Boston
Metropolitan
Region

January 16th, 2004

Move to the Rhythm of the Tide

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In the Northeast, there is no other force that has such a pervasive impact on fish than the tide. To understand why fish are where they are, and why they do what
they do, you should try to learn as much as possible about the tides in your area.

First off, tides are caused by the gravitational pull of both the Moon and the Sun. They are also subject to environmental variances, such as wind, etc., which is why
they call tide charts "predictions," not "schedules." Due to the complex interaction of the pulls of both Sun and Moon, the heights of the tides also vary. For example,
over the next four months, the highest tide in Boston Harbor will be 11.80 feet on September 8 at 18 minutes after midnight. Similarly, the lowest tide will be -1.46
feet on September 9 at 7:23 a.m. That's a total tidal swing of 13.26 feet, which makes a tremendous difference in the conditions you will find on the water.

There is approximately a 6-hour difference between high and low tide and daily the tides progress about an hour ahead. If it is high tide today at noon, tomorrow it will be about 12:50. Due to this daily change, you can expect that if the tide was high at noontime last Saturday, next Saturday, it will be low. Also, if you encountered favorable conditions at your favorite spot at sunrise today, in two weeks, you could
reasonably expect the same sort of conditions to exist.

So why does this tidal movement of water have such an impact on the fishing? It does several things. Firstly, higher tides open new areas to the fish to feed. Flats
that are fully exposed at lower tides become covered with enough water that stripers are able to disperse across them foraging for mussel beds, crabs, baitfish, etc. For a specific example, I would point to Button Island in Hingham, which you can walk to for more than half the tide. Yet it has produced fish over 40 pounds in the past couple years (not regularly, so don't be in a hurry to plan a trip targeting that island specifically).

Phil Collins, the Mad Kiwi (okay, they may be all mad, but that is another topic) points out that one of his favorite techniques in New Zealand is to look around during a daylight low tide for the holes grouper have dug in the bottom. Then he returns at night, and casts to the same spots. This trick has netted him some very large grouper over the years.

Additionally, the flow of tidal water creates strong current flows, which in turn creates rips. Bass love rips. I won't say that big bass are lazy, but they are certainly efficient (come to think of it, I too am becoming more efficient as I age). They will find a spot where they can sit in an eddy, perhaps behind a rock and wait for the bait to be swept down to them. Not only can they conserve energy, but they also place themselves in a position where they can capitalize on a concentration of bait. Simply put, they tend to get more feeding opportunities when they feed in rips.

At lower tidal stages, fish and bait tend to be more concentrated. You'll often find fish by working the channel edges where water and bait is draining back off the flats. This is a time when you may also find schools of larger bait like herring or bunker (menhaden, pogie, etc.) getting balled up and marauded by linesiders.

The character of the waters you fish changes subtly by the minute as the tide changes. Areas that may hold fish on the outgoing tide between +8 and +7 feet,
may be very unattractive to fish on the incoming tide at the same stage. Similarly, an area like Blacks Creek will fish well for a particular window of time during a
particular tide, such as 2-3 hours into the outgoing. You need to learn what stage of tide works at the spots where you fish, keeping in mind that simply noting the time of the tide may not give you a reproducible result, if you do not also pay attention to the height of that tide. To put it more clearly, an area may fish well at 2 hours past the high on an astronomically high tide, yet on a lower tide, it may fish well at 1 hour past the high.

Tides do not affect only fishing. As Capt. Bill Smith has pointed out in the past, astronomically high tides in Boston Harbor create navigational hazards as well. The action of an extra foot or so of water is sometimes all that is needed to pull free some of the millions of abandoned, rotting wood pilings that have accumulated in the harbor from nearly 400 years of use. These pilings have a nasty habit of floating just under the water, where you can't easily see them, yet your prop or lower unit is sure to find them. Astronomical lows are the perfect time to drive around on scouting trips. You will find hints of structure that you would never see otherwise. A smart angler will use these tides to mark areas to investigate later.

Seasoned mariners also realize that the combination of an onshore wind and an outgoing tide at the Merrimack River or North River can produce deadly
consequences. Large standing waves can build at the mouth, which makes it dangerous and all too often deadly. These are the times you should consider
diverting to another port or riding out the weather offshore until the turn of the tide. This point was unfortunately made the hard way this week as an angler lost his life at the mouth of the Merrimack.

Captain John Bunar of Skippy III Charters relates this information to the Plymouth
area:

Just to add some local color to what Mark had to say about tides. In the Duxbury/Plymouth area, there are many areas that only produce action
during small windows of the tide. A fishermen can catch fish pretty much every time out if he learns the general "laws" of the bays.

On dead lows and especially minus tides, it is best to work the weedy edges of Guzzles and secondary channels. These areas show well on a chart so
making a plan before you go fishing will keep you effort organized. When the water starts to come up of those edges with the incoming tide, The most consistent fishing I have found is up on the shallow, patchy grass flats often adjacent to the guzzle or channel edge I have been fishing. Some of the clear water sand flats towards Cordage Park offer up sight fishing so they can we worth a shot as well. Keeping your offering on or near the surface during this stage of the tide seems to produce best and keeps you from constantly removing salad from your lure or fly.

As the half tide passes, I think it is best to think about fishing some of the shoreline structures like the rocks at Gurnet Pt or some of the cuts in the
marsh behind Clarks Island. The marsh areas are especially interesting because they offer so many little nooks and crannies where a fish may be
holding. Other areas to try this type of fishing are the Jones River in Kingston and the Bluefish River in Duxbury. My opinion is that it is best to fish these types of areas through the high tide.

As the water starts to recede from the bay, some of the feeding spots are obvious. Early in the season, areas like the Saquish and Kingston rips are no brainers. As the season works it's way through June, a fisherman needs to locate and fish the more subtle flows and rips. My best advice here is to scan a chart for areas where you think the tidal flow will be compressed or accelerated by the geography of an area. An example of this would be the point of Plymouth Beach. There are many high sand bars that effect current in the bays - fish use almost all of these areas on the outgoing.

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Harbor

Captain Bill Smith of Draggin' Fly Charters reports:

Captain's Log, Draggin'Fly Too
June 8, 2002  Fishing this past week was as good as it gets in Boston during
the early season. Bass were very active throughout the Inner Triangle. On the
incoming tide large schools of stripers worked bait off of Deer Island and in
the Anchorage. On the outgoing tide similar action was found in the Harbor's
rivers.
    Brian Ribaudo of New Hampshire and Jack Mulkern of Weymouth found fish
right off the Back River. Although fish were small, they were very
aggressive. After practicing with these fish, Draggin Fly Too travelled to
the Deer Island flats, where larger fish up to legal size were taken. Most
action was on the surface, but Brian used a Teeny sinking line to get below
in hopes of attracting a trophy fish. However, Jack was the high rod of the
morning. He hooked a really nice fish that pulled the hook after a short
encounter with his jerk bait.
    Thursday's and Friday's Nor'easter closed the door on scheduled trips.
The good news is that Northeast winds usually push bait and even more fish
into the Harbor. As seas calm, look for a quick return to the excellent
fishing of earlier in the week. Water temperatures are still quite cool, so
stripers should become more active as the sun warms up the surface. 
Captain Bill Smith

Captain Wayne Frieden of Reel-Dream Charters forwarded this:

Tuesday, June 11, 2002: The fishing over the weekend was on the slow
side, to say the least! Rob and Martha Schwartz joined me for their
first fly fishing excursion in Boston Harbor on a very chilly but
beautiful Saturday morning. Both Rob and Martha caught their first fly
rod stripers but only a few fish were taken. Still, a slow day of
fishing with your significant other beats a good day at the office or
mowing the lawn, etc...

Sunday's fishing wasn't much better with morning rain and 15-20 mph SW
winds. However, Bill Barnett of St. Louis was a great sport and enjoyed
his time on the water as much as I enjoyed his company. Bill took a
beautiful 32" 12lb. linesider loaded with sea lice in Quincy Bay on a
gray/lavender half & half.

By the way, the guides and their sports who were fortunate enough to
fish Monday morning were into a large school of keeper bass out front.
The fish were hungrily feeding on big bluebacks.

Until next week, we'll see you out there...

Capt. Wayne Frieden
Reel Dream Charters
reeldream2@attbi.com
Scituate, MA
781-545-6263

Join us for CCA South Shore Chapter’s
5th Annual One Fly & One Lure Fishing Tourney
Open to all CCA members and non-members. (Find more information in the Reel-Time Forum Calendar)

 

Sandy posted on the RT Forum:

Boston/Hingham harbors-6/8

Got out a little late Saturday morning and fished out around the harbor Islands. Didn't see any surface action but caught a couple (the biggest was 24") off Long Island. Headed back to Hingham and caught several outside the harbor up to 26". All were caught on chart. and white deceivers.
Headed down to Buzzards Bay yesterday. On the way out of the harbor there was a lot of surface action in Hingham Bay. The sw wind was whipping on the cape so getting a fly out there was difficult, but we managed a bunch of schoolies.

South Shore

Captain John Bunar of Skippy III Charters reports:

This Weeks Report

I had all live bait charters this weeks. I did not see any of the 30lb
fish that we saw last week although all trips seem to have done well with
fish to the mid 20's. I would expect the bigger fish to be in the area
within a week. Catch of the week was a 27 lber by Tim Riley from
Providence.

Mackerel are pretty much gone so it looks like live pogies will be the deal
for the forseeable future. The amount of Pogies that have moved into Mass
waters this year has been a pleasant surprise.

Most of the good bass are still using the bay. There are some fish using
the gurnet but for the most part the holding areas outside the bay are
barren and will remain so until we get another 5 degrees. I am still not
seeing much for surface activity from small fish. If you plan on coming
down to fish breaking fish under birds- Don't!

Flounder are on the prowl between the bug and saquish. There will be a
handsome little fleet out there come the weekend so you can't miss the spot.
Hour and half before to the same after, seaworms working way better than
clams at this spot. Still some nice cod out front but the new size limit
means getting a good mess of keepers is tuff.

Good Fishing to You!

John B

North Shore

Capt. John Pirie of Online Fishing Charters reports:

The Merrimack River

Captain Charles Crue of Channel Edge Charters reports: