Best time (current) to fish

[BoatGuy]

A lot of real experience fisherman here and I like to ask about something that should be basic, but I always had a tough time with CURRENT. I was going to say tide, by a mentor said tide was for boats, current is for fisherman.

Let me bring this up as an example:

5:30 AM Low Tide

11:34 AM High Tide:

5:43 PM Low tide

11:50 PM High Tide

Using this example, and let’s say you wanted to fish the outgoing tide…

When would you fish?

I found a fishing site that gives recommendations. However, this differs from what I was taught. I will update with both later.

 

[tvguy243]

Tide goes up & down
Current goes laterally

Start fishing at high tide and you will fish the outgoing

 

[BoatGuy]

Tide goes up & down
Current goes laterally

Start fishing at high tide and you will fish the outgoing

But what time would you fish?

 

[BoatGuy]

But what time would you fish?

I was told never to fish the top of a tide.

 

[Roccus7]

This is SO spot and species specific it cannot be answered in generalities. Overtime if you fish "fishy spots" across all ranges of tide, you'll learn which are "Beginning of Incoming, Late Incoming, Beginning of Outgoing, Late Outgoing, etc." Once you've amassed these data you can fish, and be on fish, for an entire 12-hour tide because you know when and where to move to.

 

[BoatGuy]

This is SO spot and species specific it cannot be answered in generalities. Overtime if you fish "fishy spots" across all ranges of tide, you'll learn which are "Beginning of Incoming, Late Incoming, Beginning of Outgoing, Late Outgoing, etc." Once you've amassed these data you can fish, and be on fish, for an entire 12-hour tide because you know when and where to move to.

Now that is something I didn't know and did not occur to me. I thought it would be the same for all fish. If we used Striper and fluke as an example, for the time given, would you fish at different times? How would they differ? That would be great.

 

[BoatGuy]

Using the times as an example, this is what I was taught:
5:30 AM Low Tide

If I remember correctly 3 hours later is slack, therefore
8:30 LOW SLACK TIDE

Incoming: From 9 am to 11:34 am the tide is incoming a good time to fish

11:34 AM High Tide: Tide is still coming in, it is moving FASTEST at 11:34

2:34 is HIGH Slack Tide

3:00 PM to 5:43: The tide is now OUTGOING. FROM WHAT I WAS TAUGHT: This three-hour window is the BEST time to fish

5:43 PM Low tide

8:43 SLACK TIDE

Incoming tide: 9 PM to Midnight is now the incoming Tide

11:50 PM High Tide: Tide is still coming in, it is moving FASTEST


I found a fishing site that gives recommendations. However, this differs from what I was taught. See below.

Their best time to fish would be 12 noon to 2:30 PM

 

[Roccus7]

Now that is something I didn't know and did not occur to me. I thought it would be the same for all fish. If we used Striper and fluke as an example, for the time given, would you fish at different times? How would they differ? That would be great.

Sorry, but still too spot/species specific. For example here's some of my striper-specific info since we don't have fluke up here.

Early incoming: Try fishing off my dock once water covers the mussel bar in the middle of the river, fish until the back eddy forms. If fish aren't around, take boat to drift behind Sandy's house.

Mid-incoming or mid-outgoing: try shore line around John's house

Late incoming through slack into early outgoing: Head of Tide, if no fish, try Back Cove until rock starts to show.

Mid-outgoing: hit island reef, if nothing try Co-Op shoreline

Late outgoing: Mike's dock

Etc., etc., so on and so forth...

Then you have to factor in wind speed/direction.

Once again, there is no single correct answer, just the best for each spot. It may be the scientist in me, but fishing is a science and you need to keep records and experiment.

Roccus Fishing Rule #1: The day when I say I know everything there is to know about striped bass fishing, is the day I've officially become brain dead and someone should pull the plug!!

 

[Roccus7]

Using the times as an example, this is what I was taught:
5:30 AM Low Tide

If I remember correctly 3 hours later is slack, therefore
8:30 LOW SLACK TIDE

Incoming: From 9 am to 11:34 am the tide is incoming a good time to fish

11:34 AM High Tide: Tide is still coming in, it is moving FASTEST at 11:34

2:34 is HIGH Slack Tide

3:00 PM to 5:43: The tide is now OUTGOING. FROM WHAT I WAS TAUGHT: This three-hour window is the BEST time to fish

5:43 PM Low tide

8:43 SLACK TIDE

Incoming tide: 9 PM to Midnight is now the incoming Tide

11:50 PM High Tide: Tide is still coming in, it is moving FASTEST


I found a fishing site that gives recommendations. However, this differs from what I was taught. See below.View attachment 4331

Their best time to fish would be 12 noon to 2:30 PM

Hate to sound cynical, but if that graph above was on a soft piece of paper, it would be better off used in a boat's "head", along with those "Solar Lunar Tables" that some sites/magazines publish...

Read this post: Early Season Striped Bass Rich gives a great explanation of fishing tidal waters for bass, vis a vis tide and it may help you understand why things are so site specific.

 

[BoatGuy]

I emailed a friend...he sent me this:

Holy cow! What a can of worms! Here are my comments.

1. Firstly, In my opinion there is NO absolute rule concerning tide, current and the best time to fish.

2. The period of time from the top/bottom of the tide until slack tide is location dependent, weather dependent, seasonally dependent and moon dependent. It would be inaccurate to say that it is always 3 hours. Location, moon phase, time of year and weather all effect current, which in turn affects the times of high, low and slack.

Examples: (Using the location we have fished before, off the beach adjacent to Shinnecock Inlet)

a. Full and New moons can decrease the duration of slack tide by increasing current

b. Often slack tides are shorter in the Spring than other times of year

c. Depending on the wind direction slack, high and low tides can be Hugely effected. Consider Shinnecock. On a south wind water is pushed up into the marshes of Shinnecock and Tiana bays. All that extra water tucked up into the bays delays the times of the tides; also true with a north wind pushing the water (and bait ?) out of those areas. This is why Montauk can have significantly different current differences at Shagwong Beach, False Bar, The Tea House and Ditch plains yet they are literally about a mile apart. These current differences change the high/low slack profile for all these locations.

d. Lastly, off these drivers of current work independent of one another. Sometimes they cancel each other out and other times they have additive effects. Of all of them wind is the biggest wild card. When fishing a given location, the moon phase and time of season don't change BUT the wind can change a lot in a short period of time.

e. It depends what your fishing for. Some species like faster moving current conditions (bass, blues, albi's), some like gentler conditions (scup, winter flounder).

f. It depends on the fisherman, (large predatory summer flounder like fast moving, cool, highly oxygenated water - ask any spear fisherman). We like to drift at .5 to 1.5 knots because its comfortable and easier to catch fish. I would propose that big fluke like a bait presented on a faster drift. Whoa, kind of got off topic here.

g. It depends on what size your fishing for. Calm currents are great for schollie bass and cocktail bluefish, but cows want current!!

3. These fishing charts are just a guide. When the chart says fishing is best noon to 2:30, you need to take that with an ENORMOUS grain of salt. Sea Salt! ?

 

[BoatGuy]

Then I pushed him and asked when he would fish given the tides stated. He sent me this:

On the water 11:30. Drive to a spot, have some lunch and start fishing around 12:30. Fish till 4 pm and declare cocktail hour and drive in (Unless we are bailing fish, then we would, of course, fish till are hands are bleeding). There are a lot of variables, and they can make people crazy and end up keeping them off the water. It is so nice being on a boat with a good friend, it's great being on the water, and the process of fishing and trying to experiment with different lures and is fun. I have seen too many guys fish LESS because they think there are no fish during the off hours. The best fisherman I know fish ALL THE TIME. They are constantly learning and love the process as much as the outcome. I like fishing the drop for summer flounder. The drift seems better, the Spring water temp is warmer on the outgoing and the fluke are more active. I also like fishing the afternoon - again warmer water. BUT, if we only had time to fish the in, wouldn't it be interesting if we banged fish on slack water!

 

[Roccus7]

I emailed a friend...he sent me this:

Holy cow! What a can of worms!

Ah young Padawan, you've learned an important lesson. There is no "magic formula" for fishing, you've got to get out there and learn by doing, all the time making notes and observations.

 

[BoatGuy]

Ah young Padawan, you've learned an important lesson. There is no "magic formula" for fishing, you've got to get out there and learn by doing, all the time making notes and observations.

I do keep a fishing log and plot the times I catch fish on an Excel chart.