Rolling With The Tide

With all that must be taken into account when trying to find bass, adding the tidal influence to coastal estuaries might seem to complicate things, but anglers like Elite Series pro Kurt Dove know that the tides can be your friend. On his home water, the Potomac River of the Virginia Tidewater region, he uses the tidal charts to determine where to look for fish.

“When there is high tide, the water is flooding into cover creating a greater volume of water,” Dove explained. “The fish are moving up into areas where they can get tighter into cover … into grass or wood that is overhanging the bank or other pieces of cover.

“Take the California Delta for example; there are a lot of reeds on that body of water. During high tide the reeds are flooded. On a low tide, there is not really much water in the reeds.”

During a high tide, bass tend to be less vulnerable to angler presentations because they are farther back into cover and more scattered.

“When the tide recedes, that is generally your best time to fish. That’s because the fish have to move out of the cover … out of the lay-down trees or to the edges of the grass. That creates a situation where the fish are more vulnerable to an anglers presentation. They are more accessible.”

Typically, because of tidal influences, vegetation is the most common cover that Dove deals with on coastal rivers, but he advises anglers to also pay attention to what little hard cover may be present.

“A lot of times you are dealing with the types of cover you wouldn’t see anywhere else. There can be a lot of industrial cover. A lot of anglers overlook man-made cover when they fish rivers.”

Dove finds that fish are more active on a fluctuating tide, especially at one extreme or the other.

“The last two hours of an outgoing tide and the first two hours of an incoming are your prime times for fishing tidal water. Those are the times when the fish have to move the most, whether it is back into some cover or out of cover based on the volume of water.”

These influences on bass are compounded by the fact that baitfish are dealing with the same conditions and react much in the same way.

“Part of the reason fish are so active on a lower tide is that the baitfish have the exact same issues. The bass are more vulnerable to anglers at low tide, and that means the baitfish are more vulnerable to the bass at those times.”

Though some conditions are more conducive to successful fishing, anglers find that they are often unable, due to work, family and other commitments to be on the water at the optimum times. In the case of tides, a day on the river is likely to present several different water conditions. Knowing how to react to the tidal changes is important in catching fish throughout the day.

“On a high tide, you want to get back inside the cover, and pitch back into the cover. I think you need to throw more target-oriented baits, like Texas-rigged plastics or jigs. When the water is moving, you want to use more reaction presentations, like small crankbaits, spinnerbaits or chatterbaits.”

Step one for Dove, when he is fishing a tidal fishery besides the home water that he is so familiar with, is to first locate an area where fish are living.

“Once you find an area, even if the bite might not be as great or as quick on a different tide, you are better off staying in that area and working it with different techniques and with a different attitude.

“You hear a lot of people talk about running the tides. They are going to run around the river based on where it is lowest at certain times. I don’t like to run a lot to follow a tide. I like to fish certain areas when the tide is right, but once I start catching fish I like to stay there and work the spot.”

Fishing near the coast, anglers often find themselves concerned with salinity levels. Obviously, the closer to saltwater the higher the salinity, but that will change throughout the year. During times of heavy rainfall, high salinity levels will be found farther downstream than in drier times. Dove warns anglers not to get too hung up on salinity.

“I’ve caught bass where there are jellyfish in the water. You just have to figure out how those fish are reacting to the salinity. They might move back up into a tributary or something like that, but they are not leaving those sections of the river they live in just because the salinity crawled up.”

Dove never gets on the Potomac or any other tidal river without going online to see what the timing of the water movement will be.

“You can go to noaa.com. They have tidal charts for anywhere in the country.”