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Rising Or Falling Tide? It Depends On The Spot

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By Frank Sargeant, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 2, 2007

One of the most common questions asked of your friendly Tampa Tribune fishing oracle by anglers of modest saltwater experience is: which tide is best, incoming or outgoing.

The answer, as with so many things in life, depends on the context. Neither the rise nor the fall is always best in all areas. It depends on a whole set of variables, and that's what makes fishing such an interesting chess game

Some fish follow the bait, which follow the tide, at least part of the year.

For example, if you're looking for trout along the edge of a flat, the bait won't go up on the grass until the incoming tide puts a foot or so of new water up there, and if you follow that bait as it pushes in over the grass, odds are the trout will be with them.

The bite will be on the edge of the flat in the first hour, progressing farther and farther shoreward as the water rises.

As the tide reaches maximum height along a mangrove shoreline, snook and redfish actually swim back into the mangroves to feed; you can hear them back in there popping the bait at times, but you can't get a line to them.

But as soon as the tide turns and starts coming out, the snook and reds come with it; you fish close to the edge, and the fish will be cruising up and down the shadow line.

Other areas become baitfish traps as the water falls. For example, the mouth of a tidal creek will be the escape hatch on falling water for baitfish and crabs that are up in the mangroves on high tide. And it's likely that both snook and reds will be hanging around where the shallow creek dumps into a deeper river or basin.

The same thing occurs on cuts through the flats; as the water falls off the grass, all the bait has to seek deeper water. They pour out through the sloughs, and the gamefish wait there for them; snook, reds and trout in close, ladyfish, jacks and sometimes mackerel and blues farther off.

Ditto for the edge of large oyster bars, which are favorite spots for small crabs; big trout and reds like the edges of these spots as the water pulls off. And when the tide returns and flows over the oysters, you can sometimes catch fish with a topwater worked right over the shells and rocks.

There's also good pothole fishing on low water, for those who wade or use boats with draft shallow enough to reach the locations. Note that a pothole may be only two or three feet deep, in this context; it takes only a little extra water to hold fish on the flats. Particularly in early winter, this bite can get strong, with reds, trout, mangrove snapper and sheepshead all showing up in the holes.

The tides are strongest on the three days on either side of the new and full moons, and for inshore fishing, these are often the best days of any month; lots of variation in tide heights moves a lot of bait, and this results in a strong bite.

Offshore, tides have less influence, but many bottom fishermen prefer to avoid the strong tidal periods because, they say, the bite is slower. For those after kings and Spanish, however, the tide can be either going in or out, but it needs to be moving for the best action. And there does seem to be a smoker king bite along the rip lines that form outside major passes on strong outgoing tides.

For anglers chasing pompano around Tampa Bay bridges - pretty good right now - either incoming or outgoing is fine, but strong flows are needed to distribute the chum scent. Anglers either scrape off the barnacles on the piling or chum with crushed oysters while fishing with pieces of fresh shrimp or with live fiddler crabs close to bottom.

If you find a successful tide pattern, you can chase it from the mouth of the bay on up into the backcountry. For example, if you find trout hitting on the outside bar at The Bulkhead off Anna Maria, an hour later you may find the same thing happening outside Bishop Harbor, and then a bit later outside Cockroach Bay. Bottom line is, any tide can be a good one if you're in the right spot.

SNOOK CLINIC: Mad Snooker Dave Pomerleau joins captain Mel Berman of 970, WFLA AM for a snook clinic Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Toyota of Tampa Bay, 1101 E. Fletcher Ave. in Tampa, free lure packs and snacks; (813) 438-8696. ... Nanette O'Hara presents a free Tampa Bay restoration clinic at the Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club, meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Compton Park Recreation Center, Tampa Palms; (813) 476-7128.

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