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.