Low Tide vs High Tide: When to Fish

New anglers ask whether fish bite better at high tide or low tide. Experienced anglers know it is the wrong question. As a rule of thumb, fish feed hardest when the water is moving, because moving water moves bait, and the tide is what moves the water on most coasts. So the useful questions are: which direction is the water moving, how fast, and where does that put the bait? The tide chart gets you most of the way on the first two, and reading the shore at low water answers the third.

The Rule of Thumb That Matters Most: Fish the Moving Water

Around high and low water the current eases and reverses. This is slack water, and on many marks it is the slowest fishing of the cycle. Bait stops drifting, predators have less reason to hold an ambush position, and everything spreads out. Some species, bonefish among them, will happily feed right through it, but as a default it is the lull. Exactly when slack falls relative to high and low water depends on the spot: on open beaches it is close, in estuaries and inlets it can lag by an hour or more. The fishing picks up as the current starts to run again and often peaks when the flow is strongest, in the middle two hours of the rise or fall.

That is why so many local rules of thumb come out as "two hours either side of high" or "the last of the ebb". They are all versions of the same idea: be there when the water is going somewhere.

The Incoming Tide

As the flood pushes in, water climbs over sandbars, floods mudflats and creeks, and reaches structure that was dry an hour ago. Bait fish, crabs and shrimp move in with it, and the predators follow.

• Surf and beach fishing usually improves as the incoming tide deepens the troughs and gutters between the sandbars. Striped bass on the beaches around Montauk and Cape Cod's outer beaches near Chatham, bass on the Cornish beaches around Newquay, kob and shad along the Durban coast: the same pattern shows up on surf beaches around the world, with local exceptions.
• Flats fishing leans heavily on the incoming tide. Bonefish, permit and redfish push up onto the shallows as the water arrives. Around Islamorada in the Florida Keys, guides often build the morning around the first push of water onto a flat, then move to falling-tide edges and drains as it goes out.
• Shoreline structure, mangroves, rock ledges, jetties and marsh edges, comes into play as the water reaches it. The higher the water, the more of that structure fish can use.

The Outgoing Tide

The ebb does the opposite, and for many anglers it is the better half. As the water drains off the flats and out of the creeks, it carries everything that was feeding up there back toward deeper water, through predictable exits.

• Creek mouths, drains and channel edges concentrate bait as the ebb funnels it out. Redfish and speckled trout in the marshes around Charleston and Galveston stack up at these points on a falling tide.
• Inlets and harbour mouths turn into conveyor belts. The outgoing tide at Hatteras Inlet or the approaches to Boston Harbor pulls bait through a narrow gap, and predators hold on the edges of the current waiting for it.
• Estuaries, from the rias of Cornwall to the mangrove rivers of the Philippines, often fish well on the ebb as the water leaves the flats and everything is pushed into the channels. Which part of the ebb is best varies from river to river, and the strongest flow does not necessarily line up with the lowest water, so ask locally or fish through it once and take notes.

What Low Tide Is Actually Good For

Dead low tide itself is often slow fishing, but it is the most valuable hour of the day for a different reason: it shows you the bottom. Walk the beach or the flat at low water and you can see the gutters, holes, oyster bars, weed beds and channels that will be underwater, and likely holding fish, when the tide comes back in. The anglers who consistently catch on a beach are the ones who scouted it at low tide first.

Low water also concentrates fish. Anything that cannot leave a tidal pool or a channel is confined to the deepest spots, which is why deep holes in estuaries and harbours can fish well right through the bottom of the tide.

What High Tide Is Actually Good For

High water gives access. Rock marks, piers and harbour walls that were fishing into a metre of water now fish into three. Mangrove roots and marsh grass that were dry are now cover for fish. For pier and rock anglers, the two hours either side of high are often the whole session.

The downside is that fish spread out. With the whole flat or estuary flooded, the bait and the predators have more room, and unless you are on a specific feature you can find yourself casting into a lot of empty water. At the top of the tide, when the current stalls, expect a lull.

Spring Tides vs Neap Tides

The fortnightly cycle between spring and neap tides changes how hard all of this applies. Spring tides, around new and full moon, mean bigger range and faster water: more bait on the move and often more aggressive feeding, but also more weed, more stirred-up sediment on soft bottoms and heavier lead to hold. Neap tides, around the quarter moons, mean gentler flows, often clearer water and a longer window at each state of tide, which suits light tackle and finesse. How much any of this shows in the catch depends on the species and the venue.

Many anglers rate the days building up to a spring tide as the best of the fortnight: the water is getting more energetic each day but has not yet reached the point where it is unfishable. Read more in our guide to spring and neap tides.

How Much Does Range Matter Where You Fish?

How much of this applies scales with the tidal range at your location. At Anchorage, where the range runs to nine metres on big tides, the tide dominates everything about the day and getting it wrong is dangerous. In Honolulu, with well under a metre of range, tidal current is a smaller part of the picture on most shores, and anglers there lean more on dawn, dusk and the solunar periods to plan, though a narrow channel can still run hard on a small range. Most places sit in between, and the tide chart tells you where yours falls: the taller the curve, the more the tide is running the show.

Reading the Tide Chart for Fishing

• The steepest part of the curve is when the level is changing fastest, and on most open shores that is also when the current runs hardest. That is your prime feeding window. In an estuary or inlet the current can lag the curve, so confirm locally.
• The flat tops and bottoms are close to slack water on most marks. Change spot, re-rig, eat lunch.
• Check the height difference between today's high and low. Bigger range, stronger flow.
• Overlay sunrise, sunset and the solunar periods, which every TideCheck station page shows alongside the tide. A moving tide at dawn is as good a starting bet as you will get.

Safety on a Rising Tide

The incoming tide that brings the fish also cuts off the route back. Sandbars, rock marks and causeways that you walked to at low water can be surrounded within an hour on a big spring tide. On very flat shores the advancing edge can outpace a walker, and more often the danger is a channel filling behind you and cutting off the way back. Know your exit, know the time of high water, and leave earlier than you think you need to.

Fish the moving water, scout at low, fish the structure at high, and let the tide chart set your alarm.