Shore, boat or pond

I am more for saltwater rather that freshwater fishing. Basically it is because of the species is wider at most of the place, the fight better and it serve well on the dinner table. Sorry to say, I am not much to catch and release enthusiast.

On my early days, I had encountered with various and countless dissappointment. Most of the time, I know that the fish is there but it does not seems to have appetite to my serving. Even paid pond have it bad days.

On scale, I would choose to the natural habitat rather than man-made. The idea that I wanted to share here is when is which. The joy of cathcing a fish is very match to the dissappointment of spending hours to nothingness.

Sea always have fish. Let us do the basic first. When do we get ourselves on the boat and when to stay inshore. Frankly, whenever that is good on the boat is good inshore and vise versa. This is because it is all about the current... especially when you are doing the most common method of bottom fishing. Bottom fishing basics is simple, get your bait to the bottom or seabed. It is not really enjoyable to fish with weight to size of your fist and have to use heavy duty equipment for a couple ounces of fish. So, watch the current.

The easiest way is to follow the moon cycle. Full moon or no moon means high tide. High tide mean differences of lowest level of water level to the highest level is the greatest. Imagine a pale of water.. better yet your baby bathtub or your own tub. Put the water to half. Imagine that that is the amount of sea water in the world. Tilt it to one side and the water would flow to the other side. Put time constant on it. The faster you tilt it, the faster the water flows. Means, the bigger the difference of level over the same time would mean the greater the current. Narrow the middle section of the tub (imaginary). Now you have a smaller passage. That would be the straits current. It is even greater flow if you are fishing on the straits or channels. Don't get me wrong, the fish is still out there. It is just much greater challenge to get it and often dissappointing. Soft bait would easily stripped off the hook. You will fish blindly. Fish is not dumb to take just the plain hook. Fish bite is hardly detectable mostly because of the enormous weight that you have to put up with. Fish usually does not bite when the sea is currentless. They are resting maybe.

How do you keep track of the moon phase then? Easiest way is to have either islamic or chinese calendar with you. This is because those two calendars are moon base. 1st to 6th is the beginning of new moon, not good. 7th to 12th is good. Don't think of 13th to 17th for that is full moon. Again on 23rd onwards to forget about bottom fishing. Bare in mind that it is only either 29 or 30 days a month in these calendar. You could still do top water technique though. In fact, it is the most efficient time for trolling on the high tide days. We will discuss about that later.

So you got your days to be near see. Keep it in your wallet. If you still want to fish on the 'high current' days, do topwater techniques or just go to your nearest pond.