Fishing Articles
Salmon Producing Tides
The height difference of each tide will tell you
the forward progress of migrating salmon
Timothy Kusherets
There will never come a time I fish water I haven't first investigated.
Fishermen that know me know that when I'm fishing there's bound to be
fish close by and they'll drop everything to fish the same area. It's
a good bet they'll hook into fish on the basis I have done the necessary
homework to ascertain the arrival of salmon no matter where the fish
are in the salt; and the tides are everything and knowing how to forecast
salmon producing tides will get you into more fish than ever before.
The first step is to recon. Recon hatcheries in the area you intend
to fish. Holding ponds in the hatchery will tell you everything you
need to know. Small schools of bright fish indicate that the season
has begun while an abundance of dark fish illustrates a transition of
seasons and species. As Chinook and Sockeye finish their spawning cycles
Pinks and Coho begin their inland migration before the run of Chum,
which usually ends the fall run of salmon. Tides, currents, and seasons
are the timepieces salmon use but it is the tide-table that allows fishermen
to foretell the arrival of them. Forecasting runs is something that
can be done anywhere on earth that has salmon. Tides carry salmon as
they migrate and force them to hold in areas that provide cover from
torrential currents of the High-high and Low-low tides (Extreme forms
Flood and Ebb tides) twelve-feet or more. Geography above and below
the surfaces dictate holding areas; eddies, seams, and drop-offs, are
the places to look for salmon and the best way to do that is to consult
nautical charts that have both soundings and geographical marks. Amongst
many novice fishermen tide-tables seem to be the most enigmatic formula
for predicting tides but it's not that difficult to understand. The
meat of reading a tide-table is to understand that, no matter what,
every single day there are two Flood and two Ebb tides with slow moving
transitional water called Slack Tide, which happens 4 times a day. The
height difference of each tide will tell you the forward progress of
migrating salmon as it gets close to each season based on the intensity
of each tide. The biggest tides provide the best travel time for maturing
salmon and those are the tides you want to watch for at the beginning
of the season. Below is an animated tide-table, which uses the colors
green and red, think of them as stop and go signs. The green represents
good times to fish during the early season and red means the tides don't
differ enough in height to make fishing worthwhile during the same time;
that of course changes as each season transitions from one species to
the next.
Differences in tides that are greater than 8 feet will
provide the best fishing conditions during salmon seasons. Most tides
will be no longer than 7 hours from one tide to the next and that is
important to note. On the animated tide-table, look at the date of the
6th and then at the fields in green to the right of it. At 2:15am there
is a high tide of 10 feet and a low tide at 9:54am of -1.4 feet. The
distance between the tides is 11.4 feet, which in terms of volume is
a lot. It is a perfect mode of transportation for salmon migrating back
to natal systems and believe me salmon will always utilize the big tides
for that single purpose. If fish aren't riding the big currents then
they're at play with the smaller ones and by that I mean tides that
have little water movement. Slack tides are transitional periods where
tides reverse directions between flood and ebb tides causing zero currents
for a short period of time. It is during the transition stage that schools
of salmon disperse temporarily making them very hard to find let alone
fish. Stronger currents typically create holding areas where surface
disturbances allow fishermen to read water enabling them to fish seams,
eddies, and drop-offs; however, when a tide that has slack current those
holding areas become very hard to see; no water movement means no visible
signs to see. Fish don't need to hold during slow slack tides so they
don't; for salmon it is a time of the day you could easily call recess
or playtime. A good example of slack tide can be seen on Friday the
9th at Midnight where the low tide is 6.5 feet with the flood tide at
nearly five in the morning at 10.6 feet. The current will move 4.1 feet
of water with the current almost non-existent. The fishing would be
terrible at that time. Imagine; it would be like fishing water with
a slack tide lasting almost seven hours long. Ironically, fishing the
slack tides get easier as the fishing season moves along.
This Pink and Coho were anticipated on the basis of holding patterns
exhibited by tidal influences. The Pink was caught during high volume
water while the Coho was hooked into while the tide currents moved very
little; however, both were caught in the same area of water, albeit,
different times and tides of the day. I can do this anywhere there are
more than one species of fish in the water, and you can too by applying
these tried and true fishing techniques.
Slack tides become very important as fish hold in estuaries.
Salmon that hold in the estuarine environment are put off the bite as
they mature and acclimate to freshwater but that doesn’t mean
they won’t strike or travel upriver the moment they get close
to the mouth.
Salmon that hold during slack tides will stay as close to the surface
as they can because the richest levels of oxygen are found in the upper
strata, which is contingent upon fishing pressure not being exerted
by fishermen and fluctuating barometric pressure.
Later in the season species and tidal transitions take place making
slack tides a great time to fish.
Transitional seasons, from one species to the next, become essential
to note as slack tides strongly influence holding fish while another
species begins its spawning cycle in the same system. As one run of
fish begins to end then another filters in with a bright school of new
fish, usually another species entirely. Timing to meet those overlapping
schools of fish can keep into the fish the entire day.
As Chinook are fished during slow moving tides, at the end of their
oceanic migration Coho can be caught as they head inland to replace
the remaining Chinook when the tides run high and strong. During this
time fishing all phases of tides can be productive using varying fishing
techniques.
When the Chinook are meandering around the estuary with slow moving
current spinners, buzz bombs, and zingers are excellent lures to use
since they’ve stopped feeding. As Coho head on in try using herring
cut-plugs, smelt fillets, and candlefish; bait is best while they still
feed, but the offerings should be smaller than what would be used for
the larger Kings.
This system of fishing can be used over and over again with each species
of fish. It works every year for every location. On top of all this
good information you can actually extend a regular fishing season by
heading in the opposite direction of migrating salmon.
High-high, High-low, Low-high, Low-low, and Slack Tides
can all be anticipated with the arrival of new runs of fish. Study the
tide book and nautical charts to figure out where shoals of fish will
hold. It's entirely possible to predict where fish will be before they
get to specific holds allowing anglers to find the best offerings to
use and the best times to fish. Predicting Tides like this works anywhere
in the world.
Last year I went fishing with a friend of mine and the boat we were
in was primarily used for fishing in an estuary where the current was
less intense but on that occasion we went out into the bay far from
land. I was trying to show my fishing buddy that fish could be caught
further out from where he loved to fish; moreover, I wanted to show
him that by fishing further out he could fish water that had an earlier
season affording him a crack at hooking into fish that were brighter
and larger than he was ordinarily accustomed. Because the boat was small
it took some time to find the fish but we did and that is the whole
point. Seemingly, out in the middle of nowhere he couldn’t believe
the horde of fish we found out in the middle of what he construed to
be an oceanic desert. He just couldn’t believe that he had been
missing out on all those quality fish all the years and he lived less
than ten miles from where the fishing was prime for that time of the
year. I showed him that by heading in the opposite direction of migrating
salmon he could fish as much as a month earlier allowing him to take
a crack at fish that only commercial fishermen had been harvesting.
By the end of the season his arms were tired and his rear end sore but
the fishing was something he will remember for a lifetime.
It’s hard to convince many fishermen that fish are in the water
when they don’t see them jumping so trust in the tide-table and
the technology used to create them and you’ll hit into more fish
than you ever thought possible. Remember the steps to take when scouting
out Salmon Producing Tides: Recon local hatcheries, check the regulation
handbook for species, watch the incoming and outgoing tides and fish
the big water, and make sure to only fish slack tides when runs of fish
overlap each other. If you want to extend your fishing season check
the regulations and see if your area allows for fishing multiple areas
at the same time; they’re not all the same so monitor the regs
often.
All of these tide producing techniques work well. I’ve been using
them for over twenty-years now and it’s never failed me and it
can work for you too now that you know about salmon producing tides.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2004/09
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