The Tide Turns, and So Do the Fish

What's Biting — Late spring has fish acting like they finally got the memo. Largemouth bass are sliding into shallow cover early, especially where bluegill are bedding. Smallmouth are working rocky banks and current seams. In saltwater, striped bass, redfish, and speckled trout are feeding best around moving water, with shrimp, small baitfish, and crabs getting pushed against grass edges and oyster bars. Freshwater anglers should be on the bank before sunrise. Saltwater anglers want the first two hours of the incoming tide, or the last hour of the outgoing if bait is washing out of a creek.

The Main Column: Fish the Water That Moves — Here’s the deal: the tide is not a clock. It is a conveyor belt. If it’s moving, something is getting carried to something with teeth.

On an incoming tide, start at the back third of a creek where clean water meets the warmer, dirtier stuff. Throw a three-inch paddletail on a quarter-ounce jighead, or free-line a live shrimp under a popping cork. Work it painfully slow along the grass edge. Not dead slow—just slow enough that the lure looks like it has a mortgage and nowhere to be.

For bass, find the freshwater version of the same setup: a ditch, drain, culvert, or creek mouth feeding a flat. Tie on a half-ounce black-and-blue jig with a craw trailer and pitch the shady side of the cover. The best window is usually the first hour after daylight, before the sun turns every bass into a suspicious submarine. If the water is stained, add a rattle. If it’s clear, shut up and use something natural-colored.

One morning, a kid fishing beside me hooked what looked like a solid redfish on a shrimp under a cork. The fish ran straight under the boat, wrapped the line around the anchor rope, and left everybody yelling instructions nobody followed. The boy reached down, grabbed the anchor line, and pulled the fish free by hand while his grandfather stood there holding the rod like it was a live grenade. The redfish came aboard. The anchor rope did not survive. That kid still claims he caught both.

Dock Talk

• Watch the bait before you cast. If mullet are nervous and shrimp are popping, fish are nearby.

• Replace frayed leader after every fish around oysters, rocks, or dock pilings. Fluorocarbon is not magic armor.

• Tactical advice: fish the first visible current break you find, then make three casts from different angles before moving. The fish may not be gone—your presentation may simply be wrong.