understanding the tides

as a result of recent safety concerns and near misses by anglers ive decided to post this for those who dont quite understand the tidal cycle fully..now some fellow anglers will know the following but many will not...keeping it simple,we all know its roughly 6 hrs to fill and 6hrs to empty give or take, depending on weather and lunar variations,but its the flow rate which needs to known by anglers to ensure their safety.the tidal flow rate is divided into 1/12 over the whole cycle.. ie 1st hour 1/12. 2nd hour 2/12.3rd hour 3/12. 4th hour 3/12. 5th hour 2/12. 6th and last hour to hw 1/12. as you can see from the above figures half of the whole cycle comes in in just 2hrs,this is where anglers misjudge the incoming tide and get caught out,hours 3 and 4 are the most critical in terms of safety,its easy to think its advancing at roughly the same flow rate over the whole tide,and if anyone tries to gague the rate not knowing these figures it could spell disaster.estuarys are a particular danger the larger river fed ones being the most dangerous,as the tide advances it must be remembered the estuary is now being filled from both ends,the incoming tide often splits the incoming river sending fresh water channels down both sides of the estuary causing backfilling,the ankle deep water you waded through earlier is now waist deep.the chinese cockle pickers in morecambe a notable reminder. remember you have a couple of rods a beta box, tripod, bait buckets and waders on,and coupled with increased volume and knot rate is now a death trap,keep the above figures in mind at all times, never go fishing without consulting the weather forecast or reading the tide table for that particular day,it might just save your life.........sean

Good post!

yes a very good post which was very informative we went fishing 3 times last week two of the days flat calm the 3rd day we could bearly get out of the harbour because of the swell this was in light winds but also between 3rd and 4th hour race was very strong

Great post very interesting about the 3rd and 4th hours never knew that

Hey shamieboy, thanks for this post. Could you please write a few more words about 'slack water' in this context?

...all we need do now, is predict which is the most productive hour for fishing!!

Good post, many thanks.

most excellent report, more info for people please if you can, this also helps people watching the tide dropping for when to dig at the earliest.
nice one shamieboy.

Here's a couple of tidal graphs taken from a Belfield tide plotter showing the amount of movement over 1 day, depending on the locality there is some variation on the rates of rise and fall so it's always best to seek local knowledge.

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http://easytide.ukho.gov.uk/EASYTIDE/Ea ... onLength=1