King tides?

[SRC&Bassbum]

The recent king tides we had have got me wondering, does that affect SRC and rezzie fishing at all? Other than the obvious impact on me…. Less room to cast or more tidal junk … driftwood etc does it impact the fish much if at all?

 

[Go Fish]

Of course it effects fishing. All the brown water from runoff, the debris makes it a mess. You can fish but it is a waste of time.

 

[Northern]

This is totally an anecdotal and anthropomorphic answer, but here's my observation from when I fished a HC beach when the water was way up during the last king tide. Adressing behavior, not long term impact.

SRC were witnessed moving about right up in the flooded territory, among the floating debris. In my mind they were doing what any of us would do if a locked door in our own home was suddenly thrown open - they were exploring the new territory to see what might be there (presumably to eat, in their case.) I was fishing a topwater so as not to get hung up on all the debris, and they were batting at it but not eating, so interpret that as you will.

 

[ffb]

We didn't fish during the king tides but @Nick Clayton and I fished this week with a big nearly 16ft high tide in the morning. Lots of stuff in the water, variable visibility from ok to downright muddy. We did best in the slowest moving water we found. Like @Northern witnessed, when we found fish, the fish were  right up on the shore in most places. Seriously. Bounce a fly off a bulkhead or someone's front lawn, and "fish on" on first or second strip. If I were fishing from shore I'd be doing a lot of casting parallel to shore.

 

[Nick Clayton]

We didn't fish during the king tides but @Nick Clayton and I fished this week with a big nearly 16ft high tide in the morning. Lots of stuff in the water, variable visibility from ok to downright muddy. We did best in the slowest moving water we found. Like @Northern witnessed, when we found fish, the fish were  right up on the shore in most places. Seriously. Bounce a fly off a bulkhead or someone's front lawn, and "fish on" on first or second strip. If I were fishing from shore I'd be doing a lot of casting parallel to shore.

Yeah we caught a lot of fish RIGHT on the edge of the shore. Many times I'd throw a cast an inch from the beach and get bit before I even took my first strip. Those fish can be a real pain to hook!

I definitely believe these king tides have an impact on fish behavior and the quality of fishing, but I won't profess to know exactly what the effect is or that I have it all figured out. I've had some great fishing on abnormally big tide days, and I've had some skunkings. As with most things you just gotta get out there to know for sure.

I remember one of my first trips as a guide we fished on one of the biggest tides in many years. I cant remember the high but it dropped down to almost minus 4. Water was MOVING. We didn't catch shit. Saw a lot of fish, but they wouldn't touch anything we threw at them.

When Jon and I fished the other day we had to leave some areas where the current was just too much. I definitely believe too much current can be bad. It's hard to fish and we didn't see any sign of fish in these areas. As he mentioned we ended up catching a lot of fish in areas that was total frog water. This happened when the tide was way way up, but also when it had dropped some. These areas were totally flat and lacked any real features, and several of them were basically just muddy/sandy bottom. The fish didn't seem to be holding but rather cruising around the areas. It almost seemed to me like they were in these areas precisely because the current was so strong elsewhere. But I've also caught fish at these areas many times before so who knows.

I really like @Northern idea that the fish would naturally check out this water that would be typically dry most days. I'd have to think that this newly wetted beach would be coughing up food morsels as well, but who knows. Only thing I can say for sure is they were definitely way up in there.

As mentioned above muddy/dirty water can definitely be a result of these big tides. I would always rather fish clean water if I have a choice, but as Jon mentioned the water we found the bulk of our fish in the other day was pretty stagnant, not always the best visibility, and had a ton of debris, big and small, just kinda sitting around. Fish certainly didn't care.

I do remember one day, and if I recall Jon you may have been with me that day as well, where we fished a section of beach that had a lot of muddy water up close to shore then a distinct line where it cleaned up. We caught a lot of really nice fish casting into the muddy water that would eat flies right where it transitioned to clean water. Not sure if they were hanging on that edge, moving in and out, or what but that transition zone was money that day. I've experienced that a few other times as well. Of course this is when fishing from a boat so its a lot easier to fish those transition zones and move around looking at other water. If you're fishing a beach and everything within casting range is straight mud, things can be difficult

No doubt it's fun to think about this stuff and try to figure it all out, but as humans I dont think we ever really will. Best thing to do is just get out there and see for yourself. There's very few black and white rules when fishing after all.

 

[Cabezon]

There are amphipods called beach hoppers that normally live in burrows just above the high tide line. As the tide drops, they move down the beach to scavenge on drift algae. They are semi-terrestrial crustaceans and would drown if submerged. In super high tides, their burrows can become flooded. Most probably flee to higher ground. But some may drown or otherwise become available to searuns.
Steve

 

[jasmillo]

I have nothing much to add from others have said. Like @Northern mentioned, I have definitely caught fish in some unique spots on big tides. I posted an edited version of this photo in a report in the PS thread during the last king tide. I only stayed here for a bit (was looking to catch src across multiple MA’s that day). Some of you will recognize this spot. Not a secret necessarily. Lots of beach underwater! The fish I landed here was basically caught perpendicular to the end of that log. Very dry any tide besides King tides.

 

[Stonedfish]

Hopefully no big low pressure systems Monday thru Wednesday.
SF

 

[Cabezon]

While the human focus is typically on the flooding potential of king high tides, the king low tides can present a special problem for intertidal organisms in the PNW. In the summer, our biggest low tides occur during the day; this puts tremendous thermal stress on these organisms when they are exposed for long periods of time to high air temperatures and desiccation stress. Intertidal alga can be "fried" and barnacles and mussels cook in their own juices from prolonged exposure on summer warm days. In winter, our lowest tides, as @Stonedfish's graph demonstrates, are in the middle of the night. This raises the possibility of freezing. The temperatures over the next few nights look that they will be about the freezing mark and therefore not a threat. If a species wants to make the jump from the relatively balmy, stable subtidal to the intertidal, it must be able have a much wider thermal tolerance than would be required of a strictly subtidal species.
Steve

 

[Divad]

@Cabezon , taking the worst to understand this better. If the king low nights were in the 20s or 10s would this cause a significant effect on food source for src/resident coho and the rest of the chain? Would StonedFish notice his fish further from shore, unable to make the transition or any other factor?

Granted the lows are during the evening and fishing would be on the high tides.

 

[Cabezon]

@Cabezon , taking the worst to understand this better. If the king low nights were in the 20s or 10s would this cause a significant effect on food source for src/resident coho and the rest of the chain? Would StonedFish notice his fish further from shore, unable to make the transition or any other factor?

Granted the lows are during the evening and fishing would be on the high tides.

It is hard to say. Searuns are targeting mobile prey: shrimp, crabs, polychaetes that can move to better microhabitats. There has been a lot of research on the freezing resistance of specific intertidal species (see some examples of this research here). Some intertidal organisms produce anti-freeze molecules to reduce the change of freezing (see here and here, for example). And unlike your backyard which can freeze solid after several days of sub-zero temperatures, deep within a mussel bed, the small worms, crabs, and snails would probably be protected because the rocks would have some thermal inertia as the rock would have been warmed by high tide only a few hours earlier. But exposed barnacle, mussels, algae may suffer some impacts unless they have specific adaptations. I suspect that organisms that typically live in the higher intertidal have these adaptations (or they wouldn't be there...) but the closer you are to the subtidal the lower the level of adaptation (but also the less time exposed, albeit longer during a king low tide).
In more polar climes, bashing by sea ice is probably a great cause of mortality.
Steve

 

[Divad]

It is hard to say. Searuns are targeting mobile prey: shrimp, crabs, polychaetes that can move to better microhabitats. There has been a lot of research on the freezing resistance of specific intertidal species (see some examples of this research here). Some intertidal organisms produce anti-freeze molecules to reduce the change of freezing (see here and here, for example). And unlike your backyard which can freeze solid after several days of sub-zero temperatures, deep within a mussel bed, the small worms, crabs, and snails would probably be protected because the rocks would have some thermal inertia as the rock would have been warmed by high tide only a few hours earlier. But exposed barnacle, mussels, algae may suffer some impacts unless they have specific adaptations. I suspect that organisms that typically live in the higher intertidal have these adaptations (or they wouldn't be there...) but the closer you are to the subtidal the lower the level of adaptation (but also the less time exposed, albeit longer during a king low tide).
In more polar climes, bashing by sea ice is probably a great cause of mortality.
Steve

Thank you for that, I’d gather our organisms are as robust to the Nova Scotia and Massachusites research. Those are incredible lows that they’re able to withstand.

Found this Link which resonates with everything you’re saying but on the west coast and speaks to those better moving species. Had to see if an author was Steve.

 

[Pink Nighty]

Took this picture at low slack on June 23 2021, the middle of that awful heat wave. Big negative tide, my daughter and I got sunburned all to hell playing fish ambulance with some buckets.

I remember a few weeks later reading that billions of intertidal animals had perished during that tide.