Does anyone know when during the tidal stage that salmon or steelhead would prefer to move into a river. I am fishing on the Olympic peninsula starting tommarrow and notice that the low tide for tommarrow is at 8:30 in the morning. Are the fish going to enter the river as the tide starts to move towards high? or do they move on the high as the tide begins to drop? do fish move in and out of tide water if the river is to low coming in on the high and just going back out as it drops? just some food for thought.
Thanks

The higher the tide the more fish are likely to appear! 2 hrs before thru 2 hours after is a good rule. But fish vary.

Bob D

Bob D,

I don't understand yer reply. Is that two hours before/after high tide? Or low tide?

I know that the few rivers where I've noticed a relation to tide it seemed like the fish came in on the incoming tide, with the bulk of em coming in at low slack to a couple of hours after. Not a hard and fast rule but a strong trend.

Anyone else have any knowledge of this?

I seem to remember an article in STS that said that fish (Salmon? can't remember) travel an average of four miles an hour and that if you can calculate how many river miles from the mouth you can pretty ell figure when the fish will get there.

Would appreciate hearing other peoples experience/theories.

Sincerely,
Roger

i got to play the tide game this weekend and bob d was right and the fish did move in as the tide reached high, and it was a big tide to help the fish get that extra push.

I know that on the coastal streams high tide is it. Especially when the difference between low and high tide is 1' deep and 8' deep.

Fished all morning two weekends ago without a bite and with high tide at 12:30pm the fish started moving in. What a blast it was from then on...