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Writer's pictureRobert Brown

Fishing Tidal Waters

The last two weeks I have fished bass tournaments in freshwater on the Gulf coast. Both bodies of water is spring feed and is effected by tide. Understanding how the tide changes where these fish are located is my weakness. In my mind a raising tide should push more salt water into these bays and rivers pushing the Bass closer to the springs. In most cases this is true, intel I fished back to back tournaments on two different bodies of water with similar tide.


In Kings Bay we started the morning in the back of canals throwing a Finesse Worm whacky rigged. The tide had started to fall. So we went searching for bigger fish. In previses fishing trips to the Kings Bay I had caught big bass in the 2-4 pound range in the bay at low tide . But now we couldn't get a bite, so we went back into the canals. Flipping a Ribbon Tail under boat docks or throw Finesse Worms on a drop shop and would still land us fish, but nothing that would win us a check.


Suwannee River on the other hand was a different story but the same tide. Tournament starts and it's low tide. So we decide to run up river. We fished rocks, laydowns, drop offs, creeks and springs and couldn't get a bite. Around mid morning we noticed that no one from the tournament was fishing up river but us. So we decide to run down river past the boat ramp and hit every creek and spring on the way. Still nothing. About 10 min before we had to be back to the dock we finally catch a bass. After weigh in and talking to the guys, they say everyone was fishing almost in the Gulf to catch fish. I couldn't believe it.


So what did we learn? That fishing in water that is effected by the tide can be tricky. You can go out, practice and locate fish but during game day it can all change. One or two days of practice might not be enough, might want to schedule a day where its low tide and another day where it's high. Just so you can understand what the fishes behavior is. Than write down your results or keep a mental note of how that day went. Understanding tides is no different than understanding cold fronts or heavy wind move fish from location to location.


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