Fishing Articles
Tides:
Flood, Ebb, and Slack
Tides dictate when the bite is on or off.
Timothy Kusherets
Tides are the result of influences from the moon and the sun that
cause gravitational movement of the earth’s seas and oceans to
undulate in a fashion which divide them into three forms of tide: they
are the ebb (low tide); flood (high tide); and slack (dead calm).
Ordinarily the ebb tide occurs two times within a twenty-four hour period.
The ebb is water that recedes backward exposing the shoreline for a
period of about six and a half hours. It is the opposite of the flood
tide.
Flood Tide
Fly Fishing the Flood Tide. The shoreline disappears beneath the
incoming water of a flood tide. There are many anglers who don’t
like to fish high tides like this, what I dub “big water”.
They erroneously assume that if there is more water fish move around
easier making them harder to locate…it’s a rookie mistake.
The big water of a flood tide takes the pressure off fish making them
receptive to baits and lures. While I can understand the attraction
of fishing low water, ebb tides, it’s pressure fish undergo
that prevent them from biting created by predators or from nature.
Gathering masses of birds at the surface is an excellent sign that
predator fish are forcing baitfish upward and an ideal location to
start fishing the perimeter.
The flood tide diminishes shoreline beaches by slowly
advancing forward from the sea, bay, or ocean. The flood ordinarily
occurs twice within a twenty-four hour period. The time period between
the ebb and the flood is called the slack tide.
The slack tide is that portion of the tide where there is a lull in
water current activity. It is the prelude of a changing tide, this can
happen four times a day or two times per outgoing and incoming tides.
In an estuary the slack tide plays a key role of when the bite will
be off or on. Fish by nature are lazy. They have two functions that
they focus on until it is time to spawn, that is, to propagate and to
eat in an efficient manner that expends as little energy as possible.
As a consequence of their behavior, fish would rather go with the flow
of the current rather than fighting it directly.
As fish migrate they are going with the current and not against it;
it is the most effective way for them to travel without having a deleterious
effect on their ability to swim and to look for food. All migratory
fish use this method of transporting themselves from one place to the
other.
During the slack tide there is no current to inhibit the movements of
fish. Fish are free to move about alone or in groups. The smaller the
fish is, the more they will stay in groups of schools; however, that
changes with the size of the fish and ultimately makes catching game
fish a guess. The freedom to move about disperses the schooling salmon
and makes catching them a guessing game as to where they will be for
the duration of slack tide.
If you suddenly stop hooking into fish you can be sure of three things:
the tide has gone slack; the fish have moved on; or there is pressure
from man, seal, or weather. When the tide completes its transition from
slack to either the incoming or outgoing tide, and you are sure that
fish are still in the area, it might be worth your time to wait for
current to pick back up. Ordinarily, slack tide lasts for half an hour.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2006/09 |
