How to know by reading the weather and tide reports the time and place to go out,

[BenFord]

Hi all,
i see most of the threads have covered equipment, how to rig your gun and so on but i have not come across one that gives an insight to using weather reports and tide and coastal forcast to be able to to tell before you get to the place you intend to hunt that if the sea is slack or kicking up a swell,

so any tips if you guys have them on how to jugde the weather before you get to your hunting place would be most helpful

Thanks Ben.

[deep thinker]

That is probably because most places and tides vary quite a bit, but I have found the following to work well. In Cape Town we are lucky as we have two sides of ocean to dive on any particular day, one being cleaned by a NW wind and the other by a SE.

So the general rule I have here is this, for water to be clean and relatively flat you want winds to blow offshore, from land into the sea, for a few days. This cleans it out nicely but it also tends to make the water cold, causing fish to hole up or go deeper after warmer water, so your better wind needs to go down about a day or so before your dive for everything to settle and the water temps to rise a bit.

On moon phases a few days before and a few days after full moon often works better as tides are too big and water normally too rough on full moon and the day before and after.

Weather wise, its more fun to go out when the sun is shining but just because its raining it dont mean that there wont be any fish about, if you find water to be colder than normal look in holes and caves as the fish in the area will probably be holed up. After big weather when the sea has been churned up good, wait for it to clear and settle down as fish will be feeding on the loose bits from the rough water and make good targets while food is out there as they eat whenever they can...

Hope this helps a bit

[deep thinker]

One more thing on times, a pushing tide I find normally works good, allthough some places you can only dive at low. Other people will prefer hunting a high tide or low tide but that normally depends on what your after. In heavy kelpy areas I prefer high tide as its easier to swim through the kelp
As for times of day, any time is fun to dive but I find more fish activity either relatively early in the morning and early evening a hour or so before sunset, this applies more to very shallow areas I have hunted, depth being anything from half a meter to 2m.
When hunting from a boat very little of the above applies except for what wind cleans and flattens out the water. When on a boat you can drift around anywhere and be able to find fish activity throughout the day as it seems fish in open water act differently than the ones closer to shore...

[spaghetti]

Good stuff Deepthinker: all your infos could as well apply for my mediterranean sea. Wind from land=clear water, moving tide=more fish inshore et cetera.
A curious thing: italian fisherman tell a rhyme about the behaviour of fish related to winds. Pity it will get lost in translation:
Levante pesce tante (strong east wind lots of fish)
Ponente pesce niente (strong west wind no fish)
Scirocco pesce sciocco (warm south wind easy fish)
Tramontana pesce in tana (cold north wind hidden fish)
..same over there?

[deep thinker]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

A curious thing: italian fisherman tell a rhyme about the behaviour of fish related to winds. Pity it will get lost in translation:
Levante pesce tante (strong east wind lots of fish)
Ponente pesce niente (strong west wind no fish)
Scirocco pesce sciocco (warm south wind easy fish)
Tramontana pesce in tana (cold north wind hidden fish)

Here itll be pretty much the same yes except for the following...
Strong east to south east winds fish atlantic side
Strong west to north west winds fish the other side
Atlantic fish are normally lazy and curios so they come to you
While fish in falsebay has more variety and difficult species to hunt that lives in caves or has a tendency to disapear as soon as you see them.

Thats why I say we can hunt all year long, in winter months we hunt falsebay as the prevailing winds clears this area, also the GWS is in deeper water. In summer we hunt the other side of the bay or the atlantic waters cause same thing applies for prevailing winds in summer, allthough you mite find falsebay side clean during summer as well I prefer not to hunt there from the shore during these months as Great Whites tend to move closer to shore during summer while they feed off breeding seal colonies off the islands during winter.

[BenFord]

Cheers guys that a pritty good in sight,

[azapa]

Ben: tell me where you live and Ill send you a killer link (works for me) for ocean predictions in your area. This is me:

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/c...rod=sig_wav_ht
30th paralel, Chile.

I have compared it to what I really see at the beach for 3 months now and has always been on the spot. Those "gringos" seem to have the resources to do this stuff very well

[deep thinker]

Id also like that link mate, it never hurts to have all the possible info at your disposal. Cape town and surrounding areas will fall in the same link?

[BenFord]

i live in the isle of wight, england azapa,
cheers dude

[azapa]

Originally Posted by deep thinker

Id also like that link mate, it never hurts to have all the possible info at your disposal. Cape town and surrounding areas will fall in the same link?

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/c...rod=swl_wav_ht

try that, or nav around on that home page.

Blue, green (s) and light yellow for me is OK, dark yellow, oranges and reds, stay at home...

Let us know if it matches with reality.

[azapa]

Originally Posted by BenFord

i live in the isle of wight, england azapa,
cheers dude

Ben

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/c...rod=sig_wav_ht

but I'm sorry to say that the Isle of Wight, indeed the English channel, does not show to well. I feel these charts reflect more clearly on more open coastlines..

[BenFord]

thanks azapa,

[Spaniard]

I have noted with interest that although in UK waters I was always encouraged to fish for Bass on a rising tide, in Guernsey my friends will enter the water at the very lowest tides. Horses for courses! It is very interesting to note that even with one species, for example bass, in UK waters people target them in very different conditions. For example, in the South East, Brighton Bognor etc. etc. you can catch big bass in 'holes'. If you venture further South West, towards Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, you tend to catch Bass in 'open' water. Why is this? I'd love to know. Having said that, the current UK Bass record was caught, supposedly, in a sunken barge in Portland which goes against the grain? Just like women they are there to confuse us but forever entice us!

[BenFord]

lol, your not wrong there.
its seems that way here over bembridge it's better on a rising tide in sandown its better at high tide and at blackgang its better at dusk over to the needles and the west of the island i have not seen anything worth shooting at some point ive been told of a wreck which can be seen at low tide over compton way which should be intresting

[Mr. X]

Great question Ben. I am curious about his myself, having driven a long way to the coast to find awful conditions several times when I started out. I have learnt a little and it has helped a lot-- and am happy to share that. As you live on the coast, my advice might be less useful. Here is a rough guide that may seem obvious (or wrong - if so, please correct me) to some:

Wind is bad:
Wind is the main indicator for me. Wind effects visibility in the water a lot. If there is not much wind, everything else normally falls into place (at least it has for me this year).
- Low winds are good (much more than 10mph, I usually don't bother*)
- Direction: Winds from the land (north, NW, NE) are good, winds from the sea bad.*
I'm told that a lot of wind on preceding days can be bad -- but I don't worry about that too much. DeeperBlue forums will usually warn if viz is chronically bad.

*.. but check frequently as wind forecasts change both size & direction frequently. I use the BBC.co.uk weather as a rough guide ( BBC - Weather Centre - 5 Day Forecast in Celsius for Swanage, United Kingdom ) but this site: GB Wind Map is far better. If the BBC forecast is bad, check this site -- maybe the bad wind is later in the day. Coastal areas often have a micro-climate, so unless the forecast is really bad, it might be worth taking the risk. I've salvaged several perfectly good fishing days despite initially poor forecasts.

Rain:
I hardly notice a light drizzle when diving but obviously heavy rain could be an issue. Heavy rains in preceding days cause run off which will mess up visibility -- but I normally don't worry about that too much (it probably effects some areas much more than others). DeeperBlue is often a good source of info. on viz -- although it can vary from place to place and hour to hour.

Sun
I don't even consider it.

Tides:
Some say all states are good. I normally fish small bays and I prefer an incoming tide.
- Start, end or middle of an incoming tide - all have been good for me.
- High tide has been good for me - mullet patrol the shallows looking for food.
- Low tide. Two of my best days fishing were in the long double low tide that are normal in Dorset east of Portland - both in the middle of the day. I only realised this when updating my fishing log this week -- must see if I can reproduce this, as I normally try to miss the low tide (but its hard to miss completely).
- Falling tide. I don't recall fishing a falling tide -- maybe I should try it. They say headlands are good on a falling tide.

The Guernsey spearos have loads of experience and some interesting ideas about tides. I need to go back re-read it myself. I think low tides make it easier to dive for flatties (is that right?) and certainly for scallops (& I think Pav said for lobsters & crab - although I got most of my crabs at/near high tide from a reef).

Swells
Big swells make me sick in the water but it seems like you can find shelter from them (for us, Chesil Beach recently provided that much needed shelter for the coast east of there). Some folk swear by the magic seaweed surfing website. I used it a couple of times but really haven't got to grips with it & so no longer use it. Too much info. (On the other hand, Flyflicker provided local swell info. on DeeperBlue one weekend this Summer that helped saved the day for me, and probably others).

Long Term forecast
If you are going away for a week or two, the BBC forecast is useless. Try this site instead: uk.weather.com - Local Weather (the long range farming forecast on BBC's Country File program is quite good).


BTW Do you get the weird double length low tides on the Isle of Wight that occur on much of the Dorset coast. I heard it said that the Isle of Wight causes it but I suspect Chesil is partially responsible (as it only occurs east of there).