Gulf Coast Fishing Advance Planning Is The Key To Success

A characteristic many wadefishermen share is an intimate knowledge of the underwater environment they tread. It's easy to think of a flat as a long stretch of sand or mud but the feet tell a different story. With feet shuffling along the bottom, waders find shorelines littered with fish attracting structure and characteristics that entice fish to hang around for a meal. Abandoned crab traps, old tires, oyster reefs, marsh grass, sloughs, troughs and depressions, hard bottom, soft bottom and potholes are a few of the puzzle pieces collected from each trip that will eventually reveal where fish are more likely to be found on a particular piece of bayside real estate.

The key element that brings all of the structure pieces into play is the role of tidal currents. During periods of slack and minimal currents, bait fish retreat to structure for safety. Later, when current strength accelerates and the horizontal speed reaches .3 knot, the current has reached its ?forcing power? and hiding bait fish are flushed from structure, congregate and are forced along with the current, becoming easy targets for hungry gamefish. Sometime after reaching its peak speed the current will once again slow below .3 knot and bait fish will retreat to structure until they are forced from hiding once again.

The Wells Daily Fishing Forecast has been used by fishermen on the Gulf Coast since 1957 to choose the best days and times to fish in advance based upon the movement of tidal currents. Along with the current movement daily predictions a Monthly Fishing Calendar is provided to ease in the identification of better fishing days. Days classified in the Wells Daily Fishing Forecast as ?XXX? will most often be days with long and consistently strong current movements.

The days each month that generally have the strongest currents overall are those around the new and full moon. Conversely, the days with the weakest currents overall will be days near the first and last quarter of the moon. These days will have ?Poor? and ?Fair? rated days in the Monthly Fishing Calendar.

A day that has extra strong currents may be rated less than XXX if the current movement occurs before daylight or begins in the very late afternoon when most fishermen have left the water. Days rated as Poor will be the opposite of XXX with often extremely weak current movements, if any, throughout the day. Poor rated days, however, may have a ?good? current at some point during the day, that while good for fishing, is not the predominant type of current pattern of the day overall. That is one important reason why not to dismiss Poor or Fair days as ones where it's not possible to catch fish. It's also an important reason when referring to the Monthly Fishing Calendar to select days to fish, that the current times in the Wells Daily Fishing Forecast be checked. If you plan to fish in the morning on a day rated Good and the reason for the overall Good rating is the afternoon tidal current you may be in for a disappointing morning.

The key to consistent use of the Wells Daily Fishing Forecast is to fish when the currents are moving. To accomplish this, simply plan to fish during the Forecast's ?Start? and ?End? times for a particular current. Fishing when currents are active and baitfish are on the move is the key to fishing success on the Gulf coast.