Tides on the gulf coast

Tides on the Gulf coast, OK well, lets start with, Dorothy you anit in kansas any more.
On the Atlantic you have 4 tides a day Lets call it – high – Low – high – Low about 6 hours apart you can get a clock to show you the tides. The only way a tide clock works here is you can hang it over the canal when it is wet the tide is high when it is dry the tide is low.

I am not really sure, and can find no proper explanation. It seems that the tides hit the gulf & slosh back & forth.

On the west coast here you can have 1,2,3,4,5, tide changes a day none and 6 are possible but I have not seen that yet.

  Here you can see the 1st & 2nd of Jan. there are 4 tides that day. On the 3rd there is 2 tides. on the 6th there is 3 tides.

This is the most important rule to know when learning tides here. It makes no sense, there is no pattern, you can not figure it out. read the chart it is what it is. unless you were locked in a government basement room for 40 years with a slide ruler, abacus, and a super computer no human can understand this.

Once you know it makes no sense you can begin to understand how to read it. Start with just like a book. readleft to right notice on Jan 1st the first tide is a low tide at 3:17 am then in oder to the last tide at 8:40 pm then go to the next day.
same for the 2nd but the 3rd there is only 2 tide changes that day low at 5:39 in the morning, then incoming all day until the high at 10:06 that night. the next tide change is on the 4th the next day at 6:37 am . now you begin to see if you try to find a pattern you will never understand, it is what it is.

Punta Gorda, Charlotte Harbor, Florida
January 2012

  The next thing you need to know is what the other numbers are look above at the 31st. 0.03 for the low this means the water will be lower than a normal low tide which is 0.0 or MLLW = mean, lower, low water. 0.0 is what all water “maps ” charts are done to show the depths so if your chart say there is 8 feet of water and you are looking at the tide chart for Jan 31st at 8:16 pm there will really be 9.52 feet of water there. starting to understand?

What i mean to say is that High or low only refers to how much or how little water you are going to get for that time. it does NOT mean you will have High or LOW water levels. If the moring high is a 1.1 then a low of 1.0 them a high of 1.7 then a low of 1.3 the last low was really higher than the first high that day.

anything under a 0.0 is low anything over a 1.5 is high. that is my rule of thumb that I go by.

asking when the high tide is really does not mean much, with out asking what the water level will be. the best fishing is usually the last half of the incoming and the first half of the out going.

Here water movment is crititcal to catching fish, the better the movment the better the fishing So look for the most differance between the level numbers a 0.1 to a 2.2 is a lot of water and it will be moving good. a 1.1 to a 1.2 over 6 hours means ??? yup it will pretty much be standing still for that time.

As a rule we exchange about 2 feet of water per 24 hour period, that is an average, sometimes a little in the am and a little at night. other days it floods in and out.

I hope this helps a little

Frank