High tide fishing?

[denian]

Would I be right in thinking the best time to fish is high tide ? when the fish come in close to shore to see whats been unearthed during low tide or is each site got its own individual times when the fish come to feed? What have you all found?

 

[Pav]

Stuck to rules for ages. Now I am a dad I spear when things allow and found there is no rule to fish and the tide!!

I've had good fish on the push, on the drop, on the bottom tide, on the top..

As long as I can see I'm happy to spearfish.

of course if I see no fish I blame the state of the tide

 

[denian]

Thanks for that reply im not the only one trying to fit fishing in between a busy family life n work never mind tides and wind ect!!!!! :chatup

 

[Ink Junkie]

same here ha ha, i work 6 10 hour days and have a 5 month old daughter, I'd be lucky to get in a few hours in the water a week

 

[Mr. X]

Pav summarized it well. They can be unpredictable - if they were very predictable they would have been exterminated by now. There is a sort of "rule of thumb"/rough guide that says fish tend to move into bays on a high/flood tide and out to headlands on a low tide. There is probably at least some truth in that, if only because mathematically there is a heck of a lot more water in the bay at high tide that can hold fish.

I have a feeling that bass often move in early on the flood tide, out early when the tide falls back, to be ahead of bait fish on which they prey. I might have got that from Mike Ladle's on-line bass fishing book, or maybe its just a feeling/hunch.

I try to maintain a log - an Excel spread sheet -on trips. I was surprised to find that my two best days fishing were both on low tides in bays. East Dorset has an unusual double tide frequency and pattern, so perhaps it is just that the sea is around low tide much more of the time than it is at high tide. My only other way to reconcile this with the above is that, perhaps to a fish the bays in question act something like a headland relative to the other side of the bay -- a little contrived but perhaps there is something in it, the tides at these locations are v. strong, more like what you'd expect around a headland than in a sheltered bay.

 

[agbiv]

Here off the jetties we have to fish at high tide or just beginning to drop. That's bexcause as the tide drops all the murky, chocolate milk colored water comes out of the bay/channel and you literally can't see your hand in front of your face. :blackeye

 

[Mr. X]

Another perspective pointed out to me is that, while a high tide might better suit a shore based angler, a low-tide might better suit a sea-based spearo (easier access to the bottom in deep water areas?).

Some of the areas I have dived are quite shallow, so my heart tends to sink when the tide is out. But perhaps in light of the above it shouldn't.

 

[denian]

Thanks for replies. Keep them coming its building up a nice set of ideas and logical reasoning we can use these where ever we are around the world,The views we have may relate to our local spots they may not but I am sure they can only help.

 

[Jonny250]

Depending on where you are, at low tide there are more reefs and rocks exposed which may form breaks from the tide or swell, so improving vis/hunting conditions.
also i think fish can be 'lazy', preferring to swim with the flow rather than into it, so that may affect a location. not sure there are rules, more like each location will have its own merits.

 

[Bill]

Over the years in California, there were three super days for Halibut at low tide. On one of them, they were all over the place in a little bay and some as shallow as 2 meters. I suspect that it happens more often but the visibility can be horrid.
The other thing that I noticed is fish coming from deeper water just after the tide starts out. You see it most at a stream or even a harbor mouth.

 

[artiz]

Also high tide is the build up to feeding time so there's a lot more 'going on', movement, predation etc... small fry coming in with the tide for shelter, the coastline giving up its bounty/worms etc... conversely a slack low tide offers up those deeper string weed hangouts for lazy/curious Bass?
I've also noticed that Cuttle fish shoals are reasonably common at low tide and clearly there for the retreating crustaceans so habits of whatever you are after (feeding, sleeping etc.) could be taken into account too perhaps - Bass = high & low tide and Lobster & Scallops = low tide for me and I've never taken a Cuttle fish... too beautiful!

I certainly aim to go in an hour before its either high or low tide... but as above its not always possible, so I'll take whatever I can get!