I was hoping to get a definition of a west tide in the canal. thanks

When I hear "West Tide" I assume people mean west flowing current. You have to be careful cause some people talk about the currents as tides and tides as currents which is confusing and inaccurate. In fact at the canal , the tide continues to rise or fall for about 2 hours after the current changes direction.

Typical scene is the current is running towards the east and the tide is rising. The current changes directions and starts to run west flowing from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay but the tide keeps rising!! :) Then , without changing current direction at all , the tide starts to fall again about 2 hours later. Same thing happens at low tide. Its all because the tide swing on the east end (cape cod Bay) can be as high as ten feet but on the west end(Buzzards Bay) its only about 5 feet.

Exactly right you are! So many people are confused but the tides still are dropping or rising after the turns which many confuse with low or high tide.

So in theory how can you explain the improved fishing conditions that everyone talks about. are the fish coming from the ocean side pushing bait into buzzards bay?

the improved fishing/current relationship depends alot on time of year...spring time usually means better fishing on the eastbound current as warmer water from buzzards bay gets brought through the ditch...during the dogdays of summer, the westbound currents bringing the cooler water from capecod bay tend to stir things up more. (i think i got that right :):):))

yep :)

The fishing in the ditch is very dependant on the bait like everywhere else. More bait =more fish. Right now the main bait is herring and alot of fish are near the run but many are also all along the canal. You do not have to fish at the run! The macs are showing at the East end so fish are there too. Later on differant bait will show such as squid, pogies or whiting hopefully! If this happens you could see some cows on the surface on "breaking Tides"

OK, who wants to get even more confused?

East of the Bourne Bridge, the tide continues to rise and fall for 1-2 hours after the current turns. However, at the west end, the time of slack and the time of high and low tides virtually coincide. Maybe 15-20 minutes difference. Buzzards Bay tides are the same time as Newport, Rhody's south shore, and Sandy Hook, with minor variations. Cape Cod Bay's tides coincide with the tides for the Gulf of Maine, places like Boston, P-town, all the way up to the Maritimes.

What amazes me is this---in a place as small as the Vineyard, you will see this 3-hour difference in the tides from one end of the Island to the other. Around Gay Head, Menemsha, even the south facing beaches as far as Katama, you'll have the earlier tides of Buzzards Bay. Places like Vineyard Haven, Chappy, OB, Edgartown, you'll have the later Boston tide. But, you won't see the greater tidal ranges that you'll see at the east end and the outer beaches in those places. Weird thing. The big current you get at Wasque results from that difference in the times of the tides.

I've always been curious (but never enough to deeply dig in) about why there is such an abrubt differential in tide heights once you swing around Cape Cod. The further north you go, the greater height in tides (Midway Island in the Pacific has a 1.5 foot tide differential). Newport works with a 3.5-4 foot tide yet Boston Harbor works 8-9 feet, even though they are with a hundred miles of each other and not that far in latitude. Now from Boston to Portland, ME - close to 150 miles, you gain only a foot. Why is it so sharp of an increase around the cape?

don't forget, the bay of fundy (nova scotia??) has 40 ft tides (most extreme in the world)...talk about fishing the rips!!!

I can't answer the tidal range part of it. The difference in tides, well, Monomoy is the borderline between what I would consider the Mid Atlantic and North Atlantic. Different tidal influences, different currents. Gulf Stream vs Labrador Current, maybe?

I do know this---in August, the water temps can be 70 degrees plus in Dennisport, and less than 10 miles away off Nauset, they can be about 62.

O.K. EVERYBODY, THINK ABOUT THIS...........THE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE EQUATOR ONE IS THE GREATER RISE AND FALL OF TIDES WILL TAKE PLACE, SI!

O.K. EVERYBODY, THINK ABOUT THIS...........THE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE EQUATOR ONE IS THE GREATER RISE AND FALL OF TIDES WILL TAKE PLACE, SI!

Less water for the sun and moon to pull on, eh?

You're pretty observent there Frankie boy :P See ya tomorrow at MSBA?

Good reason for the rip roaring tides in the Ditch...


If I remember my history correctly, the difficulty in the landing at Inchon during the Korean war was because of the height of the tide. They had to land and have the bigger support ships out in a matter of hours or they would have been stranded. Something like 15 foot tides...

What a group. A simple question like tides and look where it goes.I appreciate all the good information.
Another question. Once the herring begin to spawn do they remain at the stream entrances until they have spawned or do they come and go with the tide?
Just a side note, last night on PBS in the mountain west region they had an interesting documentary. A portion of which focused on the Alaskan herring. They showed several different ways that the locals harvested the herring eggs. one way they collected eggs was to submerge juniper trees and anchor them to the ocean floor. Evidently the herring are attracted to trees and lay their eggs on the bows which are later harvested, salted, and shipped to Japan. The Japanese market is huge and the market demands high prices. I've never none this market existed. Does anyone know anyone that harvests herring eggs?

Guts, glad yer having some fun...

The herring will drop in and out and then gone, often off shore, often into big nets on the back of trawlers...

Interesting with the eggs. When I was living in Brookline, there was a Russian Deli/Foodstuffs store that carried a bunch of varieties of herring and something to do with the eggs (poor man's caviar?) but I didn't try them...

I haven't seen herring egg harvesting around here. From what I can tell , the three big uses of herring in decending order are fertilizers , bait , pickled herring. I honestly think more herring are used as vegetable garden fertilizer than anything else. Anyway , when I lived in Central Falls as a kid , lots of Polish people used to pickle the herring. They ate them like you would a Slim Jim. Just take one out of the jar and chew on it while having a beer.

these threads do take on a life of their own...from west tides to pickled herring, anything can become fair game :)

Can anyone say when the best time to fish the canal, tide wise , would be on monday, memorial day???? And why.

Specialist, Mondays west tide turning east at 8:11 a.m. at the RR bridge so try the last few hours of the west tide anywhere from the herring run down to the RR bridge. Try jigging off the bottom, or herring and at sunup you may see fish on top try plugs if you can reach them. Hope for rain so the crowds won't be bad. That's just one idea and the reason why is dropbacks from the run. good luck.

I'll be at the east end maybe

Specialist , I would fish east end as much of the Monday 1AM to 8AM slot as posible. Next choice for me would be west end 8PM monday to 2 AM tuesday .