The July new moon was this past Tuesday, and that big moon coupled with large south shore surf caused shoreline water levels to surge much higher than normal. It’s well known how low lying areas are affected but how do these huge tides affect fishing?
In past years we noticed much more water rushing into bays and lagoons, causing silty, turbid waters. The fish didn’t seem to like fighting all that current in hard-to-see conditions, and fishing was very slow until the current slowed at the peak tide.
A friend and I whipped the shoreline a day before this month’s new moon, on the bottom third of the tide and the fishing was lousy! When the tide began to fill in a little, small waves washed onto the flats and churned the mud. Visibility became very poor very fast and we gave up our futile efforts.
We asked around and those who caught fish on these big King Tide days caught them on the minus (slack) period or at the peak (slack) period in areas normally not covered by water.
I personally don’t like fishing the King Tides because it’s so hard to time the short period of decent fishing, but if you gotta fish those days, try fish the slack and let us know how you do.
Fly-fisher’s perspective here – although I think this applies to anyone who walks the reef, whether whipper or fly fisherman. I find it spot-specific. Some areas (like the place you know I like the most) i prefer on a minus to about 0.3 ft tide. Other areas, like the spot down the road closer to town, on a higher 0.5 to 1 ft tide. It just depends on the topography of the reef, and how shallow the spot is relative to another. In general, we seldom fish above about a 2 ft tide, although again, there are certain spots where we can even still sight-fish at that water level (hint: they are exposed most of the time). In most other spots, thought, the water gets too cloudy to see fish, or for the fish to see the fly. Also, when the tide is up, the oio spread out, rather than concentrate in depressions or channels, as they tend to do on a lower tide, which sometimes makes them tougher to find. With King Tides, and spring tides in general, if you’re playing the low, your window is always smaller and harder to time.
Thanks for the wading-in-the-water perspective Jason. Have you noticed if the current in the channels is sweeping in harder than normal, on the King tide days?