Tide fishing help

[jrbdad]

I am new to bass fishing and have ZERO experience with fishing tidal waters.

For James/Chick when should I be looking to fish? High tide, Falling?

Wanting to take my son fishing Saturday morning. Chesdin has not been good to use so I want to try creeks on James.

Saturday has a high tide at 8am. Was thinking that would be good morning to fish river. ?????

My son ( 12 years old ) has been out fishing on our new boat 3 times and hasn't caught a fish from it yet. He is getting discouraged. But most of the time we go in less then prefered conditions.


As always, thank you for the help

[booter]

This Saturday would not be a good time to go out on the Chick/James with the Priority tournament going on and you might be better off going to Chick Lake or fish near the dam on Chick River. Usually going from high to low tide is better for the bites, but it all depends.

[jrbdad]

I forgot about the tournament. Might have to rethink that. Maybe just go to Chesdin.

[Fishing Addict]

Chesdin can be a finicky beast too. Lots of weekend boat traffic to contend with as well.

The large majority of the Priority guys will likely be down below the Benjamin Harris bridge. Still leaves plenty of places to fish in the James/Appomattox area.

[jrbdad]

Was originally going to try and fish Weyanoke and Herring creeks.

[JINXBASS]

As a general rule outgoing tide is best. Also in my opinion a tidal river is all about spots where as a pattern is perfered in the lakes. Don't forget about the pamunkey and mattaponi rivers as well. Both are decent fisheries.

[billnorman1]

If there is a tournament on those waters, just wait until about 11 O'clock and launch. Most fishing tournaments are first light launch, which would place them over at about 12:30 or 1 O'clock. Not set by the Gifted and Talented squad. Your low tide, at which time the fishing should be the best should occur at about 2 PM, and you should have the water all to yourself. Low outgoing, turnaround and the first hour or so of incoming usually are best.

[DvKing]

Hello fellow VA anglers. Been looking for another reason to sign up, besides wanting to see the pictures that don't show.

JRBdad, Don't sweat the Priority tournament. Go fish. They take off at 6am from Osborne, so by 6:30-6:45 everyone will have buzzed down river. More than half of them will be way down river. I'm struggling with the bass in the hot water, but I have been catching lots of fish that have overtaken some good bass structure. Took my son out last weekend out of Hopewell. Stayed in the shade of the bridge for hours. Lots of fish holding around and under he RT. 10 bridge supports. It was almost low tide and I idled past all of them using side scan. Lots of fish, but they were stripers and catfish. They were hammering a 4" paddle tail swimbait on 1/8 and 1/4 oz heads. Since tide was going out, and almost low, we were pitching under/thru the supports. Letting the bait freefall, then a slow wind. Many were hitting on the fall. Catfish were hammering it We got tired f getting slimed and chewed up baits. The stripers fought well and were a blast. If you are interested in trying that, I think we can send a personal message here and I will tell you the two sets of supports that hold the most fish and something about the wooden channel buffers.

Also there is colony of fish that have taken over a spot in the barge pit. If you know how to safely get in there, and if your son would like to catch some freckle on a 1/16 or 1/8 ounce head and 2"-3" grubs, I will tell you exactly the piece of structure they are hanging around. Tomorrow mornings rising tide is the perfect set up for that spot.

We may be out there tomorrow morning too.

Dave

[jrbdad]

Well went fishing on Jams Saturday morning. My son was unable to go.
We picked him up Friday after being away at camp for the week. We'll after dinner he wasn't feeling well and was up most of the night in bathroom. So going fishing was not an option for him. He was disappointed.

I however had a decent morning caught 6 bass fish
Mostly small. But learned some more about river and got some stuff done at home in afternoon.