up against, this creates a natural wall or trap where the salmon will then sit and do their feeding while their dinner gets presented to them.

on the opposing tide, that structure may not hold baitfish the same way. therefore you need to move around and present your lures to the salmon in a different way.

this is why a lot of highliners pay more attention to current change just as much as tide change.

it dictates exactly where they are going to fish
 
ebrench said:
Can you elaborate on the theory behind the "where" part?
Click to expand...
Tips Up said:
I could but... then I would have to kill you ; )
Click to expand...
Joking aside... Riverboy has right idea.
Bait gets pushed by current, fish hold on the lee side of structure, back eddies are created...
Every area is different. Keep a detailed log. You will start to see the patterns.

Fishing is about odds. There are lots of things you can do to swing the odds in your favor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Sharphooks
LAPEROUSE PART III. The Rapids
Replies
0
Views
1K
Sharphooks
Sharphooks
T
Fishing Staycation
Replies
12
Views
2K
acrowe
acrowe
banger17
Jerk at the launch - what do you do?
Replies
12
Views
2K
Local Hali Hunter
L
Captain PartyMarty
What do you when your tuna is at the Dock
Replies
4
Views
807
Seagirt
Seagirt
smokedvw
Who's done a boat share with another family? Looking for the good / bad and what to think about to make sure it works well.
Replies
54
Views
4K
vike47
V
Back
Top