Which Way Did They Go

[Bud Kennedy]

It always amazes me how my trips to the river are so different each time I visit.  Our last visit we marked a lot of baitfish, and found lots of places where there were fish feeding.  Now 5 days later it was like fishing the dead sea.  No Bait, No Fish  everywhere we went.  Makes me wonder where the heck they are hiding.  We fished from 6:30 till about 9:30 and only had a few bites but no hook ups.  I guess thats just the way it goes.  Gonna hit it again in the morning to see what we can find.  No matter how you slice it the visit to the river was enjoyable but would have been better if there was some catching going on.

Water temp was 83, Low tide at the beginning of the tidal change.  Blue Bird Sky with an air temp of 70 at launch and 85+ when we got back to the ramp.  Typical Carolina sun that can really be a scortcher one the sun gets up a bit.  Tidal current was very lite and was probably the reason we did not catch em.

[LgMouthGambler]

Ive never fished "tidal" areas for bass before, but I can imagine its just like ocean/inshore fishing. The fish are constantly moving depending on tide stage and water conditions as well. Must be a tough situation for sure.

[Wizard]

Bud, you have a couple of clues in your post. Tidal river and Blue Bird sky.

Tidal river: bass that are in or near cover will re position their ambush point as the flow nears, again after it passes and repeat the pattern on the ebb. Forage movement takes place along the channels. A channel only a foot deep can be a map to guide forage. If you don't have tidal tables, watch the bass and they will tell you as the change nears.

Blue Bird sky: a front has moved through and catching has slowed. There are only a few places for bass to retreat... into thick cover, to deeper cover or into the channel. Forage is affected as well as bass. Forage often moves to the mouth of creeks or coves and suspends in the center of the mouth. Bass will move with the forage. This doesn't mean bass will bite your lure but it does increase your chances.

When days like this occurred on the Potomac, I used the day for fun and learning. Nature is beautiful and I love to watch it. I also looked for new fishing spots. My personal feeling is an intuitive angler has more success on a river than a graph watcher.

Wizard

[Bud Kennedy]

Wizard you are right on.  I did find some bait fish in the mouths of creeks but further adventure into the creek was devoid of bait.    Very soft tide today and it was almost like fishing in a no current condition.  Interesting observation was the Osprey were not even hunting at all.  They just were on their nests and not taking any exploratory flights at all.  We even saw an eagle just perched in a tree and it di not fly either.

The river has very limited growing cover.  I would really love it if we could have some hydrilla but none of that here.   Further south on the river it is a different story due to the influence of the Pee Dee Rivers and bull creek .  Much more current and tidal influence with various water types entering the river.

[fishandkamp]

Bud you and I share the tidal bass thing. Remember you were out one day and returned 5 days later. You ran totally different tides in those outings. If that had been 2 weeks apart you would experience almost the same tides at the same time.  Your bass would setup almost the same. This was always the issue when I was pre fishing for a tournament on our Chesapeake Bay tidal rivers.  I would have to fish hard two weeks before the tournament to get the same tide conditions.  What you have to do is learn where they go during the opposite tide or we had to run a lot. For example, if we would launch at 6 am with an incoming tide we would run south from Mattawoman Creek ( maybe 10 or 20 miles) and catch the tide as it started filling up down south. As it came in we would run north and chase the same conditions. Once it was almost slack we would run down south and fish the outgoing tide there. The fish would pull out to ends of docks, deeper parts of trees, outer edges of grass lines, seawalls etc there first. It was a rinse and repeat sort of deal. We never wanted to fish slow or slackening water. With incoming water we fished inside grass lines close to shore and if wood existed there all the better.  With out going water sometimes you could find some deeper rocks, or a dock may have a depression located just outside it, even a foot or two deeper than surrounding, because of prop wash. They will lay in those a lot. Just a few ideas that helped me.