Is there a pattern to follow???

[cardoc765]

Ok, so I fished 4 days this week. On the last day I got skunk only because the Mrs had a doctor appointment and I couldn't get out till later in the afternoon after the wind started to howl.

However, the first 3 days (starting Tuesday) I fished the Rb and started getting really good strong hits about an hour and a half after the high tide. So trying to see if there is a pattern, I went back the next day with RIP. I was thinking I had time yet before the bite would start and If anything it would be an hour later than the night before. All of a sudden and hour and a half before the top of the tide BAMMMM. That bite resulted in RIP's 32 incher. The 3rd night, right at the top of the tide, another keeper and lots of hits.

So when you look at that, there is no pattern to it. It's seems to be more of you gotta be there to get them when they're hungry.

Any thoughts on this????

[gjb1969]

at this time of the year its a game of chase the bait the bait moves in the fish come in the bait moves on the fish move on all the fish are here to breed bait and bass so its good some days not so others so it can be hit or miss so just go fish thats all u can do i try to fish every other day i think it gives them time ot move in and out so i think it gives u a better chance thats just what i think:fishing: good luck guys

[DarkSkies]

I think if you look at the words you wrote there was sort of a pattern you discovered, Cardoc. You somehow figured it's best for you, back in the bay, to fish near the top of the tide.

You did that by trial and error, and learned at each step along the way by looking at past results.

This spring has been inconsistent for some areas, more consistent for others. Patterns do develop for specific areas, but as we discussed they may only hold for a few days. Then the weather throws a sucker punch and you have to re-dial in the factors.

The historic patterns, fish the outgoing, early spring, have deviated a bit for the bay area this year.

For targeting a tide, the incoming was productive for awhile because the river and feeder creek waters were unseasonally cold. Right now, we're past that stage IMO, and you can start timing a trip to fish the top half or first 2 hours of outgoing.

That will work for the bay in the spring as a general rule, but you have to consider the bait movement as well. In some NY places, the bunker move around in sheltered bays according to the tide, like we talked about. You have to keep that in mind when targeting bass.

For weakfish however, which you'll be hearing about soon, the seasonal pattern that has worked is the change of tides.

For bluefish, sometimes the top of the tide works as well for them.

You also have guys catching larger bass in the ocean unusually early this year, and reports of fish being active under bunker.

If you fish there, you'll see the patterns are quite different and quite often dependent on presence of bait.

I didn't mean to go in so many different directions for your answer, other than to illustrate that there are different patterns depending on where you're fishing. You as a fisheman have to learn to dial into all of them, and you've taken the right steps to do that.

There's also a series of things to think about when fishing rivers and bridges, so you want to learn them as well.

To sum it up, I think you're to be commended for learning one area at a time. Those bay areas now are best fished near the top of the tide. Equal to that is time of day, especially now as there's more boat traffic. If you consistently fish toward the top of he flood, in the bay locations you've fished, in the dark or pre-dawn hours, you should see some consistency. That's a good pattern, for now.

Make sure you mark those observations in your log. Come back in a month and tell us what you've learned. :thumbsup:

[ledhead36]

For targeting a tide, the incoming was productive for awhile because the river and feeder creek waters were unseasonally cold. That will work for the bay in the spring as a general rule, but you have to consider the bait movement as well. In some NY places, the bunker move around in sheltered bays according to the tide, like we talked about. You have to keep that in mind when targeting bass.

Make sure you mark those observations in your log. Come back in a month and tell us what you've learned. :thumbsup:

I think that will be the pattern again this year, according to my logs. Good advice fellas.

[finchaser]

why shoud this year be any different than others, there's always some kind of pattern they feed on.