Eating Habits And The Tides

[Newboy]

Just want to broaden my limited fishing knowledge.

 

What fish feed better on slack water? and what fish feed better on flood or on the ebb?

[duncan]

you are going to get a lot of contradictory responses to that question I suspect!

 

because of the tidal factors around how we actually fish many areas and for many species you are going to get a lot of responses based as much, if not more, on when can we fish for..... than when are they feeding.

 

examples recently would seem to be conger - charlie reported ongoign activitiy on a wreck right through the tide when he hung around one trip, and rough ground fish certainly feed right through as witnessed many times in the winter - but conventional wisdom would have them 'feeding better' on the slack.

likewise tope.

for rays it seems to be a function of where as well as when, and whilst there are many marks where they 'turn up' at slack water there are others where they (blondes specifically) 'come on' with a run of tide (either way).

my experiences of bream suggest they like a bit of tide

bass I will leave to others apart from the fact that they move around a lot with the tide, especially inshore, so it's where and when again.

[Bob F]

I think that sums it up nicely, Duncan.

 

You have to think about what your prey are likely to be feeding on.

 

For example. when fishing a wreck if the tide is running the bait fish will seek shelter from the tide and so will be close to or in the wreck, so this is where you'll find the cod and pollack. During slack, the bait fish venture away from the wreck and you will often find the Pollack quite a way off the wreck (higher).

 

If fishing for Bass, depending where you are, you usually need quite a strong tide to get them feeding. For example. the Races at Portland Bill only fish when the tide is faster than 2knts. Why?? Because during the tidal flow the sandeels they are feeding on get caught by the tide and are tumbled over the rocky outcrop and pop out of the maelstrom in a confused state and are readily taken by the waiting Bass downtide of the rock. During slack water the sandeels will bury themselves in the sand.

 

Rays can be caught on any state of tide. Why? They can hunt by scent and vibration, so will move over a sandbank at slack water and sense any buried prey

(sandeels or worms). They can also fish by sight, and will lay in waiting on the downtide side of a bank waiting for their prey to come tumbling towards them.

 

That's my take on it, anyway.

 

Think fish!!

 

BF

[Maverick Martin]

I would agree with everything Duncan and Bob have posted except that sandeels tend to bury themselves in the sand when the tide is to strong for them, then come out to play at slack water. Thats when we can feather them up

 

Martin

[great white]

If you believe the press Chris Martin a Conger Guru from Newhaven and the BCC likes to target big eels on the stronger part of the tide over wrecks, while the rest of us prefer the easier to fish slacker periods.

 

perhaps its easier to set the boat up in the stronger tidal flow than to be blown about at slack water by the changing winds.

 

Peter perhaps you would like to comment on this one from all your wrecking experiances.

 

Charlie

[shytalk]

some skippers do fish the full tide for eels but they are in areas where the tides are much slacker ie east of selsey or west of portland as for the feeding habits they depend on the bait fish ive been anchored catching eelsa in lyme bay and the other boat with us was knocking out bass on another wreck 3 miles away????? i would disagree about wreck cod and pollack the cod are close to or on the bottom all the time but can be found several hundred feet from the wreck if the bait fish are there the pollack generaly tend to shoal higher in the water as the tide increases i think the reason being that as the water hits the wreck its forced upwards(hence the boil seen on the surface on some) which leaves a slack area above the wreck where the fish sit waiting for their dinner ground fish tope conger ling huss etc seem to feed in any tide the limiting factor to catching is how much tide we can fish in ive caught congers in 200ft in 3.5knots of tide while not easy the fish were eager to feed !!!!