Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Mike:

Tides are just too simple for most people to understand. Everyone thinks that there is some great big secret to fishing tides. Just the opposite is true. Tidal movement does too things. It creates current and it causes the water level to rise and fall.

Picture a nice lily pad field in a creek. When the tide is high, the water is up in the pads, providing plenty of cover for baitfish and predators alike. As the tide recedes, the water level falls until the pads are totally out of the water. Obviously, the baitfish have to move to the outside edge of the pads in order to remain in water. Remember, they breathe through gills and must have water to survive. The good pad fields will have deeper water on the outside edge of the pads. Here, "deeper" may be six feet or only one foot, but that water is enough to float a fish and to launch an attack on the baitfish coming out of the pads. This condition will continue throughout the outgoing tide and for about 1-2 hours into the incoming tide.

Picture a point, rockpile, downed tree or man-made wood structure on a creek channel. At high tide, baitfish are going to be up shallow, as close as possible to the cover. As the tide starts receding, the predator fish (bass) will stage themselves downtide of the cover, waiting for the tidal flow to wash food to them. This will continue throughout the outgoing tide, although the fish will gradually move a little further out from the shoreline as the tide falls. When the tide turns, the fish will just reorient themselves to the other side of the cover. This still puts them downtide of the cover as the tidal flow is moving the opposite direction. As the tide comes in, the fish will move closer to the shoreline until at high tide, they may be in as little as six inches of water.

Lots of anglers "run the tides", meaning that they take their boats to areas that are experiencing the heaviest outgoing tidal movement, fish there a while and head to another spot upstream that will now have the optimum conditions. Although this can produce very well at times, I believe that there are just as many large bags of fish caught by anglers who locate a good school of fish and continue fishing for them throughout all phases of the tides. They do this by changing techniques and redefining their boat locations to match the moving fish.

Example:  High tide, dawn, creek mouth with large grass bed.  Start by fishing over the grass with a weedless topwater bait. The fish will take topwater baits at low light early in the morning on slack tides. As the tide begins moving out, note that the topwater bite will slow. At this point, switch to weightless plastic jerk baits (Senkos), and cast them to holes in the grass. Baitfish will congregate in these holes and predators will ambush them there. As the tidal movement picks up, move to the outside, downtide edge of the grass bed and fish the same bait, as well as small crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Remember that the water is falling and the grass is compressing, forcing the baitfish to the outside edges. Generally, the grass will continue on out into deeper water. Make sure that you cover the deeper areas as well as the shallow outside edges. Continue this until the tide turns around. When the tide turns and starts coming in, reposition the boat to the upstream (now downtide) side of the grassbed, where the tide will be moving through the grassbed and out the other side. As the tidal current exits the grassbed, the predator fish will generally be right on the edge waiting for the tide to wash food out of the grassbed. Once again, fish your plastic jerkbaits, flukes and trick worms on the edge of the grass, allowing the baits to fall into the deeper water. As the tide gets higher, the fish will once again head back into the depths of the grassbed where topwater baits and heavy jigs are the go-to baits. If the fish will not come up for topwaters, then punch through the thickest mats of grass with heavy jigs to get to the fish. Remember to allow the wind to push you over the grass rather than use the trolling motor, which alerts the fish to your presence. If you are drifting too fast, drop the trolling motor and/or the outboard to slow your drift.

As for planning your day, I have a simple formula for finding fish during the year:  Spring-Rocks, Summer-vegetation, fall-wood, winter-deep.
Once we have determined the season of the year, we have a fairly good idea of where the fish will be located. Assume that it is April. In this area, this would be Spring and the fish will be fattening for the spawn. Because the water is just getting warm, baitfish will be hanging around shallow rocks and concrete to feed on the algae growing on them. Predator fish will also be there looking for baitfish and crayfish. The next thing we do is check the tides. We want to be fishing the rocks on a moving tide. We really don't care which way the tide is moving, as long as it is moving. The direction of the tide dictates where we position the boat and how we cast. Always position the boat as close as possible to the rocks (without damaging the boat) and cast uptide, parallel to the rocks. Small crankbaits and spinnerbaits are better on the lower end of the tide, while plastic jerkbaits and worms are better on the higher end of the tide.
As the water temperature increases into the upper 50s and 60s, we need to concentrate more on suitable spawning cover. This would include shallow vegetation with good tidal flow through the bed as well as shallow sand or gravel banks, dropping into 8-10 feet of water. If we can located these areas, we will locate the fish, getting ready for the spawn.

Have to continue this later.  Work calls.


the first thing to check are the tides.

Mike,

Everything Charlie said is priceless. I would also add that you reach out to anglers experienced on the Potomac. Considering what he told you and what they may disclose to you, you can piece together some valuable information that will provide you a new perspective on an otherwise unassuming spot.

Patrick

Ambush points, got it. Thanks Capt. Mike!

here is a thought from left field.... ( unusual as that may be, from me )

for every rule of thumb, there are 4 other fingers.

every sound approach to fishing is a combination of logic and intuition.

i have caught some good fish using methods that have traditionalists ( contemporary as their thought models may be ) scratching their heads in disbelief

u r a smart guy mike, with a knack for catching fish. don't be reluctant to follow hunches and experiment.
some of my best days were accidents.

for me the most fun is in personalizing, and finding the place, time and presentation that works

Last edited by bigjeffie (Feb-01-10 4:21AM)