Successful Fishing Using the Wind and the Tide
By Captain Bob Reed

At right: Jurgen and Emily Korb, Amanda Gardner, and Wendy and Nick Atkins display their flounder and spadefish caught at the Cell on July 12, 2008.

Successful tidewater fishermen always consider the wind and the tide when planning their trip. Just like freshwater anglers they must also consider water temperature, water clarity, structure, time of day and light conditions but the one added factor is the tide. It is not really the tide. It is the horizontal movement of the water- the speed of the current or flow.

For some fishing methods or fish it is critical to have strong flow and for others you need a weak flow. When chumming for rockfish and blues you want a weak flow. A very strong current will carry your chum and baits far away from your boat and make it very difficult to hook up. This is even truer when fishing for spadefish on structure.

When trolling or jigging or drifting for flounder look for a good flow or current and move along with the flow. Often you will experience that when the tide drops out the fish stop feeding.

So what does this all mean and how do you use this information? Simply it means that you have to know what’s going on with the water flow and use a method and target the fish that bite best during a particular flow condition.

How do you know what the current is doing? This is the $64,000 question. You can use marine weather data from such sources as http://weather.noaa.gov/ and http://freetidetables.com but we all know that we cannot depend on this data 100% of the time. Flow is greatly affected by weather conditions, rainfall, location (river and bay water flow), moon phase, wind, tide, etc.

Anglers who fish often and consider the flow generally know what is going on with the flow. So fish often or check with other fishermen to see what the current was doing the day before. Tide tables can be several hours off and seem to be more often than not especially when you are fishing in an area that is affected by a river flow. If nothing else go well before your most favorable flow so you’ll be at your location when it gets right.

Shifting gears, expect an awesome Spanish mackerel and bluefish fishery this August and September. Based on the fantastic year we had in ’07 and the Mac’s and blues we caught in July it’s going to be great! My favorite setup for the mid bay is a drone 0 S/PFS or 0 S/RFS or 0 S/GFS spoon tided directly to a 30# leader and connected to a #1 or #2 planer with a good small coast lock snap swivel. Troll two to four lines.

One back 125 feet on the #1 planer; one at 100 feet on a #1 planer; one at 60 feet on a #2 planer and one at 40 feet on a #2 planer. Adjust the lines according to the water depth. Fish the edges from 30’ to 50’. Find your own fish and work the spots where you get the most hook-up!

Get out on your boat or a charter boat often and enjoy some of the finest tidewater fishing in the world right in your own backyard!