How do you best fish an incoming tide?

[Chubs]

I was fishing a weak incoming tide this weekend. I was wondering how everyone generally fishes in this sort of tide?

Some problems I was having (at least in my own mind).

Working the bait with the current at marsh drains / bayous is not going to work anymore - your bait will be traveling the wrong way if you cast into the cut and reel back.
If you go up the cut/ bayou you spook everything as you go because you want to cast behind yourself to work with the current, but you just spooked everything cause you past right overhead to get in position.

I suppose you could get to the back of the bayou and wait for the fish to settle down, then work your way back up to the front.

What structure do you guys tend to target on an incoming tide?

[Ron Mc]

it's a mistake to waste an incoming tide on the passes - save those for the falling tide.
Chase the rising tide to the back of the skinny water - that's what the fish are doing.



If you get to a lee-side barrier before the fish, you may get to face them beating baitfish up against your feet.

[TexasJim]

Last Wednesday, I was fishing an incoming tide in the inlet where Lighthouse Lakes Marker No. 1 was, pre-Harvey. I was anchored in about a foot of water, with about 5 inches of water above the grass. The grass was leaning North, due to the water flooding into the flats. All of a sudden, I drifted South,quickly, over my anchor, and in less than five minutes, where I had been positioned, the grass was sticking above the water surface. The water was out-flowing so fast, I moved my kayak, so I wouldn't go aground. I figured in a couple more minutes, I could just take my landing net and start picking up reds, as they got stranded in the shallow pools. Then, the tide reversed , and the water flowed back into the inlet again. In no time, it was back over the grass again! It was the strangest thing I ever saw.
Later, I decided there must have been a fully loaded tanker, or barge tow traversing the Port Aransas channel, which pushed a lot of water either in or out of the channel, causing the Shrimpboat Channel the reverse its tidal flow, for a few minutes. I was probably no more than a mile from the big channel.
There was a big group of reds tailing in a small cove, and they didn't seem to notice or care. They kept rooting on the bottom for something. Maybe peeler crabs? I threw every artificial I had with me for two hours, and never got a bite. A couple of small hits on topwaters.
A lady on a powerboat at the mouth of the inlet told me she got a 28-inch red on mullet. Her hubby, wading the inlet, got a big trout. I got a suntan. Oh, well. TexasJim

[Chubs]

it's a mistake to waste an incoming tide on the passes - save those for the falling tide.
Chase the rising tide to the back of the skinny water - that's what the fish are doing.

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If you get to a lee-side barrier before the fish, you may get to face them beating baitfish up against your feet.

I was thinking that's what I should have done - that or get to a bridge and work the pilings (but that might be a challenge in a kayak).

Seems like the shore grass should be filling with water... and bait... and fish? It's just such a wide expanse to fish in a kayak is probably my main problem with that idea. Where to target... Time to go consult my trout support DVDs again lol.

[crusher]

In this fake, edited, old hypothetical photo....I've diagrammed how I found success a time or two on incoming tides. Basically, fish the deepest part of the gut in to a lake-like area being fed from the larger body of water. Consider the water flow from northwest to southeast in to the back lake in the photo. Like you said though, you may spook em when you go in, but if the tide and fish are coming in, just park yourself quietly and more water and more fish will come along. When that plays out, or doesn't work, then do like Ron suggests and get back in to the skinny water.

[karstopo]

A lot of times in drains, the predator fish are on the edges between the bank and the deepest part. They’ll be nose into the current working the edges along a depth zone. I might pick a side of the drain to work and then position my kayak on the opposite side. Then I’m casting at angles to the opposite side and letting the offering fall, move with the current or at angles to it. Sometimes I’ll try to stealthily ease over the area and fish the area I just crept by. It just depends on the size of the drain and depth how I go about it.

In my experience, how the lure or fly gets presented in a drain is crazy important to catching or not catching fish. Tguff who used to post on here, and he, as it seemed to me, really had the drain fishing down. I happened to know of some exact places he fished ( I used to run into him) and how he could turn what might appear to be nothing water to many, including me, into a gold mine of fish.

That made a deep impression on me and so now I focus a lot on just how to fish each and every drain or channel I might be on. All that really means is that the lure/fly needs to be at the right depth and in the right zone and to be presented in a realistic way. Fish will set up in current, but I think they tend to avoid being exposed to the heaviest of the current for too long. They would rather tuck under it a bit, behind something, maybe a little dip in the bottom or behind shell, and then pick off stuff being moved along with the flow. But they will often be right next to a lot of current as the current sweeps by the things they like to eat. That’s my experience.

I do know I’ve watched people paddle by good fish in drains and sort of halfheartedly try the spot if at all just like I used to and probably still do. I’d say don’t be in a rush and really try to study the water and think about how a predator might set up his ambush and then how to present your offering to the predator. The fly rod is a great tool in this in that I can really dial in the right weight and sink rate on a fly, at least in relatively shallow water, and can drift a shrimp or baitfish pattern right through the zone. It can be tougher to get light enough with the other gear and still be able to cast it and you really can’t do mends with the other gear, mends meaning following a curved path by directing the floating fly line during the cast or after it rests on the water.

The most fun thing about fishing for me is studying the water on any given outing and trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s a lot of fun watching really good fishermen do this and I’ve fished with a few including tguff and saltykat that both used to post here. I also have a couple of buddies that don’t go on TKF but really understand the fish. All those guys have one thing in common and that is they analyze the water and then are very intentional in their approach to fishing it.

I know early on I basically stumbled into Fish if I caught them. Now, I might still stumble into them but I think I have an idea about why the fish were there and how to plan the approach to catching them. The whole learning to read the water is the heart and soul of fishing if you ask me and anything that aids in that is a good thing.

[TroutSupport.com]

Good job Karstopo and exactly what I was going to say. ... Push over to one side and hit the opposing bank casting at angles. Also think about how baitfish hold in the current and try to retrieve your bait in such a way that it mimicks that.. It doesn't swim up stream very much.. it will hold in place or swing right or left. Definitely hit that current edge and behind points, eddys, etc. all that. It's good to fish the cuts on the first part of the incoming.. but don't fish it too hard or spend the whole time there.. just fish as your pushing in to the other ponds that are filling up.. the reds will push back into new water if they can.