# Some fundamentals....???



## Rustyrotor (Nov 7, 2017)

I’ve been a wader and a kayaker for ages, and I get all that pretty well. Especially the limits. Mostly I just grab and go.

Now I have a skiff. A game changer, and I need to retool my understanding of a few things.

I live inland but prefer to fish estuarine, meaning I need to plan way ahead. So here’s a few questions:

Where can I find long-range tide forecasts? Crapping out w NOAA etc so far. Shocking.

What constitutes a tailing tide in the SE estuaries, as in what measure above the average high tends to trigger the tailing? Is it just the spring tide? Is it a tide or two around the spring tide? Or is any high that floods the back of the marsh a tailing tide?

BTW, what else have you seen out there on those tides? Me: sheepshead, raccoons, MINK.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

*Tides4fishing.com* Great website!

For your cell phone, there's a really good app called "*Fishing and Hunting Pro*." There's a free version or an upgrade version that cost $3 one time fee. Pay the dang fee!  It's worth it! 

What I like about both these sites/apps is the fishing forecast based on solunar tables which will help select which days are best to go, as well as the exact times the peak bites start and stop. So you can plan your fishing times around them, the tides, etc. This will kelp you to be the most productive in the shortest about of time you are out there. For a lot of my targeted species I fish for, they usually follow those predictions.

Ted Haas


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

Predicting any tide to the minute is almost impossible because of wind driven tide and distance from gulf passes and bigger bodies of water. You need to know areas trends and be able to judge what the tide will be doing based off of a tide chart from the closest area. It’s tricky but doable. Otherwise just go fishing and be ready to take mental notes and have your gear ready so when the fish start feeding you can be where they’ll be.


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## FlyBy (Jul 12, 2013)

http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/tideshow.cgi

This is the one I use. The area I fish most often is 30 minutes behind the prediction. Whatever you use for tides, check it against your on-site observations. Then we have the odd occasion when the tide is an hour later than predicted, even after adding the 30 minutes.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Here's a small trick that will aid anyone learning an area... Make a point of looking at the actual time whenever you run into good fishing (or just signs of good fishing) and keep track of it during the day (some of us even write it down - along with exactly where you were at the time...). At the end of the day, or the following day sit down with a cold one and both your chart (you DO have a chart don't you?) and your tide tables. First check what the tide was supposed to be doing where you were (sometimes it won't...) then note was the tide coming in or going out... then pay particular attention to time comparisons (was it one hour into the rise or three hours into the fall... those actual water conditions move fish and get them either feeding, staging to feed, or moving away from a particular area...). After a while you'll get a really good feeling about exactly when a spot is worth a look or when you should be somewhere else.

It's also very helpful to re-trace your route using a chart after a day on the water. Every time you do that make note of all the features that area had (was it barely deep enough to move through? what structure could you see? where were the oyster bars -if any...). All of that with the chart will make you much more skilled at moving through areas you want to learn.

For what it's worth I've been running the 'glades off and on since the early seventies - then went full time in 1996... I'm still learning something new almost every day...


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Predicting any tide to the minute is almost impossible because of wind driven tide and distance from gulf passes and bigger bodies of water. You need to know areas trends and be able to judge what the tide will be doing based off of a tide chart from the closest area. It’s tricky but doable. Otherwise just go fishing and be ready to take mental notes and have your gear ready so when the fish start feeding you can be where they’ll be.


That's always a given. But I like to know what the tides are doing on a perfect day+/- then factor in with speed and direction. I can get an idea from the site www.Tides4fishing or windfinder.com and then add a guestimate from there. As a fly fisherman, windfinder also helps me to decide what area I'm going to fish, based on wind and wave conditions, since it's usually blowing where I fish about 60% of the time.

The main thing what these solunar graphs do is it puts me closer to the major bite times, as oppose to winging it. So I'm not wasting a lot of time, especially if I'm somewhat busy, but still want to get a few hrs in of fishing here and there.

So all in all, I can plan out my months, weeks, days and even times when would be the best times to go and then check my schedule of family, wife and work times I'm tied up and then plan the fishing around then. Of if I wake up early on any given morning and it just so happens that I have some spare time to go fish, I'll quickly look at my folder of sites, including weather and so forth, then decide if I'm going or not and then where and when I need to hit it.

Makes sense?


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

I use tides4fishing.com as well as the tides near me app on iphone. For weather, I like to use www.weather.gov and the weatherbug app on the phone.
I always use both because in my area the wind can drastically affect the tide so you really need to know wind speed and direction too.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

I use tides4fishing.com as well.

My advice would be to scout likely areas on a low tide so that you can see where the bars, shoals, and cuts are. That'll tell you where to set up for an incoming or outgoing tide later.

Ultimately your best tools are your eyes...no different than kayak fishing.


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## krash (Jan 9, 2007)

Lemay hit it above, I use several, as well as walking outside the night before and getting a real reading from where I'm standing, and again just before I launch. Where I fish the actual tides are affected more by wind that anything else, next would be the moon. High/Low tide also has different meanings different times of the year, there are positive and negative times. I don't put a lot of faith in the Solunar tables, however I know a couple people who do. The wind is more of a factor for me.
One thing for sure is I like moving water.

On the computer I mainly use SaltWaterTides.com for a general tide times and WeatherUnderground for weather prediction's when planning. I know in the back of my head what the offset will be for the main area's I try to hit. If its new to me area I'm stuck with what I can read, but I'll file away actuals for next time.
On the Phone I use WindFinder Pro for wind, Arcus for actual weather, sometimes RadarNow, but the phone is a secondary device when planning.

One app I do keep on the phone is FishRules, it uses your geo-location to present fish regulation's based on where you are, at least in Florida, and comes in handy for quick reference.
Just a few weeks ago, mini-lobster days, we had an onboat argument with a rookie CG guy doing his diligence over-stepping his bounds going a little further than a simple safety check and searching our entire boat for no valid reason. He asked and we showed him our lobster and also had a couple fish, legal hogs and 2 nice grouper. He wanted to argue about the grouper species stating it was illegal size, after a heated argument, which you seldom have no chance in hell of winning with a LEO even if they are wrong, he backed down after we referred him to that FishRules app and the correct regulations and apologized.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

The two best times to go fishing are when you can, and when you can't. The only way to figure it out is to get out there and burn some fuel. 

I fished pretty hard for several years before I had enough experience where I could look at a tide chart and make a pretty accurate guess what the tide will be doing after all the other contributing factors. One thing I wish someone would have showed me early on is using a chart to decipher tidal movements in areas that are far away from the nearest tide station. For example, I know the ramp I like to use is a full 2 hours behind the nearest tide station. I also know that wind in any direction other than North or East will stack water up in that estuary. If the tide is predicted to start dropping Saturday morning and Friday night the winds shift to NNE, I know that area will have a hard falling tide all morning. Conversely if it's blowing NNE all week, I try to look for days where the high tide is in the middle of the night when the winds are calm to give the tide a chance to come in before getting blown out.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

jmrodandgun said:


> The two best times to go fishing are when you can, and when you can't. The only way to figure it out is to get out there and burn some fuel.
> 
> I fished pretty hard for several years before I had enough experience where I could look at a tide chart and make a pretty accurate guess what the tide will be doing after all the other contributing factors. One thing I wish someone would have showed me early on is using a chart to decipher tidal movements in areas that are far away from the nearest tide station. For example, I know the ramp I like to use is a full 2 hours behind the nearest tide station. I also know that wind in any direction other than North or East will stack water up in that estuary. If the tide is predicted to start dropping Saturday morning and Friday night the winds shift to NNE, I know that area will have a hard falling tide all morning. Conversely if it's blowing NNE all week, I try to look for days where the high tide is in the middle of the night when the winds are calm to give the tide a chance to come in before getting blown out.


Yes


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