Tidal Flow

By: Dan Carns

I’ve written about tides here before, but feel compelled to revisit this topic as there is a lot of speculation about when to go fishing. If you’re following a fishing app and it suggests that staying home is better than fishing, I suggest you rethink this strategy especially if you’re a kayak angler!  First of all, here is the crux of why tides matter in fishing. During low and high tides there is a period called slack tide when the water is neither moving up nor down, in or out and the bait has the opportunity to go just about anywhere it wants, so typically they aren’t as balled up making it harder for predator fish to attack. When the tide turns and begins to flow the bait schools begin to bunch up and are forced to move with the tide essentially becoming a bigger target at the mercy of the flowing water. Predator fish like snook, redfish and spotted seatrout, our most sought-after species, don’t want to spend more energy chasing bait around than is necessary. They understand that as the tide flows past their location it brings the bait to them, as they simply need to wait in ambush points to feed. That being said, most boats are dependent on deep enough water to operate in, which restricts them, but kayakers can be so deep into a mangrove area that the tide forecast is delayed by possibly two and three hours. Therefore, if a slack tide is predicted during your fishing plan, you may still be in flowing water while everyone else is snacking on lunch waiting for the tide to turn! Conversely you can go a relatively short distance to access moving water around and through the many island passes and flats that surround them.

The Bayside also has this unusual tidal flow that may rise or fall just a few inches instead of feet and may also take all day to move from high to low or vice versa. The following scenario shows the mistake of following the advice of websites, fish apps, or fishermen who suggest that you should stay home and mow the lawn instead of launching. Recently we launched at daybreak on a day that one of those apps said the fishing would be “off” only to find ourselves in schools of feeding fish on what became a memorable day of fishing. The very next weekend I launched with some friends in the same location on another of those so called “bad fishing days” where the tide was almost nonexistent and we boated a half dozen trophy-sized redfish, multiple snook and large seatrout!

While it may be important for you to know what the tide is doing, Do NOT STAY HOME on anybody’s advice as you might miss the best day of fishing you’ve ever had! It’s A Wild World-Get Out There!