Article by Dale Timmons
Those of you who live along the Delmarva coast all the time and spend any time around the water have probably noticed that we have been having unusually high tides, beginning in the spring and extending into the summer months. Several times I have noticed water levels up over the docks at the West Ocean City boat ramps, and it has even reached the tops of the finger piers in some of the local marinas. An interesting article by Scott Harper on this subject was published recently in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. The article says that scientists are aware of the high tides along the entire east coast, and especially in the mid-Atlantic area, where “average daily levels are running between 6 inches and 2 feet above predicted norms.” The article quotes scientist John Boon, from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, who said he “suspects the trend could be the beginning of a decade-long phenomenon of high water caused by an El Niño-like effect in the Atlantic.” According to the article, “Boon, a professor emeritus of marine science who has studied tides most of his career, described how Atlantic wind patterns and currents can subtly shift, often without explanation. The shift, in turn, pushes more water onto East Coast beaches, marshes and coastline through higher tides.” The article further states that the extreme tides have occurred before and “can last, on and off, for years at a time before suddenly changing back to normal.” According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in Baltimore in mid-June the agency documented tides two feet above predicted levels.
The article further states that “El Niño occurs every seven or eight years on average, affecting weather patterns along the Pacific Ocean. Similarly on the Atlantic, quirky shifts in atmospheric pressure and winds, known as the North Atlantic Oscillation, contribute to weather variability—and might be at play now, said Larry Atkinson, an oceanographer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.” Atkinson also said these tides “might become the norm in 30 or 40 years due to sea level rise.”
Besides creating problems with your dock lines, extreme high tides can affect fish and fishermen in more ways than you might imagine. It can push bait such as minnows and finger mullet much further up into marshes and creeks than you would normally expect to find them, and sometimes that will mean that predator species such as flounder, trout, puppy drum, etc. will also be “out of place.” Likewise, shallow water “flats” can become much more productive, especially when tide levels never reach their normal depths on low tide. This is especially true with flounder, especially when the water is cool like it has been this summer. Extreme high tides can also affect the salinity of normally brackish water areas, which can be bad for some species in the food chain that rely on lower salt levels to survive. Of course, I guess there could be similar benefits like better “flushing” of some areas, which might help get rid of certain types of algae caused by runoff from lawns, farms, golf courses, etc. One of the biggest dangers of higher than normal tides, of course, would be if a bad storm coincides with a period of high water. This happened with the March storm in 1962. It was bad enough then, when the area wasn’t nearly as populated. I can’t imagine what it will be like the next time…
Another phenomenon that can seriously change fishing productivity is temperature, especially “fingers” of warm or cold water. Last week I asked George Henning, who works at the Ocean City Fishing Center and is an avid ocean flounder fisherman, to try a new rig I have been experimenting with for ocean flounder jigging. George, who fishes with Capt. Monty Hawkins on the “Morning Star”, told me that on the day he used the rigs the flounder had all but shut down. George said the anglers on the boat who were strictly fishing for sea bass were still catching fish, but the bass were extremely cold to the touch when they came up. He said Capt. Monty surmised that cold water had moved into the bottom, even though surface water temps appeared normal. The drop in water temperature apparently caused the flounder to just stop feeding. George said he missed one nice bite that he thinks was a big flounder, and he did catch a 4-pound sea bass on a strip bait meant for fluke, but that even Capt. Monty and other experienced flounder fishermen were skunked on that particular day.
The water on the bottom, of course, is normally colder than surface water, and sometimes after a bad storm or a long period of strong southwest winds, we have what is called a “thermal inversion” and the warm and cold waters kind of flip flop or “turn over.” All over the ocean, however, there are “fingers” of unusually cold or unusually warm water. Many times these fingers break off from either the Gulf Stream or even the cold Labrador Current and travel long distances before they finally dissipate and blend into the surrounding water temperatures. Cold water, of course, usually sinks to the bottom, while warm water rises to the surface. Several years ago, in early August, we had a cold water finger move into the coast. It was during the White Marlin Open, and boat captains coming in from offshore reported a dramatic change and drop in surface temperature beginning several miles off. With the phenomenon, however, came some fantastic striper fishing around the inlet jetties, and we pictured many rockfish in the 40 to 46 inch range, which is definitely unusual in August. I guess the point of all of this is that as a fisherman you have to be aware of what is happening in the marine environment, and take advantage of what Mother Nature happens to be offering at the time…
Many of the successful anglers that I know are regular “stomach lookers.” When they clean their fish, they examine stomach contents to see just what that particular species has been eating, and it may give them a clue as to what bait to use. In the spring, for example, local flounder were full of shrimp, and many anglers scored with artificial Gulp! shrimp. A few weeks back, flounder were stuffed with small crabs, and Capt. Jason Mumford of the “Lucky Break” told me one day his anglers caught three keeper flounder on pieces of the one peeler crab he happened to have on the boat. On the other hand, a lot of other predators eat small flounder. I once saw a striper with 14 small flounder in its stomach, and I have seen them in trout and even cobia. I once watched a 150-pound class bluefin tuna being cleaned that had a stomach full of sea horses, meaning of course that the fish had probably been feeding on the bottom or along a weed line. Another time a big weakfish had a whole small dog shark in its stomach, while a white marlin had a complete skeleton of a baby sailfish and a big bull dolphin had eaten a small white marlin. The list goes on and on—if you aren’t a “stomach looker,” you are missing an interesting and informative aspect of fishing…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
