A question for experienced beach fishers

**CameronT120** · February 24th, 2010, 11:58 AM

I'm new to beach fishing and am trying to understand tides and how they relate to fishing for cutthroat. Do you find success dependent upon tide more so than time of day? Do you tend to have better success on an incoming tide vs. an outgoing tide? I've noticed that of two low tides each day, one is much lower than the other. Is fishing one of these low tides more productive than the other? I've read that fishing an incoming tide is more productive, but at the same time on some forums I read that some people comment on how they've had a good day fishing an outgoing tide. It's all a little confusing. Can any one here help educate me about tides? Thanks kindly.

**SalaR** · February 24th, 2010, 12:35 PM

Hi Cameron...
A very good post...Tides can be confusing as heck..Most of the time just before High flood and during the flood are the best what you need to realize is that the Food sources are the major player here...during a very high tide the Trout will cruise the beach only several feet of the shoreline where insects and fry have gathered to eat or be eaten. This time of year when the fry are coming down all the streams and entering the estuaries can be awesome...later when the summer approaches cutties are still as hungry and will attack anything within their sight....
When you have an outgoing tide the many foodsources scatter about differently and are less easy to pinpoint. With a very low tide,sometimes falling as much as 14' the low slack can produce stellar fishing...the small weeed beds are almost exposed and all the little creatures are exposed much more than they are used to. If you are fishing a high tide look for the floating debris that moves along just off the shoreline...you will see the many small fry hiding in there jumping about because they are being "FOOD"...so,for the next couple of months have fun...as summer apprioaches Dry Fly action is really where it's at for me..
C

**CameronT120** · February 24th, 2010, 12:43 PM

Thank you for the explanation, SalaR. Would it be fair to expect that fishing during an incoming tide might be productive? I'm assuming that the force of the water would be bring food with it that the cutthroat would be following in. Or is it more complicated than that?

**lcampbellcutthroat** · February 24th, 2010, 05:19 PM

it depends on the dynamics of the beach you are fishing, and how high the high tide is eg. 9 ft versus 14+ ft fishes very differently in terms of where the fish will be feeding. In my experience two hours before through two hours after the high tide in the afternoon/evening is best but I fish a specific LML beach stretch all season so I know that stretch well. my best advice is to find a good area and fish it as much as you can until you know it very well and can understand the specific dynamics of the area inside and out whether it's cloudy/sunny/windy/calm and throughout the various tides, and keep a log book of every trip with tides and weather....sorry if this doesn't sound simple but I have been fishing the same beach since I was 9 and every year I think I know everything about beach fishing and every year I am forced to adapt my approach a little bit
hope this helps
Len

**CameronT120** · February 25th, 2010, 03:59 PM

Thanks Len. I'll definitely be going out to try and figure it all out. I'll be trying some of the beaches close to home and will see if I can't make some sense of what works and what doesn't.

**11th Warrior** · February 25th, 2010, 04:05 PM

I just finished watching an episode of Sportfishing on the Fly and they were fishing for cutties off Tofino. A good episode with really good info about tides, etc. It was episode 20.

**CameronT120** · February 26th, 2010, 09:12 AM

I'll have to tie up a few of those flies and give them a try.

**CameronT120** · February 27th, 2010, 03:44 PM

I tied up a half dozen of those fry flies and added them to my arsenal. I was out on one of the North Shore beaches this afternoon for a couple of hours and saw nothing but a seal who was bobbing off shore from me for the time I was there. Probably waiting for me to catch something so he could come steal it. I guess we were both skunked today.

**btree** · February 28th, 2010, 09:31 AM

If you're off the North Shore, you might want to chat up the Capilano hatchery people and find you when they kick out all their fry! That will spell a feeding frenzy for the cutties, if there are any left off the north shore.

Also, on another thread in this forum, a member spells out where to look for fish in estuaries based on tide action. Even has a nice colour coded map!

http://www.flyfishbc.com/forums/threads/3074-New-to-Beach-Fishing?highlight=estuary

Or you can just use the search function - I searched for "estuary" and got lots of hits relating to your interest.