Tidal river fishing

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Beefster

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Just started fishing on a tidal stretch and am struggling to get any consistency to my fishing.


Looking for any info available. Web sites / books etc anyone can recomend. I am currently ledgering / feeder fishing for Bream mainly but tench/Carp and the usual smaller stuff are in attendance. I will be looking to get the boat out for pike later in the year.

Tidal effects are I assume the most important thing i need to get my head around.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Chris Bishop

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Buy a tide times booklet so you always know what the tide's doing as some tidal rivers fish best on different states of the tide. One I somtimes fish is often best at the top of the tide and as it turns.

If you haven't pike fished a tidal river before, fish heavy to cope with the flow - plenty of lead and a big enough float to stay up in the current.
 
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Fred Bonney

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Top of the tide, when it stands still,pile in your groundbait, and fish all the way through to the run off.
 
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A lot of boat traffic on the river at the mo, anyone any experience as to how this effects the fishing.
 
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Does it make a differance then..... Its mainly the Bure plus will get onto the Yare, Thames and maybe the Medway later in the year.....
 
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Fred Bonney

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It may well do,the Bure hasn't got as much water as the Trent,so boats on the Bure, may be more of a problem than on the Trent,where it is no problem!
 
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Fred Bonney

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Good to hear.My thoughts are that,boat traffic has little or no effect on fishing.
 
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Alan Tyler

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One point to bear in mind is that, for any given spot, Spring tides will always be at the same time of day. (So will neaps, 6-and-a-bit hours out of phase).
So, once you've found whether your local fish prefer a big tide or a little one, you can predict when to go, and fish quite short, productive sessions. Until the fish change their minds again...
 
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Here we go....... I assume spring tide does not mean those from Jan - May? Are they the highest tides?
I assume that on the flood tides fish can be pushed up the river creating hot spots?
 
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Alan Tyler

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The height range of the tides changes on a monthly and an annual cycle. At full moon and new moon, when the moon and sun are lined up on opposite sides or the same side of the Earth, respectively, the gravitational pull they exert on the seas are at a maximum, and just after these times you get high tides which are very high, and low tides which are very low. And scary great flow rates! These are called Spring tides.

At the moon's first and third quarters, it's at right-angle to the sun, and its gravitational pull is lessened by that of the sun, so you see not-very-high High Tides, and similarly feeble Lows. These are Neap tides.

I don't know whether the annual cycle is due to changes in the Earth's distance from the sun, or the moon, or both, or something else altogether, but the overall effect is that the biggest Spring tides of all come at or around the spring and autumn equinoxes, while the ranges are smallest at the Summer and Winter solstices.

There's probably a much clearer explanation somewhere on the www, but hope this helps for now!
 
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Alan Tyler

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Oops- missed the last part - it depends entirely on the river in question. On some, the flow reverses as the tide floods, and anything that can't cope with a spot o' briny had better shuffle upstream. (Though most tideways are populated by fish that are pretty tolerant of salt. A dip in salt water is the aquarist's first treatment for an unwell fish, so tidal river fish get a tonic every fortnight!)
Other rivers, (with higher flows, or estuaries that don't have a tide-funneling taper,) merely get a bit deeper as the tide rises. The Thames is an example of the first type; the Royalty fishery on the Hampshire Avon, the second.
 
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