# Tides



## tim_goblue (May 27, 2012)

I usually just fish when I can and dont really worry about tides, but I know tides effect blackwater bay quite a bit. I have 2 questions:

1. When talking about fishing the bay would slack tide be approx an hour prior to and after high/low tide? I know fish are the most active when the water is moving...would just be considered the rest of the day other than slack tide, or is there a way to tell when the water is moving the most based off the tide charts?

2. I was trying to figure out neap tides, and I guess it is the 2 times of the month when the tide doesnt move (or moves very little) but how much of tide movment is considered neap because this month, according to the charts, .6 movment on the 6th of december looks like the least movement... is that neap?

I appriciate any help


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## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

As far as neap tides go, we usually have one high tide, and one low tide per day. Neap tides for us are when we have 4 tides per day, 2 high and 2 low tides. During neap tides there is very little water movement or change in water level.

As far as when to fish when looking at a tide time, Id say at least an hour or two before the peak time, and an hour afterward. The water movement pretty much comes to a stand still once the high or low point is reached, and will start moving 2-3 hours before the next tide. 

Hope this helps! Good luck


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## darsinika (Apr 18, 2010)

*helpful i hope*

FISHINGREMINDER.com


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## tim_goblue (May 27, 2012)

Austin said:


> As far as neap tides go, we usually have one high tide, and one low tide per day. Neap tides for us are when we have 4 tides per day, 2 high and 2 low tides. During neap tides there is very little water movement or change in water level.
> 
> As far as when to fish when looking at a tide time, Id say at least an hour or two before the peak time, and an hour afterward. The water movement pretty much comes to a stand still once the high or low point is reached, and will start moving 2-3 hours before the next tide.
> 
> Hope this helps! Good luck


Got the neap tide thing figured out... but correct me if im not understanding the daily tide fishing. At high tide and low tide peaks the water will stop moving for a while (up to an hour each side of peak) so this would "NOT" be the best time to fish.... but a few hours before slack tide and then an hour or so after slack tide "WOULD" be best?

I guess my question can be broken down like this - the water moves most 3hrs to 1hr before peak and again 1hr to 2hrs after peak. The one hour pre and one hour post peak no water is moving and this is called slack tide?

Thanks again.


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## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

From the way I've always understood it, from an hour or two AFTER the tide time until 2-3 hours before the next tide peak is when the water doesn't move much at all.


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## tim_goblue (May 27, 2012)

Austin said:


> From the way I've always understood it, from an hour or two AFTER the tide time until 2-3 hours before the next tide peak is when the water doesn't move much at all.


Ok, I can see that too. The slack tide thing at high/low peak is somthing I picked up from SCUBA diving the jetties in destin and didnt know if it applied to the upper bays also. Thanks for the help.


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