Perfect Fishing Moments: Your Friendly Guide to Saltwater and Freshwater Adventures

The ideal fishing times can differ significantly, particularly based on whether you’re fishing in saltwater or freshwater. Whichever type of fishing you prefer, check out our Fishing Tips: Freshwater & Saltwater Fish for some helpful insights. Before delving into specifics, let’s start with a general observation: fish in almost every location tend to be most active around sunrise and sunset. These transitional periods of changing light levels commonly stimulate feeding behavior in various predatory fish species.

Best Time for Saltwater Fishing
Saltwater fishing will be affected by countless variables, but the major ones are:

– Weather
– Tides and Currents
– Light Levels

Weather:

The weather has multifaceted effects on saltwater fishing. Wind, for instance, can influence bait movement along the shoreline, create natural noise cover for anglers, or stir up certain areas, affecting visibility. Cloud cover also plays a significant role, impacting light levels which, in turn, affect fish behavior. Moreover, changes in water temperature due to weather patterns can influence fish activity, with feeding often increasing before a cold front but slowing down during and after storms.

Tides and Currents:

Tides and currents profoundly influence fishing success in saltwater environments. They alter water levels, transforming fishing spots from productive areas to barren ones and vice versa. Generally, fishing is most productive during changing tides and active currents, while static or “dead” tides with minimal water movement typically result in slower fishing.

Light Levels:

The changing light conditions during sunrise and sunset are prime times for fishing, as they can affect the ability of prey to detect and evade predators. However, factors like cloud cover and rainfall also influence light levels and fish behavior. Additionally, light conditions determine the effectiveness of lure colors, with anglers often matching lure colors to water clarity and sunlight intensity for better results.

Understanding how fish respond to these variables, and tracking their behavioral patterns over time, is a key aspect of successful fishing. While it may seem challenging, adapting to changing conditions and experimenting with different techniques can lead to rewarding experiences on the water.

Best Time for Freshwater Fishing

Since there aren’t tides in freshwater lakes and rivers we can remove this variable from the equation. However, there still may be currents to deal with. So the major issues to consider as you choose the best time to go freshwater fishing include:

Weather
Currents
Light Levels
Weather

The weather impacts freshwater fishing much as it does in saltwater environments. Wind can still push bait one way or another, waves still creates noise and can churn the water, and clouds still affect light levels. However, the effect of fronts and changes in barometric pressure are often much more pronounced.

Rain (or a lack thereof) also has a bigger impact, since it can have a huge effect on water levels in lakes and ponds, and lots of runoff can roil streams and rivers. When choosing a time to go fishing it can even eliminate some options, as rivers that would otherwise be great for fishing are turned into muddy torrents. A light rain, however, can help you hide from the fish since the rain breaks up the view that the fish has through the water’s surface. This is true whether shore, wade or boat fishing. Rain also washes insects and bait into the water, with this extra food creating a feeding binge for freshwater fish.

Currents

Currents in freshwater vary quite a bit depending on if you’re fishing in a moving body of water like a river, or one that’s more or less still like a pond or lake. As a general rule of thumb interruptions in a moving current (like an eddy in a river) are good spots to fish, while areas of current in bodies of water that don’t have much movement (like around a spillway drain near a dam) are often hotspots. As you decide when to fish, remember that the wind can create currents in bodies of water that usually don’t have them and you can use this knowledge to your advantage as you choose where and when to fish.

Light Levels

The position of the sun and cloud cover have similar effects in freshwater as they do in saltwater. There’s one more significant variable to consider in freshwater though, and that’s shade. Quite often on sunny days freshwater fish look for shaded areas, whether it’s under a dock, a fallen tree, or branches that overhand the water.

When To Fish?
Taking all these different factors into consideration, you’ll probably still be asking yourself when to fish. There are so many variables coming into play that the decision can be a tough one. But we do have a simple answer that trumps all else: go fishing whenever your schedule allows. Sure, you’ll probably catch more fish at daybreak and sunset. Yes, you’ll have better success if you time your fishing with the ideal weather and the peak tides. But the truth of the matter is that everyone has hectic schedules, a list of commitments, and limited time. So fish whenever you can fish—and always remember that time-honored saying, the worst day of fishing is better than the best day of work.