Shore fishing poll & commentary for best time of day and tide

[rplarry]

I have always been curious what our fishing experts here have experienced as to what their best fishing production has been in regards to time of day and incoming or outgoing tide, high tide or low tide.

A few combinations as an example :

• early morning, outgoing/high tide
• early morning, incoming/low tide
• evening incoming/low tide
• evening outgoing/high tide
• incoming tide regardless of time of day
• outgoing tide regardless of time of day
• slack tide at low or high tide
• moon phase
• anything else you all can think of ?

Any thoughts from our experienced fishermen, be it shore or deep sea ? (Stuart ??)

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[mondone]

Fishing Estero Morua, I find incoming tide regardless of time of day usually the best for me with a slight edge to full/new moon phases.

 

[estevan]

Shore fishing: evening, incoming tide
Estuary: incoming tide regardless of time of day
Deep sea: haven't noticed a difference. Flat water with a calm breeze is the most pleasant
Full moon with high tide for night fishing
And I think barometric pressure comes into play as much or more than some of the other factors with shore fishing. I've had great shore fishing one evening and been skunked the following evening with nearly identical conditions. The only thing that changed was the weather cooled off a bit and the wind picked up slightly.

 

[Mexico Joe]

I'm never fishing big tides again. It's such a bust. Too much water moving. I prefer the slack tides but that's kind of inshore. I also used to be an late afternoon/evening guy but now I think all of the shore/inshore fishing is hot right at day break. By 10am the bite is off... Then again, I caught that giant Orange Mouth Corvina trolling the jet ski right around high tide in the middle of the day a couple of years ago in June. I also think it's fishing. Right place, right time. Corvina and the Mackerels are pelagic so it's possible to slay one day and strike out the next. Also law of averages. I get to RP once a month. Fish maybe 2 of those days... If I lived in RP and got to fish the same spot 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year I guarantee production would go up.

 

[Mexico Joe]

I have always been curious what our fishing experts here have experienced as to what their best fishing production has been in regards to time of day and incoming or outgoing tide, high tide or low tide.

A few combinations as an example :

• early morning, outgoing/high tide
• early morning, incoming/low tide
• evening incoming/low tide
• evening outgoing/high tide
• incoming tide regardless of time of day
• outgoing tide regardless of time of day
• slack tide at low or high tide
• moon phase
• anything else you all can think of ?

Any thoughts from our experienced fishermen, be it shore or deep sea ? (Stuart ??)

​

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Yea Stuart, cough up those marks! Where does one go to make bait? I see Shawno talking about filling up the live wells with corvina this week and then slaying it out by Bird Island... I'm hoping to get a few reliable bait marks to make bait and then a few reliable marks in the 10 to 20 miles range to get our feet wet. Might be interested in hiring a captain to teach me all that I need to know.

 

[Stuart]

Fishing from shore - I always start after low tide and fish the incoming tide. Time of day doesn't really matter.
Fishing from boat - Slack tides (1st qtr moon or last qtr moon). Full or new moon? Hardly worth it, requires a lot of planning and the weather to cooperate because the window between coming full high tide and then going slack is very narrow, maybe an hour at best and then the current gets so strong you can't keep on the bottom or your drift speed is too fast.

Bait - Depends on the time of year. Cooler months, there are often mackerels feeding right outside the harbor, just watch the birds. Same at Cholla just outside the bay. Use a sabiki rig. drift (or motor south a bit) in 30-40 ft of water. Small sand bass will hit the sabiki over rocky spots and are great for grouper. Gets sandy out in front of Manny's and you can catch a lot of bonefish. These are the BEST grouper bait and are tough and hold up in the livewell. I have some marks for a couple of bait reefs about 10 miles out. Again, sabikis. Can usually get macks and sardines during cooler weather. But put the sardines in a bucket with ice, not the bait tank. They don't live anyway and will just foul up the bait tank for anything else you have in there. Warm weather will get you nothing but lizardfish (worthless) unless you're right on the reef. You'll get sand bass here, too, but they don't hold up in the bait tank because the water is deeper and they decompress. You're better off catching sand bass closer into shore where it's shallow. Sometimes, you spend more time trying to make bait than it's worth. Always take squid with you as a back up. Everything eats squid. Shawno is a jigging fool but he catches some nice fish that way. We'll jig or use extra large swimbaits on a lead head for shallower fishing, but on the deep reefs, we go with a multiple hook setup with baitfish and/or squid. Jigging in the heat will wear you out in a hurry!

Trolling is a whole different story.

Joe - I'd be willing to guide for you a time or two. We'll see.