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he said. “Let the feedback of the bites tell you how to adjust.”
While ultra-high water levels may provide an angler with too many cover options to throw at in the course of a day, tides that go out more than usual should work to concentrate the fish. That would seem to give the angler an advantage, and often does; but on the other hand, sometimes it prevents you from getting to where they live. Dove has a strategy for this, too.
“The first day at the Delta this year the water was very low compared to what it had been in practice,” he recalled. “With a full moon approaching, the level tends to fluctuate a little more. I couldn’t even get to the hyacinths that I had located my fish, so I had to adjust. I keyed on current ditches running out of the backwater areas. In that situation, look for the very last deep water. You want to find a little depression or current break. Most importantly, that’s where the baitfish will be.”
Even if water levels will never reach the preferred level during a given day, the bass still need to feed at some point. The more extreme the tidal swing, the
“Mike Iaconelli is the best at knowing how to find that 10 minute window,” he said. “The first time I went to the Potomac, I struggled. I got a check by staying in one place and waiting out that one little window, but now I can fly by the seat of my pants. Every time out I get a little more dialed in.”
more likely that window of opportunity will be limited. On the Delaware, for example, Tharp said it would be possible to fish over the best spot on the river an hour before or an hour after the “right” tide and have no inkling that any bass or baitfish lived there, while it would be lit up at the best tide. With more and more experience, understanding those short chances to fill your livewell becomes instinctive, and less reliant on tide charts that may not fully predict what is happening on the water.
Extreme winds combined with particular moon phases can draw all of the water out of a previously fertile area. Photo credit Pete Robbins
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