Catching a tide to me is identifying a favorable time period for targeting large fish. The time period is specific to each location I visit and involves numerous factors. Once I've developed a thesis using the above mentioned elements, it’s a matter of showing up and being proven right or wrong. All said, I need about one hour of driving to and from the spot, plus two to three hours of fishing to "catch a tide."

Paying too much heed to tides is a trap that will sap your confidence about going fishing when "the tides aren't right". Fish eat 24 hours a day and at all stages of the tide. Good fisherman go fishing and just adapt to the circumstances.

Sorry I missed that, I had to work

PM Sent thanks Dennis

Caught that at the Edge show.:claps: very informative, especially the part about paying attention to moon rise and set times.

Hey, numbie!

I don't think that fishing tides has much to do with confidence, nor do i disagree with you about the "round the clock" feeding habits of our prey; however these posts are more about the effect tides play/do not play and how best to take advantage of thier presence within the scheme of fishing one's "spot".

like it or not, mi amigo, TIDES must be factored into the equation everytime you hit the rocks, not so much from the fibreglass, but most definitely the amount and movement of water are VERY specific at my two biggest producers ~~~~and the BITE is awwwn or off directly dependent upon which part of the tide i present my offerings.

i wholeheartedly agree, that we must be able to adapt to whatever the water, wind, moon, weather, and fish tell us to do. i just like to BEGIN with tide and move forward from there, bro :btu: :btu:.

Ther are NO tides I won't fish on.

BUT there are places I WON'T fish on certain tides.

While I enjoy fishing the whole tide.I have some very tide specific situations that have paid off in fish over 35 lbs more than a few times.Experience has taught me that.Experience is also what makes me fish the rest of the tide to hopefully put other favorable stage of the tide gems together.I did stumble upon something new last fall.Kinda has me all excited for this yr..
You never know.

I agree with you fully, but that's how I shore fish at all of my locations.Admittedly this approach is an all or nothing one, but I can handle the skunkings in hopes of being right once in a while. :musc:
From the boat its a lot different as you can cover a lot of ground.

I'm referring to shore fishing. Although using tides to increase your efficiency is smart and a benefit of experience, I find the tradeoff is that I often used to decide not to go fishing, "because the tide isn't right, the moon is wrong, the wind is bad, etc, etc, etc". Ask yourself honestly, how many times last year did you consider going but talked yourself out of it because the tide (or wind direction, or moon phase) was wrong? Over thinking the situation leads to lost opportunity. Now I try to decide first if I feel like fishing (not whether the tide is right or my chances good), if I feel like going I go, if the tide isn't ideal I just try to adapt. I fish more, learn more, catch more, and am repeatedly surprised by what I find when I do go. Fish eat 24 hours a day. We all laugh at beginners fishing the wrong time in the wrong place, but when I think how often they stumble upon a fish I would have been happy catching, I realize that experience is a double edged sword.

I would say countless times in my life it’s happened. Sometimes I get the old "you should have been here" calls the next day too. I guess what I'm getting at here is more about efficiency. Having limited time to fish due to a needed level of consciousness by day in order to perform my job causes me to pick and choose. I typically look for favorable conditions in my chosen spots that occur between 1am and 4am. That's my window.Its an energy conserving thing. However, at times I’ll throw the book away like last fall and just pound it every night until I drop. My best fish last year was taken during the full moon, a time I usually don’t target. But the fish was where I though it would be when I though it might be there. It took about 5 casts to prove myself right.

Good points though George. I’m still going to stick with my methods, but most people would be wise not to emulate me.
I'm coming back as a teacher in my next life. I've already decided. :banano:

never... well never out of fishing. i might pick a different spot. temps and sun light played more of role than tides. cooler water with bright sunlight = pay offs for me. also spent alot of time looking for clear water. which can often be hard to find from shore. which is really the only time tides effected my fishing. cause right after the tide turns to incoming it pushes the muck back towards shore putting the clear water with in wadng and casting distance. once i could get into it.. great results. (including big ones that i completely screwed up on in the waves.) but more often than not that line between murky and clear was out of reach. :(

tides, they mean nothing,there is always a place to catch fish with indifference to what the tide is.it only comes into play if you direct it to a specific spot.some fish better at low tide, some fish better at high tide, some fish better in the middle, some places are current dependant, some are not , some fantastic structure cannot be reached unless the tide is low.you have to discuss tide in relation to specific places or else it means nothing. billy and i have had some great fishing when everyone else thought the tide was wrong.

When you've got a young family, fishing efficiently is the only way to survive. Years of fishing efficiently is a hard habit to break. But when your kids are grown and off (sadly sooner than you think possible) efficiency takes a back seat to just getting out there......and just getting out there becomes the primary reward in itself.

My best night last year the wind was wrong and I said "I don't even know why we are gonna try here tonight."A dozen fish over 35# later I had forgotten about the wrong wind.

It was the right tide though, just like the night we had when the wind was wrong in another place.....

Well said, numbskull!

AND, right on for my current situation.
Your previous post speaks volumes ~as well~
regarding whether to GO or not to GO!

Oddly enuff, before i *learned* the right tide, to narrow and maximize my Striper Window, i would GO with the mindset of hammering the whole tide and several places as the tide would dictate. it seems we are faced with a veritable "Catch 22", when one must balance the commitment to family, work, and landing THE fish of a Lifetime. the olde damned if you DO, and damned if you DON'T sort of thing.

i really enjoy those three or four times a season that my bride & daughter afford me the unlimited weekend excursions ~mostly around sum "select" New moons, as the TIDES will always be there.
they just seem to be more productive during those times :uhuh: :uhuh:

yeah, if they didn't want to catch 30+ lb fish for two weeks straight from the shore they would be wise not to emulate you. :hee:

When it comes to fishing...I keep it simple:
Rule 1: Life determines when I fish.
Rule 2: Tides (and other conditions) determine where I fish.

Note to self: The ocean is full of hungry fish.
Note to self: Family. Work. Fishing. (In that order)

:-)

:claps::claps: