Calculating ebb and flow — specifically, where and when fish will feed — dominates the tournament angler’s thoughts when competing on a tidal fishery.
Everyone has their favorite stage and that’s typically defined by location. Some spots favor the falling water, while others excel during incoming cycles.
Low water pulls fish out of shallow cover and concentrates them in perimeter depths, while high tides allow them to push into prime feeding areas.
This week, Trevor McKinney of Benton, Ill. has favored the latter and he’s hoping to capitalize on particular segments of the day’s tide schedule. Anglers launched a couple hours into an outgoing tide. Depending on location in this massive fishery, low tide will be around 11 a.m., with rising water filling the latter part of the fishing day.
“I’m making a big run, about 50 miles, down to one of the creeks,” said McKinney, who began Championship Saturday in fourth place. “In practice, I had 13 bites in that creek in two days and in three days, I had three bites on the rest of the bay.
“There’s just way more fish in the creek I’m fishing. You get in there and fish hard and you get bites. On Day 2, I caught pretty much all my fish on a 30-yard stretch of bank.”
Lunar influence leading up to today’s full moon has pulled the tides higher than normal, so anglers have dealt with more water. McKinney said this has worked in his favor.
“The tide was super high (Friday) morning; as high as I’ve seen it,” he said. “I’m catching all my fish on a high tide, so the tide is really playing in my favor. I’m catching all my fish flipping a creature bait into shallow cover.”
On Day 1, McKinney missed his limit by one fish and weighed in 10 pounds, 13 ounces. Day 2 produced a full limit of 13-12.
McKinney’s hoping to make up some ground by leveraging the day’s high water periods. Timing will be key, as his location further south will see the higher water sooner than the area’s near takeoff in bay’s upper end.
McKinney has to factor in about an hour of running back to the afternoon check in, but if he times it well and the afternoon rise triggers another good feed, he could find himself in good shape.
