The Last Two Hours of Incoming Tide Are Prime Time

What's Biting

Water temperatures are climbing, bait is spreading out, and the fish are finally acting like they’ve got somewhere to be. In saltwater, redfish, speckled trout, striped bass, and flounder are feeding hardest around moving water, especially during the last two hours of the incoming tide and the first hour of the outgoing. Look for nervous mullet, glass minnows, shrimp flicking out of the grass, and birds that aren’t just sightseeing.

Work shallow flats, creek mouths, oyster edges, and the down-current side of points. At first light, throw a small topwater or suspending jerkbait. Once the sun gets up, switch to a 3- to 4-inch paddletail on a light jighead, or a live shrimp under a popping cork. In freshwater, largemouth are still using grass edges and the shady side of cover. A weightless stick worm, compact spinnerbait, or Texas-rigged creature bait will do more work than some $20 contraption with a name that sounds like a protein powder.

Main Column: Find the Current, Find the Fish

Here’s the mistake I see every year: anglers fish the place that looks best instead of the place where the water is doing something. A pretty shoreline is not a feeding pattern. Current is.

On an incoming tide, start on the shallow side of a creek mouth or grass flat. Bait gets pushed in, and predators pin it against the bank or a small drop. Cast up-current and bring the lure with the flow. Don’t drag it against the tide like you’re pulling a lawn mower through wet cement. On the outgoing, move to the first bend, cut, or drain where water pours off the flat. That’s the conveyor belt. Put your bait in it and let the fish make the mistake.

Last week, I watched a young angler hook what he thought was a redfish on a live shrimp. The drag screamed, the rod doubled, and everybody in the boat started offering advice nobody requested. Ten minutes later, up came a three-foot freshwater gar that had somehow wandered into the brackish creek. The boy looked at it, looked at us, and said, “Can I keep it?” That fish had more teeth than manners, but it got a careful release and a story he’ll tell longer than any limit of trout.

That’s the point: fish the water in front of you, not the fish you planned to catch. The tide doesn’t care about your species list.

Dock Talk

• Best window: first light through the first two hours of moving water. Slack tide is coffee time unless bait is visibly getting pushed.
• Use 10- to 15-pound braid with a 20- to 25-pound fluorocarbon leader around grass, shell, and toothy surprises.
• Tactical advice: find the narrowest place water is forced through, make three casts from different angles, and leave if nothing moves. Fish are not hiding from your lure; you’re probably fishing the wrong water.