The moon turns the tides.. pay attention to different phases of the moon ..New and full moon the tides are higher and lower .. the currents are stronger. (inlets,ditch)
I'd pay more attention to prevailing winds than wich way the wind is blowing that day .. whats it been doing the last week ? wind blows the fish in .. I like to feel it blowing in .. sux for casting though.. and eventually the wind blows the weeds in too ..
You can use the tide chart high, low to determin slack tide on beaches . Near inlets slack may be slightly different than high low.. Hull gut is 5 minutes different than Boston thats right next to it ..
If your talking the ditch the top and bottom of the tide are way different than slack due to 2 totally different tides joined in the middle ,(buzzards bay and cape cod bay).. Thats another whole can of worms and suggest you pick up a cc canal tide book for that ..
On top of all that you have to learn bait patterns ,,when they run ,,where they run .
When you have everything in the whole enviorement all figured out ... you still get skunked .
thats fishing