Tides and Spearfishing

Yes, tides affect fish behaviour and i may quote Mr.X entirely.
The basic concept is that tides start-up the food chain, this way:
1 tide moves water
2 water moves plancton
3 small fish follows plancton to eat it
4 big fish get around to eat smaller ones.
In this sequence you find out the reason why predator fishes hunt against the current, and why it's good for spearos to hunt when the water is moving. Furthermore, the noise of the tide "covers" the vibrations of the spearo and it's harder for fish to notice your presence while you're hunting with current from your back.

JPPLAY,
I've done a bit of scientific research on the subject of finfish abundance and tidal schedules and have found that there is a high correlation between the two.
My personal results have shown that a large tidal range (spring tides) during a full moon result in much fewer fish that are seen during the day in the same area than during the small tides (neap tides).
The main conclusion and reasoning for this was due primarily to the fact that during spring tides (tides that have the largest range from low to high tide) occur during the full moon (and new moon, which is a different story altogether); additionally, the full moon during the night (especially when the atmospheric weather is good and clouds are at a relative minimum) allows the larger predatory fish to eat at night and thus many are not out looking for food during the day (when all of us are out hunting them as well :head ).
I've found the same to be true when I'm hunting down here out of San Diego as well, even though the data I've collected has been from areas of the caribbean, atlantic, and south pacific. Note: nightime weather definitely has an effect on this hypothesis, as I've mentioned earlier. Hope this helps!

I logged how many fish I sighted and caught during my first year of spearing and also noted Viz and Tide. Mid High Tide was best.

I came to some conclusions, and started to stick to the patterns I had found. Then forced outside my routine because of work / tides I found my theroys were not reliable! and caught good fish outside my routine.

This year I again fitted into a pattern at a local spot I fish at low tide. I simply do not catch or see many fish from Mid - High at this spot. I like to get in at least an hour before lowtide at this spot. If I'd stuck to my mid-high tide routine I would not have fished this spot more than twice!

So my conclusion is you may have your favourite times to fish, but break out of your routine occasionally and discover new things.

In my opinion the key to finding the best state of the tide is observation. Every bay, headland, beach and reef is geographically, geologically, biologically (and any other ‘ally you care to mention!) different, so the only way to get any real idea of fish behaviour is to watch and learn! My only advice is to get to know each of your hunting grounds intimately at all states of the tide and year; that way you know when is best to fish each one and you may even be able to move between them as the tide, vis., time of day, moon etc. changes. Getting in the water and keeping your eyes open whenever you can is just as good (in my opinion) as working on “The Formula to Predict Maximum Fish Numbers vs. Tidal Motion, Lunar Placement and Plankton Life Cycle” (unless you are a Marine Biologist and getting paid for it!). Admittedly you may initially have a lot of fruitless dives but you’ll get to practice everything except your aim and, in my opinion, time in the water is never wasted. If I’m going to dive somewhere new I’ll usually aim to fish it on (what we call in Dorset) the Flood, which is approximately 2hrs before local High Water. That way you’re in the water as the level is rising and the plankton and small fish are on their way in, I find that a slack spot near fast moving water is best as predatory fish seem to rest there in between feeding missions in the race. High water seems to see bass and mullet driving around between places they like to eat before returning to whence they came on the Ebb (receding water). Most importantly; enjoy yourself!

From my experience the tide issue has more to do with visibility rather than feeding behavior. The primary sport fish in the North Atlantic (Striped Bass) is a nocturnal feeder. They are also observed cruising in shallow water 15 - 25ft during the day, looking for food. From this I have concluded fish are always feeding ... though greater numbers may be found in shallow water during evening hours. Sharks are yet another fish which exhibit similar feeding characteristics. Always on the prowl but primarily a nocturnal feeder.

Tide has a profound effect on visibility... an outgoing tide brings sediment OUT of the bays and harbors . Conversely an incoming tied will flood the bays and inlets with cleaner ocean water. For me... fishing in low visibility gets boring ... not to mention spooky... when small fish startle you because... Bang.... they are right in your face.

Conclusion.... if visibility is an issue , fish the incoming tides. If visibility is not an issue, fish the outgoing tide..when all that stuff (bait, plankton, sediment... polution) is moving out of the bays and inlets. Personally.. I will take an incoming tide any day.

Mr X,

The bays are very similar. There is more of a tidal pull at the one that favours low - mid. Both are rocky and sand (I love spearing in rocky gullies!) I am not keen in sitting in Kelp Beds!

So no, you'd expect them to fish very similar. I can hunt for 6 hours! , with occasional breaks so have on many occasions observed the tide at these spots from Low - High.

Heard today that one of the fishermen (rod) had caught 13 Bass in the 5lb range in the last 2 weeks. How true this I I don't know, but its tempting to buy a 7mm wetsuit!.. however estuary and Viz = 0 mm!

AND!!! EVERYONE LIDEL are selling waterproof (30m) LED torches for £6.99 inc. batteries!!

Hi
This a real good thread- I am sure everyone can learn something.
Bear in my mind that every spot is slightly different but the principals stay the same nad using some common sense, knowledge from here and that elusive fish sense you will do better than most.

My favourite dive spot is Cape Infanta on the Southern Cape coast, South Africa. Just to give you idea of what factors you should all look at here are some pointers to this bay. The bay faces SE with steeper cliffs on the W side, a large river (4 SA:t ) in the middle and then opening up to sandy, flat sandstone beaches on the E.

* The fish are definitely more active on a higher tide but just as important are dawn and dusk. If a high tide is pushing at sunrise/set try to be in the water from/till first/last light. Big fish come into the shallows to feed under cover of darkness
* Fisherman claim 1 day either side of spring high (esp. at the equinoxes) is not so good but 2 days is very good ( esp after spring= more bits of food floating about)
* Use spring lows to scout gulleys that are exposed, so when they fill up you know which parts are the deepest. You can get into these at a higher tide and in relative comfort shoot fish that are feeding right in the white water. The extreme shallows can be very good for fish like white masselcracker and galjoen.
* Any river will have a big effect on the strenght on the local tides, be aware.
* Other important factors are the winds, weather systems and swell conditions.
* For instance at Cape Infanta, the SE wind (main summer wind) blows in warm water but if the wind is above light conditions, it brings dirty water that traps itself against the coastline, if the wind is really strong the water is gets blow cold. The dirty, warmish water is really productive- last time my friend was there he shot, and after a long struggle lost a +-18kg Leervis(Lichia Amia) al in 3m viz.
* A SW wind can clean up the bay in 24hours. Then the diving can be really magnificent. But after 3 days of SW wind the water gets very clean ( 4 the Cape) and hot (22C). Generally I found the shore to hold no fish over 4kg then. It is best to look for deep water (+15m). The fish might be holding in the cooler, deeper water and only coming to feed at dawn/dusk if at all.
* An upwelling of cold water can be a real bonus if there is a thermocline and at least 10m ( cold water slipping in underneath the warm). The cold water will chase big, rarely encountered fish from the deep reefs to the top of pinnacles within diving depth. After a couple of days the fish will aclimayise and go back to the deep. Also look in caves, under ledges when the water is colder than normal. Fish might be spending some sleeping/resting or just escaping the cold.
* We have alot of frontal systems pushing past us. How far North they come, influences their affect. Just because the coast has been hammered by large swells, does not mean the fish are gone. If anything they are feeding more vigorously
* Fish can be founding under the white water, especially if it is spilling over a large flat area they can't get into. Gamefish often patrol here waiting for baitfish to be washed into here disoreintated by the bubbles and sudden changes of depth
* Feeding fish are easier to approach, but mating season (check local rules) makes most fish incredibly stupid. (Kinda like humans:chatup )
* After big flooding of local rivers, it sometimes good to wait until after the next spring tide to flush bays/estuaries.
* if you are diving up against the side check the mood of smaller fish. If they are just chilling, not feeding ( after a while you can feel the "electricity" in the water as soon as your fisrt dive), then move another spot. When the baitfish and smaller reef fish start getting active, darting around etc be alert.
* If time permits get to know your spot well, including offshore reefs. You can often swim a long way out if the inshore spots have no life. I often swim at least 500m out on my own off Cape Infanta to some little known reefs. They have given me some nice bonus fish.
* Apparently fish feed better just before a frontal system arrives
* Watch where fisherman cast, but stay well away from them- they care f***all about impaling you on a rusty hook
* We have an advantage over fisherman- they can only catch when fish feed- we can follow fish anywhere in the day so think like a fish- where would you be?
* No fish has ever read the above- they do not obey the rules :head

Wow, that is a bit of info. But I have to give something back, I have learnt so much from this site.
Good luck in the sea JPLAY, it is not difficult at all but be sensible, it does not tolerate stupidity.:naughty
Safe diving all

Jacques

Just reread Mr X's last post- you can dive a site alot but just don't shoot everything. It is real nice to see some familiar faces everytime you go out and you for some species you could even watch the grow up :inlove

I guess a lot depends on what you want to catch! Surely if you are after flatfish i.e. Plaice you would want the lowest tide possible & fish over low water? That is most definitely the way it is in Guernsey. Again over here at least, the big spring tides always excite the local spearos & generally produce the best catches. If for example I wanted to hunt Bass in the kelp at low water I would be fishing in 1 to 3 mts, at high tide the same kelp would be 10 to 13 mts. Even if I could dive that deep it would be difficult to work the kelp for three hours. Of course I am relating to my personal experiences in the Channel Islands but after 30 years of spearfishing I can assure you low water is best.

Jacques said:

* Fisherman claim 1 day either side of spring high (esp. at the equinoxes) is not so good but 2 days is very good ( esp after spring= more bits of food floating about)

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Jacques, I am in total agreement with you on this one, both in my academic research and freediving/spearfishing experience. It truly does seem that 2-3 days before and after the height of the spring tides proves to be the most successful in terms of larger fish numbers (vis, wind swell, weather notwithstanding) - or so i have found particularly in SD.

Mr. X said:

Hi sd_spearhead....was your research informal or academic (I see you are a marine biologist)? I am again wondering if location type (bay/headland) was considered? Also the volume of water (e.g. in a bay, fairly constant volume for the neaps but very large & very small for spring tides) -- I am thinking bay fishing on a Spring low tide might be poor (...or might be good but you might end up close to a headland, possibly requiring location re-classification). A Spring high makes the bay effectively bigger -- so perhaps more fish ... or conversely, perhaps lower density of fish per cubic metre?

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Hey Mr. X; my research was primarily academic for a thesis I wrote during college, but then I found that it played right into my spearfishing habits as well. I noticed that my results in my research were very similar to when I was spearfishing for kelp and sand bass off the California coast, even though I was primarily studying species of the genus Sparisoma (parrotfish), Epinephelus (grouper), and Gobioides (some of the larger sw gobies), showing that many fish do react similarly. In my studies, the location, bathymetry, and tidal range were all taken into account, but of the sites used to gather the data, only 2 were in an bay/estuarine setting. A large majority were ~300 meters offshore at a depth of 12-15 meters. I found that the lunar phase also played a contributing role, with the amount of ambient moonlight the biggest factor - a full moon on a cloudless night (coinciding with the spring tides) allowed fish to feed during the night and thus less were found during the day, perhaps in order to avoid predation during the day (a simplefied version of one of my conclusions which has also been noted in countless scientific papers).

From spearfishing in California, I've noticed that larger predatory fish I hunt (namely yellowtail and albacore) show up mainly due to water temp dependency. This results from the fact that they have much larger migratory patterns than fish found closer to shore.

As to your reference on the differences of fishing in a bay during a high/low spring tide, I can only give predictions as I really haven't had expertise in the area (most of my spearfishing here is also in the open ocean or along the open coast). I think that each bay may in fact be different in concern to the high/low sping tides and fish count, depending on the tidal range... a higher tidal movement is usually beneficial, but if there isn't much water in the bay, there probably won't be much fish either (during the spring low). What I have found from diving in estuaries is that many flatfish aren't really affected much by the tide down here in So Cal - I've seen some really big halibut (3 to 4 feet) regardless of the tidal schedule, which I didn't have the heart to shoot because I could literally scoop my hands underneath them before they would swim off... guess i'm a bit of a softie . Overall, I feel that nothing substitutes for experience and knowledge of what works best in your particular area. Different species may feed differently, and a higher quantity of a particular species will be seen at different times. Hope this helps!

no problem, mr.x - always glad there is someone there to listen!

I read an article by a fly-fisherman about casting for flathead and flounder. His theory was to fish on an outgoing tide and cast near the edge of drop-offs. As the water rushes off the flats it takes small fish/plankton/man-made flies etc with it and the flatfish wait in ambush at the drop-off.

Line fisherman are full of theories on tides and fish behaviour, and the good ones can teach you a lot.

KMo, good call on listening to line fishermen - I can see that they may have a lot to contribute in concern to fishing knowledge, especially of the local areas they concentrate in.

At my local spot near blombos in the western cape south africa, where I have line fished and speared over the past almost ten years, I have come to the conclusion that the biggest fish activity is with the incoming tide as there is a lot of gullies that is almost totally closed during low tide, this makes for nice entry spots and if you then swim out about 10 to 20m your in 20m water with pinnacles coming up to about ten, here is a good spot to wait then when the tides push in flooding the gullies it brings the bigger fish with it to feed on small bait fish hiding in tidal pools and gullies. The swim out at high tide is a bit different though as the rock flats flood and your trek out changes to about 50 to 100m in some places, but I feel its worth the effort as there are plenty reef fish and even some game fish cruising through at some times. Same goes for the river mouth close by but were not allowed to spear in lagoons here.