THE BEST TIDES TO FISH??

At the www. casting gathering yesterday, while sitting around the table with a cold beer, the conversation got to, "what are the best tides to fish?", and I said that I would try and put together some weekend dates for tides that we like.

Remember the old adage's that "no flow, no go" or "no run, no fun" and for our fishing those sayings are proved correct each time we go out. Have a look at Graeme's blog on the 1st of June "The game plan".....this will give you what you need.

http://flyfishersmobnt.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/the-game-plan-your-going-fishingthis.html

 But sometimes, for those who have only certain days to fish, and the tides are like this one below...no movement..

Not a lot of movement in the tides !!

We still find a lot of fish on these tides, but they are up in the trees and a bit harder to catch.  If the water is clear and there is little wind these are great tides to explore the edges, but be aware, some really big fish sit up on the edges, basking in the sun I think.

Yesterday the www. connection tried to teach me how to cast in under the trees.  I've seen it done by the experts and always thought that you needed to haul the line at the end to tighten the loop and then point it under the structure, but Graeme showed me how to stop the forward cast allowing the loop to tighten up and then point it in under the structure.   Been practicing it ever since, and I think that I have just got it, nearly right.  But that type of casting is great on these tides when the fish are in the mangroves.

But as Graeme said in his blog,

"the drop determines activity, a 3.0m lows means they can have a dozen naps on the way out often treating anything with disdain, a 1.0 m low will leave a mud trail as they realise, "WTF! get out of my way". "

So we look for the tides a bit more like this, and between the graph at the top and this one below. It certainly seems to work for us, both on the flats and the rockbars.

With all that in mind, and back to what we were talking about yesterday (when to go fishing), have a look at the following dates for those who only get the weekends off.....

1. The weekend of the 31st August - lst September.  (Sunday looks the best but both could be fun)
2. The weekend of the 14th and 15th September look interesting but not a lot of movement but if there is not wind, you can have a good look around and try along the eastern side of Indian Island.
3. After that, all the tides that we prefer seem to be mid week (Yahoo!!! for those who don't work)
4. Main thing is, if you can get out, fish and have fun, you can adapt to nearly any tide.
5. If the www. connection is available, get their advice, that's what I do.

These tidal graphs that are used above come from a free download called J Tides  ( http://www.arachnoid.com/JTides/ )and they give you a good idea of what is happening during the tide.