Just getting started looking for tails and I am confused about something. I know the big flood tides we had a week or so ago are real good for tailers…but do some people fish for them on most any high tide if they can find flooded short grass? It seems like some people say only fish tails on the big floods but then again I see posts on this site where people caught tailers on the 17th and 18th which were not so high. What is the dealon this issue? Thanks
different flats have different depth requirments. some edges flood early, some fish best @ low tide, etc. wind direction also affects tidal height. luck 2 ya,
It really depends on the flat. We fish two main flats when looking for tailers. The first one we can fish as low as a 5.7, and the other one has to be atleast a 6.5. Look around and try to find a variety of flats that require different depths and hopefully you can fish the flats more often!
Don’t have a knack for makin motors crank,
But I’m pretty good at drinkin beer
The best way to a fisherman’s heart is through his fly.
2002 Florida Skiff
90 Merc.
OK, so if I am understanding correctly…while there are many grass flats that hold tailers during the big flood tides, there are also a few flats that get a little water (and tailers) on the normal high tides as well?
That is what I have learned from my experience. Bait is always going to try to hide as best they can. As soon as water gets in any grass they are going to go there. The only problem with the flats that flood at lower tides is that they quickly get too much water, and you can’t see tails anymore. That is what happened last night. The tide was only a 6.3 but the water got up to my thighs and it was hard to see them tailing.
Don’t have a knack for makin motors crank,
But I’m pretty good at drinkin beer
The best way to a fisherman’s heart is through his fly.
2002 Florida Skiff
90 Merc.
BG- I am just figuring alot of this out too and here is what I’ve found.
Tidal heights are different at different locations (i.e. harbor may say 6.0 and it may be 7.0 near Rockville-it will nearly always be 1 foot different between these two locations). I currently have two very consistent spots. One floods at 6.2 perfectly and the other at 6.5. I’ll hit one one day and the other the next day. I also have a boat that doesn’t float in a mudpuddle like some on the forum:smiley:
“Unless you have a ritual for getting your tackle box ready, no one will regard you as a serious fisherman”
BG…the ticket is to look at the actual vs. predicted tide…so for example…if its a predicted 5.6 (which is a touch below ‘tailing’ for me) i’ll see what the actual is tracking to be, every now and then it tracks higher than predicted…i know last weekend it was almost .4 above predicted…that put it at almost a 6.0 tide…that meant, change of plans and time to go wading for me!
'a stranger is just a friend i havent met yet’jt