Now to be fair the above is a picture from an article that was in FlyLords magazine about red fishing in Texas. But I have to say with now a little under a week of fishing those flood tides I would have expected to see some of the above, or more than the three I have seen. One I watched to learn and two others were off in a distance.
I started yesterday early on the incoming tide. I wanted to get there and wander around looking for the head of the channel where the water is deepest on the flood tide before it pours over onto the flat and the shorter grass.
Even though I was way early and the heat and humidity brutal I waited it out and watched the water first come from underneath my shoes and then like a slow wave into those finger channels. And with the water came life. Most of the activity came from bait fishes like mud minnows, or mummichogs, finger mullet, peanut bunker, and shrimp. The water also brought blue crabs that I saw picking around the stalks of grass.
When the water got deeper there were larger wakes which are some type of predator fish chasing the bait. And while the water was relatively clear I couldn't get a good look as to what was swimming in front of me. Every now and then there was an explosion coming from inside the tall grass which sounded like someone had dropped a bowling ball from the sky, but again never within sight.
I ventured to deeper waters near the creek to see if the fish were closer to the bigger waters rather than being way up in the back. While throwing flies there may be more difficult it was worth the shot as I continue learning the structure and tides. Again, I didn't find moving grass or tailing fish, which is getting frustrating.
I found the above illustration during a search of tidal plains on Wikipedia. It explained the differences in the tidal zones with names, between deeper water (littoral), subtidal (below low tide), intertidal (low tide), through supratidal ( above tides).
Fly fishing skinny water is very dependent on the moon phases and tide cycles. That's here in the Lowcountry, back in New Jersey, or on the Vineyard. Low tides are low tides and high tides
are high tides but when the sun and moon lines up you get those coveted flood, or spring tides. The last spring tide was the full moon on August 28th, the next new moon will be on September 11th. In between the full and new moons is the neap, or week tide.
The tidal range down here in the Lowcountry is around 6 to 8 feet. They can be higher or lower during the spring tides along with storm surges and wind direction. If you've ever seen a blowout tide then you know. An example would be a low outgoing on the beach with a strong west wind which pushes the waters out.
Today I'm going back to where I started last week. I need a change of scenery and look for something new. High tide comes in around 2 o'clock so I'll be there a few hours before.
I'll be looking for cruising fish in the deeper waters rather than watching and waiting on the flats. With the neap tide a day away today will be it, I think, for fishing. I have to get back to going through bins and boxes and setting life up down here. It still feels like an extended vacation, but it's time to find that healthy balance, which will include work. Because the new moon is only a week away and those flood tides bring in the fish, or so I'm told.