Reading Tide Charts

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ben_beyer
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Reading Tide Charts

Post by ben_beyer »

I am a subscriber to Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine and I was wondering if there are some links to information on understanding and reading tide charts. I've done some searches but I have yet to find something that really lays it out plainly.
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TroutSupport.com
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by TroutSupport.com »

Start here... it's a little free clip I made a while back. It covers a lot of the parameters which also affect tide and has some points on reading the charts in general. Don't forget there will also be a time delay for current at your fishing spot depending on how far away you are from the tide station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8H0c6pOm2g
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kickingback
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by kickingback »

Patience my friend...Trout Support will chime in soon with an answer that will make you go buy his DVD's that help to target those fish in tidal movements...
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Ron Mc
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by Ron Mc »

I think Tobin has freebies on his website that are are a good starting place, as well.
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by TroutSupport.com »

There are some articles.

But in the mean time anyone is welcome to email me or pm me.

t
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broke
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by broke »

Here is a basic run down of what I know about tides and what tools I use to monitor/research them.

Note: I just reread through this and realized it's somewhat rambly but I'm way too tired to clean it up. If anything doesn't makes or you need me to clarify something, feel free to ask.

Basic info about tide charts:
  • The most important thing to keep in mind is that the depths given on a tide chart are all relative to some fixed point. The most commonly used reference point is Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW). If a tide chart says the water level is 1.2 feet, it's 1.2 feet above the MLLW. If it says it's -0.5 feet, its 0.5 feet below MLLW.
    (Feel free to google it, but what the MLLW actually is and how it's calculated isn't important)
  • The times listed for low/high tide are when the water levels will be at their lowest/highest levels for a given cycle.
    For example, assume low tide is at 12:00 A.M. and high tide is at 12:00 P.M. Between 12:01 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. the tide will be rising/incoming. At 12:00 P.M. the tides will be slack (I.e. no tidal movement). At 12:01 P.M. the tide will start falling until the next low tide.
Basic info about tides:
  • The number of tidal changes in a 24 hour period depends on the moon phase. There will usually be two tidal changes in the days leading up to and following a new or full moon (one high tide and one low tide). Between new and full moons there will usually be 4 tidal changes (High/Low/High/Low).
  • Days with two tides will generally have more water movement than days
    with 4 tides.
  • Wind direction and speed also impact the tides. For example, the strong north winds that accompany cold fronts can push a huge amount of water out of the bay and drop water levels significantly.
  • There will be some delay between the actual high/low tides and the predicted high/low tides depending on how far you are away from the location where the tides are being measured.
Here is what I use to monitor/research tides:
I prefer using the NOAA website for tide predictions because they have a pretty mobile friendly website and I always have my phone on me. They also have a lot more locations than the magazine and you c[an lookup historical data as well.

Here is a link:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.html

Make sure the timezone is set to LST/LDT (local standard time adjusted for daylight savings) and the datum is set to MLLW.

You can also look up real-time water levels, actual historical water levels and wind direction/speed for most of the locations. That enables you to determine the impact of wind speed/direction on tides.

For some reason you can't look up the actual water levels on the tide predictions page, so here's a link to where you can:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stati ... l#a8771801

Once you select a location, you can click on meteorological observations to get wind speed/direction.

The only way to be able to tell how the water depth/current at spot relates to the predictions at a particular location is by fishing it a few times while monitoring tidal predictions. After a while you should be able to estimate pretty accurately whether or not the tides will be favorable for a particular spot.

Here are some examples of how I use all this to plan my trips:
  • I spend most of my time chasing tailing redfish, so the water depth is the most crucial factor to my success. I spend a lot of time in the Aransas Pass area and use the Aransas Pass buoy to check the tides before each trip. If the water level is >1.0 feet above MLLW at that buoy, the water is going to be too high at B&R or the East Shore for a lot of tails to break the surface. A an outgoing tide and a water level of 0.0 to 0.7 above MLLW is pretty much ideal.
  • Several years ago I was fishing the AP area with my ex-girlfriends brother and there was massive thunderstorms with 25MPH-35 MPH winds all day. Towards the middle of the afternoon, I noticed the winds had been blowing from the WNW. That direction/speed is usually enough to blow a lot of water out of the bay and really drop the water levels. I checked the real-time tide levels and the water was greater than 1 foot below MLLW despite it being predicted to be 1.0 feet above MLLW.

    I knew the fish would be stacked up in the deeper holes just like they are when a cold front is blowing through. After the storms passed, the winds were still howling but I was able to convince we needed to go. We ended up absolutely slaying the redfish in the South Bay gut
I hope this helps get you pointed in the right direction. If something doesn't make sense or you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

David
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gene1966
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by gene1966 »

Tobin is a good dude in my book :clap: ...we need more like him on this site!!!
ben_beyer
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Re: Reading Tide Charts

Post by ben_beyer »

Thanks for the information!
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