It doesn’t matter what species of fish you pursue, if they live and feed in a saltwater estuary with creeks and marshes, they will all run with the tide. Redfish, flounder, and seatrout all follow and move with the tide. But. It’s not the tide they pursue as they move, it’s what the tidal waters contain.
The Right Bait
Yes, dinner for the fish – is the key to almost every fishing situation. Find the baitfish and you will generally find the big fish. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Baitfish are a part of the food chain. They are pursued by predator fish. But just like the predator fish, these baitfish have to eat. They become predators themselves, albeit for smaller marine animal life and vegetation. More often than not that food for the baitfish is found on the marshes and mudflats of the saltwater estuary systems.
Baitfish will move with the tide into creeks and onto marshes in search of food. They move off and out of these same marshes when the tide changes, knowing they can be stranded in low water conditions.
So, if you think about it, the larger fish aren’t following the tide as much as they are following their next meal! They simply move with the baitfish. On a macro scale the movement and migration of whole species of fish up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts coincide with the movement of the schools of baitfish.
Each year we watch and wait for the mullet and menhaden schools to begin their migration. Colder water temperatures drive their food, and them, and ultimately the larger predators like Spanish mackerel, bluefish, tarpon, and cobia toward warmer water.
It’s sort of a chicken and egg situation. Are the larger fish pursuing warmer water, or are they following their next meal? Whatever the answer, they do move with the bait.
Which creek should we fish?
Now, about that creek… Several keys can find the creeks that will hold fish. Maybe more important is the fact that some simple chart study can eliminate creeks that probably won’t hold fish.
Look for creeks that go back on a flat or marsh far enough that a good tidal flow exists. Short creeks act more like small pools and the water simply rises and falls. Feeder creeks are the channels for all that water to get onto and exit the flats. These are the highways that bait and predator fish will use.
When choosing a creek, be very careful and quiet approaching the mouth. Be a watcher. Look for signs of baitfish in and around the mouth. If you see baitfish entering or leaving the mouth, mark this creek as one you want to fish.
A tidal marsh is under constant change. The chart you have may be several years old, and while the marked channels and larger creeks remain stable in their location, weather and storms often cause new creeks to be formed. Flood tides carve out new exits and entrances to marshes. Don’t pass a small creek mouth just because it is small. It may be the best fishing spot on the marsh!
Most important, be an observant angler; watch the tide; and, look for baitfish movement. Look for anything out of the ordinary, things like tidal eddies or deep pools. Baitfish tend to stop and hang in these areas, and the larger fish will do the same.
Best Advice
Finally, the best advice I can give is to eliminate what I call dead water. At high tide it is difficult at best to identify good creeks. I will run an area at low tide, looking for creeks and channels, and by doing so, I can eliminate about ninety percent of an area’s creeks that I want to fish. The remaining ten percent is where I will concentrate my time.
Am I always successful? No – I don’t know many guides that are. But I catch my share of fish, and I catch them in the creeks I identified by doing my homework!
