The First Push of Tide Is Carrying Dinner

What's Biting

Striped bass are chewing along tidal rivers, creek mouths, and rocky shorelines where herring, alewives, and small bunker get swept through. Fish the first two hours of the incoming tide, especially from gray light until the sun clears the horizon. A 3- to 5-inch paddle-tail swimbait on a 3/8-ounce jig head is the bread-and-butter choice. If the water is clear, go natural: pearl, smoke, or olive. If it’s stained, throw chartreuse and stop apologizing.

Largemouth bass in reservoirs are sliding toward the first shallow gravel and wood as the water creeps into the upper 50s. They’ll take a jerkbait early, then a craw-colored jig or Texas-rigged creature once the sun gets up. Saltwater anglers should watch the back bays for flounder and weakfish around channel edges, but don’t expect miracles until the water temperature settles. Fish the tide, not the calendar.

Main Column: Fish the Seam, Not the Foam

The mistake I see every spring is anglers casting at the biggest surface disturbance. That’s usually a gull, a bunker having a nervous breakdown, or somebody’s boat wake. The better fish are often sitting just outside the obvious commotion, where the fast water meets the slack water.

Position the boat or yourself up-current and cast across the seam. Let the jig head sink two or three seconds, then swim the lure just fast enough to keep the tail working. Every few cranks, kill it. That pause is where the striped bass usually eat. If the lure comes back covered in slime, you’re too deep. If you never touch bottom or weeds, you may be too high. Adjust by jig weight before you start changing lures like a man searching for his keys.

Last spring, a kid fishing beside his grandfather hooked what looked like a decent striper on a white swimbait. The fish surged under the dock, wrapped the line around a piling, and everybody figured it was gone. Then the kid noticed a small bluegill swimming in the water with the line trailing behind it. The bass had eaten the bluegill, which had eaten the kid’s jig. Three fish, one lure, and enough confusion to make the dock go quiet. The kid landed the bass. His grandfather claimed he had planned the whole thing. Nobody believed him.

Dock Talk

• Fish the first two hours of the incoming tide; the outgoing can work later, but the early push usually concentrates bait better.

• Keep a 7-foot medium-heavy rod, 20-pound braid, and a 15- to 20-pound fluorocarbon leader ready for rocks and dock pilings.

• Tactical advice: when the current starts moving, cast up-current and let the lure cross the seam naturally. If you’re cranking against the tide, you’re making the fish chase your mistake.