The Tides... And Thier Effect On Fishing

need moving water for all spieces!

problem is,

tooo fast no fish

too slow no fish


you need to look at the rize or fall of a given tide cycle!

ie, outgoing 1.4 to .50 over 6 hours, smokin tide, !

fish won't fight the current to eat, and ya can't keep a bait in the strike zone!

4 tide day, 2 days or after full moon, outgoing tide for me and the gags

I haven't fished the Skyway as much as quite a few of you, but I'm all for "whenever you can fish"

Outgoing tides are obviously better for freelining and ballooning.

Incoming a little better for keeping bait under the pier for snapper.

But ME personally I've found that I go out in the evening/night when I'm looking for shark.

But I LOVE going out in the morning, getting there before sunrise. It's cooler and the I'm just waiting for the fish to get out of bed and come out for breakfast!!

I'm by no means a seasoned Skyway pier rat, but I'll take any chance I can to slide down there and try my luck!!

tide plays a very important part of any fishing expedition! espically around structure like the skyway. in slack tides you will get late feeders or "lost" fish seperated from their school that might eat. but i've noticed beginning of incoming and about 15-20 minutes after peak, and outgoing is good but if its ripping; its difficult to catch fish but they are hungry and waiting to ambush behind rocks, and "eddie's".

imagine that hormel commercial when that guy says: "lunch starts now!" and everyone is going crazy. so its a given time and day when fish do the same thing and just go on a feeding freenzy.

Cool chart link Jay. Next time just put {url} in front of the web address, then {/url} after it, only replace the { and } with [ and ] and we'll be able to click it.

Anyway, I think the best answer to the question is the most obvious - "Whenever you can get there" cuz one day we might not be able to. However, knowing and understanding the conditions beforehand can increase your chances of catching fish.

Myself, since Ive been fishing at the SSP, have always preferred the outgoing tide, but lately Ive been liking the incoming, too. Seems like more species make their rounds at and around the pier when the water is coming in from the gulf. Quite the co-winkey-dink eh?

Pretty much any tide that changes by at least a foot over a 4 or more hour period are what I like to fish. Seems like I catch more fish on those types of tides (weather and moon phases also play a big factor and sometimes render those tides useless).

And while I dont plan my fishing exclusively around the tides, I DO try to make it out sometimes when the conditions seem most favorable. Heck, who doesnt like better odds??

Great topic.

here's my opinion on it.

i fish whenever i can get out. if the tides look good or not, good weather or bad, week day or weekend, day time or night. fish when i can and where ever i can. opportunity is the word.

i have seen a pattern that seems to work better than just a simple tide chart.



here is a typical chart with tides and moon phases. seems we have better luck when the moon visibility is closer to 0% or 100% (circled in red).

when the percentage is near 50%, we seem to not have very good luck.

either way we still give it a shot wether it will be good or not. the good lord only gives us one shot on this planet we call earth so i try to make the most of it, and i suggest you do the same.