How to Find & Catch Bass on Tidal Fisheries!

In this episode, I sit down with pro anglers Bryant Smith and Pete Gluszek to break down one of the most confusing and rewarding ways to catch bass: fishing tidal fisheries. If you’ve ever struggled to understand tides, current, water movement, grass, bait positioning, and how bass set up on tidal rivers and tidal systems, this conversation is packed with bass fishing tips that will help you catch more fish.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

All right. Welcome to the Sears Angler Podcast, everyone. As always, our main course for you be talking and hopefully teaching you more about bass fishing. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Igbrett, and joined with me is Idaho's finest, Mr. Adam Deakin. Uh Deke, what's going on, homie? Happy fourth.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Happy fourth. Yeah. Yeah, man. America 250. Love it. You have a good fourth? Dude, it was pretty quiet.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

We didn't have like any like big plans, like friends that were having like big parties or anything like that. And obviously, as you know, trying to fish on the fourth weekend is a nightmare. And if you want to die, it's a great way to go out. So it's like it's just a terrible effort. So many boats out, you know, and it's just like becomes more of a pain than enjoyment on the fourth weekend. At least personally speaking, I'm not trying to make it sound like doom and gloom. It's it's not. It's just like if you want enjoyment, go sit at a boat ramp and just watch the boat ramp on the fourth, and you'll have a lot of entertainment.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Uh cooler and just watch it.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

Yes. Yes. Um, so we didn't, I didn't go out and fish at all. Um, but uh we went into my in-laws place, had some dinner, relaxed for a while, and then uh we kind of just had a chill, chill night at the house, dude. We just tried our best to watch uh watch a movie over the fireworks and didn't really care to go watch out some fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Like dude. I I have been anti-firework, I feel like the last three years.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

I just don't like the excitement anymore. I mean, I'm I'm all like you know, Merca, like send it, baby. Like, go blow some shit up, but like I just don't really like I'm not gonna go drive 30 minutes to go watch some things.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

It's sit in traffic to watch watch a firework show and then yeah, dude. I'm I'm a yeah, like as a kid, most fun thing ever. I used to love lighting fireworks off. I totally get it, right? Like, I'm not saying don't take that away from childhood, like that was some of the most fun that that uh a you know kid growing up can have. But now, dude, I am normal, I was in bed as they were like starting to launch fireworks, you know what I mean? Like we got dark, we were too.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

We were like, son of a bitch, just getting obnoxious. Exactly. But we were good with it, we're like, we're fine with it because obviously it's it was the fourth. Like, we're not gonna ever argue fireworks on the fourth. Like, no. Um, what was dude? I was like, I was talking to my wife last night. I'm like, am I entering the old man stage of life when I'm like, I almost felt like the get off my lawn kind of old guy. Like last night, it was Sunday night, dude. And it's like 10:30, and there's still rip in fireworks, and I'm like on a Sunday, I'm like, people have to work tomorrow. I'm like, damn, maybe I'm getting old.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

Am I becoming a boomer? I'm just like that's right.

SPEAKER_04 3:05

I was like, holy Moses, but uh we didn't get to see a bunch of fireworks from the house, which was nice. We didn't have to leave, so it's but nice, yeah. Nothing, nothing crazy, pretty mellow. That looks like uh you at least got to get out and do some river floating, it looked like we did, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Uh I need to bring a rod on this section of the river. We have this sneaky float that is way less crowded, like so in Boise, right? Like the Boise River runs through town, super busy on the fourth, crazy. You've got college kids, you've got the whole city floating through that, which is like fun, but like a lot. So we have this section that's sneaky that our friend group has been going to the last they they found it before I was even here, like four or five years. And there's there's not nearly as many people, like we saw a handful of people, right? So it's just fun, easy float, uh, just a good time to hang out with a bunch of people, say hello, and otherwise. But like there's some smallmouth on that section, I am convinced. And every year, the more I'm just like, you know, it's fun to sit in a tube, have a couple of beverages, but I'm like, man, I I need to start bringing a rod on some of these sections. Um, I think that there's I think that there's some smallmouth in in some of these little, you know, current breaks and back eddies and different things. And so, anyways, fun time, great, great time. I've been watching a lot of the soccer man. I'm not never been a soccer fan. I don't know what the World Cup has done in the US, but I've been fired up about it. So uh that has been another thing I've been doing and excited for some more of that this week. Dang.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

I I have I have zero. Who's who are the what are the teams left? U.S.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

is still in, dude.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

I know the US is in. That's all I know.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

US US versus Belgium today for the I guess it'd be the round of 16. Okay. Um, so we'd make the quarters if we win today.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

I thought it already was quarters.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

No, some of the some of the teams have been determined. So you had Mexico versus London last night, or the UK and so England. That's the one. That's the one. That's the one. So, anyways, they won. So, so they they have advanced, but you uh yeah, there's still a couple more games to have all the quarters figured out. And so, yeah, the US has to win against Belgium to then play the next one.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

Okay. How many more rounds are there? It's a quarter semi-final, is that how it goes?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, you got it. Yep. So it's like finishing right now the to determine the quarters, and then yeah, quarter semi-finals.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

As you can tell, I've paid zero attention to World Cup besides what Pat McAfee has put out about soccer, but all I've consumed. So I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

I just love how the country has so much economic impact with this. I think it's really cool that you have all these other countries watching these games all across North America, not just the U.S., but I think it's unbelievable to show the event. I just thought of another news piece that I will include. But anyways.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Well, we might as well jump right into it because we've been we have quite a long intro for today.

SPEAKER_04 6:17

Sorry, folks, we're just we're rambling. That's how our intros go here at Sirius Angler, but uh rabbit holes. So, what's been the buzz around the industry now that we are literally one week out from iCast week?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, man. So business from the bass boat section brought to you by our friends over at Rec Lending. Go and chat with them if you are in the market for looking at some lending options with a boat or another recreational type vehicle. Yeah, so I mean, the biggest thing is just a lot of, and I mean a lot of of iCast stuff, right? I mean, we're a week out at this point, so you're seeing Diowa, you're seeing Okuma talking about special releases for um, you know, 60th, 40th anniversary, which is like it's cool to me. I mean, you think about our sport, our game, some of these brands that have been names that have been around for a long time. It's I think it's a really neat thing, um, you know, hearing those numbers. And it also makes me think about how young we really are, too. Like a 60-year-old brand, 40-year-old brand, like it's a long time, don't get me wrong, but like you think of other sports and other things, and it's like, wow, you know, like fishing and fishing competitively hasn't been around all that long. Fishing's been around for a very long time, yeah, but not necessarily uh, you know, what we've turned it into over the years. So uh cool to see some of that stuff. But our our friend man over uh Andrew Hayes over at Tackle Talk is putting together some really neat things. Go follow his stuff for iCast updates because we're not keeping track like that.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

He's very on top of it. Uh we could we could try. We have no time to stay on top as well as he is. So yeah, go follow our boy Hayes over at Tackle Talk. He's the synopsis is there's they're on to their 300th Diawazillion at this point. I don't know what's new about it, but Andrew's gonna be way better at telling you what's new. New lose reels, new uh a lot of new creature style baits, fuzzy baits, so on and so forth. But we could sit here and try to tell you what's new, but we're just being real. Our boy is better at doing that. So shout out to uh shout out to Hazy uh with Tackle Talk. We'll see him next week at iCast too. But uh yeah, well said.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, man. Um but yeah, man, outside of that, I think uh NPFL win, Greg Vinson. Yeah, uh, you want to talk about that at all?

SPEAKER_04 8:48

No, the old drop shot adds one back to back to the list. That's he's mentioned most all of his fish came on the old drop shot, which I can't remember the last tournament non-smalmouth that was one on a drop shot. No, at least pre-scope anyway, which obviously they didn't have scope for the MPFL, but Greg Venton's a good dude. Met him actually land last year's iCast. Um he's a West Is he a West Coast guy?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Is he Arizona? Greg Fantasy. Uh now I feel bad. I don't know. Uh I thought he was like I can't remember. I don't know why I felt like he was an Arizona guy, but I could be wrong. It says Alabama. Well then ignore me. West Coast. I bet not. Nope. From Alabama, Alabama native.

SPEAKER_04 9:43

Well, I'm just an idiot.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Sorry, Greg.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

Either way, congrats on the win, man.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

That was that awesome. Always drop shot, just gets bit. Grindy time of the year always gets bit.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

All right, you said you had one more thing for Business and the Bass Boat.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, man. Uh, this just got released. Our friends over at the World Bass Enterprises, uh, the WBE, you know, the big pro event that's gonna happen at the end of the year. Yeah, that's the one. Uh, this got released June 30th article from World Bass Enterprises. Riley Green is going to headline the WBE Concert 250 at the championship. So, in uh during their championship, October 30th, at the pinnacle in Nashville, Riley Green is going to play, which is that's I mean, dude, that's big time.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

That's the most girls we're ever gonna see at a bass fishing tournament.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

I mean, am I wrong? No, no, you're not hey WBE, they're growing the sport, baby.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

They're growing the sport. You know what? We've been looking at trying to grow this side of the sport. We need to grow the whole sport.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

That's we need more women in this sport. Let's get Riley Green.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Oh, that's so funny. That is cool though. That is freaking sick. Uh, love his music, and that's like they literally mentioned they're gonna have an A-list name.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

So there you go. That's his that's his A-list as it gets right now, man. You know what I mean? Popularity level, that's that's awesome. Yeah, that's pretty sick.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

But looking forward to that one. Um, and it seems like they just they they partnered with what uh Randy Moss a little bit ago as well. Um, and it just seems like they're just adding more pieces to make this thing pretty special. But uh pretty dang sick. But yeah, dude, beyond that, make sure you guys are uh tuning into Omni Officiing and the new arrivals page, especially now this time of year more than ever, with all the new iCast baits and things like that that get launched and released and become available to the public. Make sure you guys are refreshing that every single day. Use our code series 10, save 10% off. Uh, but we have we've we we we're like 20 minutes into our intro right now. We have not even mentioned what our show is gonna be about today. Um they can obviously tell by the title and everything, so I apologize, guys. This is a wild week for us. Um we were talking title fisheries. We had somebody actually ask us and request us and say, I want to know more about how to fish a title fishery. And so we went and uh got you two guys, two hammers. Um we got Mr. Bryant Smith to represent the West Coast, Mr. Pete Glusick from the Bass University to represent the East Coast. Um, so talking like James River, Potomac, Delaware River, all that jazz, and they talk about the contrasts and the similarities um and how to understand and break down both in very um terms that are very easy to understand for simple minds like myself. So was that's very good. Um but uh Deke, anything to add on that?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah, yeah, I think the biggest thing, guys, is if you have other recommendations like this, we've recently have kind of had a really good um slew of rec recommendations from people on show ideas, ask some more of these. And and we'd love to uh hear what you want to see. I think it's some great ideas. We are always show planning and thinking about what to do next. So any uh recommendations that something you want to hear, let us know, and we'll do our best to get someone on to uh you know show the showcase the best.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Yeah. Especially these panel shows. The panel shows I freaking I love putting them together. It takes a lot more planning, obviously, because you're scheduling multiple people, putting multiple pieces of content together. But that's stuff you guys like to see more than and listen to more than the others, like Deke said, let a rip. But uh Deke, I think we rambled on long enough for this week. Um, so I guess for uh the folks next week, Deke and I will be at iCast. We'll have probably a more less professional audio, but a show for you guys while we're on site at iCast, letting you guys know what we've seen that have caught our eye that's actually worth looking at, because obviously you're gonna see a lot of fuzz and other things, quote unquote, new next week at iCast. Um, so yeah, you'll have that for next week. A new real biology, hopefully, for Monday. But uh Deke, I think without further ado, let's get into our first guest for the show, Mr. Bryant Smith. Let's do it. All right, folks, we are joined by No Stranger the Show and no stranger to the podcasting world, and really no stranger to any part of the country because you're you're derbined just about every freaking state, it seems at this point, Bryant. But uh it's good to get you back on the show, pal.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. It's nice to have uh a little time off to do some of these because the last well, what month is it? Oh, it's July. The last six yeah, hi, July. Uh the last six months have been pretty crazy. Welcome to Q3. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

I had the same thing this morning, woke up and was doing the whole coffee and email thing, and I look at it, and I'm like, oh, I have a notification for my calendar, and I look at it, and I was like, oh, it says do Q3 analytics. Ah, son of a it's already Q3. Here we go. Yep. So what's is champ next for you then, or do you got some before then?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Uh we got the Super 60 on the Columbia River out of Tri-Cities first, and then I think I'm home for a day or two, and then off to Champlain.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

So, do you just have excuse my rabbit hole? We're gonna be talking tidal fisheries today, I promise. But uh do you have like a a West Coast tackle and an east coast tackle? Like, how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah, I do, and it's it's probably the most infuriating thing about fishing on the west coast is knowing what's sitting in my boat on the east coast and not having any of it. Like I divided, I divided every like the past two seasons I've done this. I sit there, I empty everything out onto the garage floor, and I put six things on the Elite Series side and like a half a thing on the West Coast side, and I do that for everything. So I have for every six crankbaits, you know, six XDs I have in my other boat on the East Coast, I have one on my West Coast, but it goes for all of weights, baits, everything. So I'm always the guy mooching off of everybody. Um and I feel terrible for it.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Hey boomer. Uh hey Deegan, you you got uh you got any more of those baits?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Dude, uh Tyler Madden did not make the final day at Brownlee, and so he and his dad spent the whole day. He didn't fly out of Boise until late, but he and his dad spent the whole day, so he runs his boat in Texas, and then he has his dad's boat who guides on the Delta here, and they went to Shields and bought a bajillion 3700 boxes and basically took all the stuff that like JD needs for guiding on the Delta, uh, and they're like, okay, here's your whatever boxes, and then everything else for Tyler for when he comes back to fish a tournament on the West Coast, and so that they can just like switch in and out of stuff. But I was like, man, I would love to have a day of just organization like that. My life is such a mess right now. I I need some of that action in my life.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

It is it is therapeutic, it really is. Um, it's nice to just see everything spread out, have your eyes on absolutely everything that you own, and then just start over. And like I always everything always changes too. Like, I'm like, ah, that's not the right tackle box for that. So I go down that rabbit hole, and then uh I think I'm gonna put all these baits in this bag, and then I'm gonna separate them here and separate them there. But it's it's probably a three or four day process, but it is I I enjoy it. I always love tackle organization, it's so nice.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

I enjoy it in the winter time when I can't be out fishing, but if I'm sacrificing a day where I could be fishing, it's kind of what becomes one of my pet peeves, especially like when you talk about the box, like I get a box perfectly set up, you know, write the label on it and everything, and then I realize a better setup for it. And that's a pet peeve of like, ah, I just freaking wrote the damn label on it, so I gotta redo it, and yeah, that becomes a whole whole ordeal. But dude, I wish fishing caddies were a thing. I wish there's some somebody you could entrust.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

I was like, I need somebody measuring my fish and retying my drop shot, and I will be so happy.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

There you go, implement it.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Spam tour first first league with fishing caddies, and it's gonna be like a like a competitive caddy, right? Like who can measure the fastest and take the pictures? Like that's it's gonna be like guys with quick hands, you know, draft picks on some caddies.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

I got George today, we're good.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Fastest gamershots in the West.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

Oh, that's good. Well, dude, uh, appreciate the time as always, and we're gonna be talking and breaking down this whole show is about title. And so the the back half of the show will have somebody from the east coast to break down the whole the eastern seaboard's a whole different uh beast when it comes to tidal fishers, but we f we could not neglect the Delta, which is obviously a major player in the bass fishing world. So uh we would love to approach this from an understanding because for for folks like myself that I I mean still have yet to experience tidal is like understanding windows to fish, understanding like you even down to the smallest uh realm of like what apps do I freaking use to even know like what's high tide, what's low tide, what's the better tide, so on and so forth. But I guess to start is and just in layman's terms on on tidal fisheries, what is the quote unquote prime time to be fishing a tidal fishery?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Um, it depends on the time of year. Um, so tidal fisheries, and I'm gonna relate all of this to the delta because that's obviously the one I've spent the most time on. Roughly every six hours and fifty something minutes, the tide will change. So throughout that six hours on an outgoing, you're gonna have you're gonna start at the high and it's gonna go all the way out for about six hours and 50 minutes, it's gonna slack up for a second, switch, and it's gonna start coming back in for another, say, seven hours. It's not always exact, but that is the general idea behind it. And then what happens is during that whole process, there's little 15-minute, 20-minute windows where everything gets right for those fish and they bite. But if you're not in the right area at the right time, or if you're at the in the right area at the wrong time, you will fish right over the fish. So it takes a lot of time to kind of gather that information. You know, luckily, when I was a kid, I I was an hour away from the delta. So me and my dad would go out there all the time. And when you first go into a tidal body of water, it's like, oh my gosh, this is it's another factor that you have to worry about. You know, it's not just weather, it's not just you know structure, cover, anything like that. It is a whole schedule that these fish are on. And if you don't know that schedule, it can be a very frustrating process. But the cool thing is, once you do figure out that schedule, you know exactly where to be and when to be there. And throughout the year, You know, in springtime, generally on the delta, I like the higher water. It lets them move up on top of the flats, roam a little bit. There's a little more water up there, they're a little more comfortable. Once the water warms up, I like the lower tide. So it's really it depends on the time of year, but you got to get comfortable with everything because if you're tournament fishing or if you just want to catch fish consistently on a tidal body of water, you got to understand where those fish move and what they do throughout the whole cycle.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

Right. So in that, is it come down to when you talk about understanding it and getting used to it? Is this just something that people are gonna have to face the fact of you're gonna have to put in the time to learn it? Or like in understanding what areas are best, or like how like somebody like myself, say I come out to the Delta to fish tournament or just fish a couple days, and I don't know what the best areas are. Is it like how how would you even know what's a good spot without being there in that 15 to 20 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

So the best way, uh like the the advice I give to everybody who asks me, what do I do with the Delta? What do I do with the tides? It's counterintuitive, but completely ignore them. Pick an area. That's what I do. I don't even know what happens there. I just go there in the same spot. It doesn't matter, okay? But the beauty of it is you're never gonna miss those prime feeding windows. You're never gonna miss those 15-minute windows where everything is biting. You're gonna have a lot of lull periods where you you're just not catching anything, maybe catching small ones, but you're gonna be around the fish when they're biting. The worst thing you can do is start running around on a tidal body of water if you don't know when you need to be where. If you start running around, you're gonna run right past that window. You're or you're gonna leave that window behind you. You gotta let that window come and then you gotta let it go. And then it's gonna come around again in another two hours, three hours. But if you stay in one general area and fish it throughout the water level, you know, that's that's the best advice I can give to somebody who doesn't fish tides, doesn't understand what the fish do during those those cycles.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Hunker down.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Can can a guy in a tournament win like that? Is that possible to do, or do you feel like it's you can top 10 that way, but maybe not win because you're not taking full advantage of the tide?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

No, you can absolutely win that way. There's no doubt. Because again, you're you're guaranteed at least two, maybe three windows of prime time. Um, you're not gonna miss. And even the best tidal fishermen, even the best delta fisherman in the world, when they they call it running a tide, when you try to follow the peak window throughout the system, if you get off by 10 minutes, your day is done. It's completely done, it's shot. Um, you have no shot. But the guy who stays in an area and fishes throughout the tide cycle, he is guaranteed at least two windows of where those big ones are gonna bite.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Now, in your opinion, when the tide fluctuates, how far do you think those fish are going? Like when the water's falling, like how far do you think they'll go from the quote unquote prime area? Like, are they still gonna be within reach or do they completely desert it?

SPEAKER_00 25:39

No. Uh my personal opinion on it is those fish, it's not it's not so much the in and out. In and out is just going to face those fish in the direction, right? They're always gonna face up current. The water level is what I always pay attention to. Water level dictates where they are on the bank, they got their home base, right? Say it's um we'll say it's a break on the edge of a flooded island. We have a lot of flooded islands on the delta. Current runs in and out, excuse me. On high tide, when there's water up there, they're gonna push up to that that high current pinch point. Once that water starts to drop, they have to fall back out. They don't have a choice, they don't want to get stuck in you know, no water, so they're gonna pull out to the outside edge. But I think it's just a repetitive thing with them. They're always doing that, they're going in and out, they're not going laterally, they're not really cruising along the bank. They're more just, hey, this is my feeding spot up here, this is my feeding spot on low water, this is what I do. Um, and when you can intercept them, that's that's when you have those magical days on tidal waters.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

Got it. Okay. Find something that looks good and hunker down, don't leave.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah. They're around there. They don't, I don't think they they don't migrate, they don't move around a lot. You know, they'll they'll move into lower current areas during spring and they'll be in the higher current areas during the summer, again, lower current areas in the winter. Um, but their their home base is their home base. I don't they don't want to just swim around in current, especially on the delta. If they swim around in the open water, they're gonna get eaten by a seal. It's true.

SPEAKER_04 27:37

Fair enough. Uh is there a weather condition that is your favorite on the delta or tidal fishery in general? Like is it's do you like seeing rain coming in? Do you like seeing bluebird skies? What is ideal?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Um, I mean, they're still largemouth. So, you know, if you get some clouds and some wind, that kind of opens up everything. That those are the days where you don't really have to pay attention to the tide, and you can just go fish. And they're gonna be out, they're gonna be aggressive, they're gonna be chasing. Um, vice versa, when you have those calm bluebird days, those are the days you start fishing the vegetation. Canopies start flipping, um, get a little bit of wind, maybe a thunder cricket along the bank. But clouds definitely can somewhat negate the tide just because a largemouth bass is going to have they're gonna have the feeding advantage over everything else, so they're gonna use it during those low, low light days.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

Okay. I got uh so many damn questions, but I I want to let you go.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I think a good one, something that I certainly struggle with going to tidal places, and I think really did in the beginning, is like trying to understand where to where to look for maybe pinch points and current, you know, where where current is moving in or out of or high percentage areas. Any advice on on where to look for those moments when the tide is either incoming or outgoing?

SPEAKER_00 29:18

If you got two big sections, like two big areas of water and they're separated by something, and there is a little gap, that is a high percentage area. It's the same like river fishing, like we just fished Brownlee, and I'm sure you kind of read that like a river as well. The pinch points are gonna have more current. Um, it's just more of a maze on a tidal fishery, usually. But same idea, you know, find those little bit higher current areas, um, the pinch points. It, you know, it's an approach I take everywhere, not just tidal. Um, anywhere where I'm gonna have the lake develop a little bit more current because big mass of water, big mass of water, little mass of water in the middle, that current's gonna flow through. That those are always the highest percentage areas on tidal waters because it's gonna flow in, it's gonna stop for a second, it's gonna flow out. You're always going to have the most amount of water moving right there, like the highest current, I guess I should say.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Got it. So the classic example to me on the Delta, right, would be you know, all the different ponds, if you call them, and then you have the main river system running through, then there's those little gaps between them, and then they're just you know, there's water rushing in and out, and sometimes it's too low to where you can even get your boat into said pond, but there's that little space between the two bodies of water.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yep, yep, 100%. I've ran those little shoots for a lot of tournaments just because, and especially when you have, I mean, I should probably touch on like how to read a tide book, you know. If we have a rough four foot, it's a it's roughly about a four-foot tide swing on the delta. So if it's at zero and it goes to four, that is a full, like full current tidal swing. But there's days, depending on the moon, where sometimes your low is uh 1.8 and then your high is uh 2.3. Like on that tide swing, that is a terrible tide. You want the biggest difference in those two numbers from high to low, you want a lot of space because that means you're gonna the the system's gonna be moving a bunch of water. But when you have those low current days or those low current swings, that's especially when you want to go on those pitch points. Those pinch points are gonna have the maximum amount of current regardless of how much water is coming in and out. So paying attention to what kind of tide you have that day is super important too. You know, if I can plan my day, I'm going to be going on, I want a negative tide, like a negative 0.5 to a 4.5, like the biggest tide you can get, because that means that water's moving that day, and those fish are going to be eating.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

Because I know you love the spawn. How how does uh these flux a fluctuating tide affect the spawn? Like, are they gonna naturally spawn a little bit deeper with the the falling and the rising water, or what does that do to them?

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Yeah, so during the spawn, I mean, they can't have their bed get dry. So they're always going to be on that low water mark or deeper. So usually it's a zero, zero tide or deeper, whatever that is. And it it makes bed fishing in the delta kind of difficult. You got to be really strategic, you got to really take into account when your low tide is gonna be. Because if that fish is spawning at the low water mark, you know, say in a foot of water, first of all, he's gonna be really, really spooky when that water gets low. So you got to take that into account. You know, you might have an eight, nine-pounder on a bed, and you can see her clear as day when that water is at its lowest point, but she's gonna spook off every time your bait hits the water. So you're gonna have to wait till the water comes up a little bit, but then it's a catch-22 because you're gonna get to a point where you can't see her. Um, so yeah, they always usually spawn deeper on that low water line to you know who knows how deep. But there's sometimes, I'm sure, where there's beds in the delta that are eight, nine, ten foot deep. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Yeah, man, it's so so true. I it I was a learning process for me fishing the delta during the spawn, but I learned that middle window is lights out, like it couldn't be too deep, it couldn't be too shallow, had to be just right. It was like uh that's what it was.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Yeah, and it's frustrating too because you know that fish is there, but you can't see it. Um I'm surprised, I'm actually surprised that like bed scoping hasn't become more popular in the Delta. I don't know if guys aren't talking about it, but when I was talking to a buddy a couple months ago, I was like, why don't guys bed scope there? That would be like that is the place to do it. You can get them on high water, they're super success susceptible to eating because they're covered up with water and you can still see them, like it's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah. I it's funny, I don't I mean, not to go on a bed scoping tangent, I'm not very good at it. Neither am I. I I dude, like I actually struggle with it more shallow than I do deep, right? Like I think I I get it much easier when it's a small mouth in 15 feet of water or 20 feet, or you see these guys in Texas catching great big ones in 20 feet, you know, on the bed. When it is shallow like that, I struggle so bad with lining up casts in you know the with your forward facing sideways, using it regularly for whatever reason, I'm just I'm not good shallow with it. I'd rather just look at them with my eyeballs. So that's that's my take.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

But it's also like a completely different uh array of settings you gotta use to be efficient with it too. Whereas like those deeper spawners, you don't need to change anything, it's just like throwing out a fish on bottom. But that's a good point. Um me using Mega Live, like I was talking with Brian Evie, and he goes like he was showing me how he has this one setting. Granted, it's on the Great Lakes, uh, he's out in Michigan and it's super clear. He's like negative two contrast, like something like these crazy settings that I would never have. And once I tried it, kind of like, oh, it's a lot easier to do now. Before you're playing around with different things, but um yeah, that's a whole other tangent for a whole nother episode. But uh Ryan, my my next question for you would be for somebody that's going out visiting the Delta for a couple days, maybe they have a derber, maybe there's fun fishing. If you could just take three rods with you to go and just have your highest percentage of catching fish, what would you what would you take?

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Um, you know, we got a lot of vegetation, so my number one bait in that is a striking thunder cricket. Um, I like the tungsten one. That's my favorite one. That's gonna be the one higher water. Um, maybe you get some clouds, something you can cover, some water, throw it along some grass lines, throw it in the reeds, the tuleys, all that stuff. And then I would have two flipping sticks. I would have two Alpha Angler mag hitters with one with an ounce and one with an ounce and a half, and just put a rage bug on the back of that and just flip everything in front of you. Like that is my favorite way to catch a fish. That is the best way to catch a big one at the delta. And it's another one of those techniques that you can use throughout the tide cycle. So when that water gets up, you're gonna want to flip hyacinth mats, primrose mats. You know, when the water hat when there's two to four feet of water under those mats, those fish are gonna run up underneath their feed, and then as that water comes out, they're gonna go right to the grass line, right out in front, and you can pick up the ounce and just go down the grass line, and you can catch a bunch, and you're gonna be fishing for the biggest fish in the delta.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Are you a what is it? Uh, the blade minnow that strike king makes is that their blade minnow guy, right? Oh yeah, that's my trailer. I love that thing.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

So what's the deepest? Because I think about that edge a lot at the delta when the when the tide is sucked out, and then you start seeing the you know good high drill of clumps and and everything, and then that what is the deepest you have like flipped a fish on where there's some of those drop-offs that kind of drop pretty quickly into the grass.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Yeah, um, the deepest is probably over 20 feet. That was a mat though. Yeah, and I'm I I remember that fish because I actually had to fight that fish up until it got into the mat. It was it was weird fighting a fish under a mat. Um that's crazy, but that's only happened like a handful of times. Generally, um, if it's a grass line like the hydrilla grass lines, eight to eleven foot is where I like to be, like that's the max. And then if it's an overhead mat like Primrose or Hyacinth, I'll stay two to two to five foot. Yeah, okay. And I think it's very cool. Yeah, one more thing about those mats. Um, the best mats, if you're going to the Delta, and I shouldn't say this, the best mats clip it, are the ones that have two feet of water under them at low tide. So, in essence, that fish never has to leave if it doesn't want to.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Okay. Something that's like not stable, but more stable than the rest.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Yeah, because a lot of those mats they get so shallow that those fish, I'm sure some of them live there, but like some of them are dry at low tide. But if you get a mat on a dead low tide that has two plus foot of water, not like 20, I don't like those, but like a good two foot under it, and it's got five to six foot under it on high tide, that fish never has to leave.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

I find I think that's dead on. I find like the the ones that do get really shallow on low tide, or at least certainly during low tide, little ones will be in there, right? Like you might have 12 inch or or something like that. But I literally just think those big fish don't feel comfortable because they can't fit like you'd have to go sideways to go and get it.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

All right. I'm gonna go back up now.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Wait for the water to come up so I can get horizontal again or vertical again. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_04 40:43

Uh I'd imagine like the the water level offset features on your graphs. I mean, you're running Lorance, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Uh I know Humminberg has does Lorance have the water level offset feature that you can so on the C map, they don't have the water level offset, but they have the contour shading. So I just put that zero to two in red, and then I know from red on, you know, my high, my high tide is gonna have four to six, my low tide is gonna have it's gonna start at zero, basically, zero to two.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

And it's probably a very critical feature.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

It is, it is one hundred percent. Because if you're you know, uh I've spent a lot of time there, so I don't I don't really have to worry about that. But if I was new to the Delta, knowing what spots are gonna have no water on them on a on a low tide while I'm fishing high water, because you don't want to have to wait six hours to see what that bank looks like on low tide. You want to just pull up and fish it like this is it. So if you set your graphs up right and you have if you have the water level offset or if you have the shading and you can set it to where that low water line, like where the bank's gonna be on low tide, it eliminates a lot of unproductive water, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

That's a good point. Don't they also have I the I just use like random tide apps whenever I'm there to see where things are at on my phone, but don't they have on the Lowrance the like tide, like what what tide it's at in the location sort of thing?

SPEAKER_00 42:23

Yeah, so if you have the Navionics chip, you can put it in your Lowrance app or your Lorentz um HTS and you can scroll throughout the system and there'll be a little T. And you can click on that little T and it's gonna give you most of them, it'll have just when your your graph, right? Your curve like that. Some of them also have your current, which is really cool to see when it's gonna be slack, when it's gonna be at its highest. Um, and you can learn a lot by just clicking around the delta and seeing what what happens where.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

I like it. Is there an app you recommend?

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Uh you know, honestly, I just use I just use my graphs, it's how I've always done it. I've never we when I started, you had to buy this little book. It was a little book with a year of tides in it, and you kept that book in your boat, or else you were completely lost. But I think most most apps are gonna be good for for tides and everything like that. I'm pretty sure on water, it's the new app I work with, they have tides as well.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Okay, I use just this one called tides, it's literally called tides.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

I think you nailed it. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Uh it's free on Apple. And so, like the chart he's talking about is like that. And then you can just so that's where the tide's at, right? In the middle right now. Yep. But this is on the Delta uh Beacon Rock State Park. But it'll show locations, right? You can click, yep.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of them, like if you have a your location on, you can you know choose the nearest tide. Tide chart, which is a lot of what I do. Um, but knowing, you know, if you're going to a tidal body of water, like I said before, just go fish an area. But the best thing you can do to learn is pay attention when you get those better than average bites because they don't bite by accident in a tidal water, tidal fishery. They are 100% on a schedule. It's to the point where, you know, when I'm when I was fishing there a lot, I got to the point where even if they're biting, sometimes you would leave them just to catch the next ideal setup, which is pretty crazy. Yeah, you never leave fish to find fish except for tidal bodies of water.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Except if you're Bryant Smith, then you can leave fish to find fish. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Because those fish are gonna stop biting like it's crazy. Like they will literally just stop. You're catching them cast after. I had one tournament where I had a stretch of grass that I really wanted to throw a frog on, and I knew exactly when it was gonna go down. I knew the half-hour window I needed to be there, and I saw another angler there just kind of fishing around, and I was like, oh, I don't want him to fish that before me. So I went and fished it probably 30 minutes early, 30 minutes before I should have been there. I got two half-hearted blow-ups on my frog, and I knew better. It was a waste of time in the tournament. I knew better, but you know, I got greedy. I wanted to make sure I got the first pass on it. So I waited another half hour till I knew I needed to be there. I went down the same stretch of grass and I got 25 bites and put about 17 pounds in the light ball. Same frog, same everything. Like that's how dialed in you can be if you really pay attention to where you get your bites and when you get your bites on tidal fisheries.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

That's not evidence. I don't know what is. I want to explain the opposite of what happened to me last year. I would love to hear your take. I think it's the tournament you won, Bryant, at the Delta uh last year, Super 60, big tough guy over there. Um, I I had 20 pounds the first day. I was fishing literally one island, and exactly I've never experienced such a bite. Like I was throwing a chatterbait, and the bait would hit the water, and fish were, I mean, it was I was so annoyed that we were in our format, we were having to take pictures of fish because I was convinced I could have had 30 pounds. I mean, they were all giants, they were all four to six pounders, and they were I mean, it was the craziest thing I've ever experienced. I loaded the boat in 20 minutes, and I was like, this is absolutely insane. The next day, I was I'm like you said, I'm Delta rookie. I just was doing circles in there, right? Waiting for the window. I'm like, it's gonna come. It never came, dude. And I don't know, I don't know what happened. I literally had to catch fish on a drop shot and a Sanko and slow way down, and just and I didn't end up making the final day um because I just stayed and waited and waited. But like in that situation, what do you think happened?

SPEAKER_00 47:32

You caught them all.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

You literally caught them all. I know I didn't catch them all.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

No, um, if I remember right, it was kind of cloudy and windy the first day. I don't know if you had that down by you. That could have enhanced that bite a lot, um, especially with the chatterbait. Like I said, it kind of opens up the doors to a tidal body of water where they're not really worried. And then uh we had you know, conditions still apply, it's not they don't base everything off of the tide. If it gets colder or if it slicks off, you know, they're not going to want to chase something there. Um, they're still largemouth bass. That would probably be the biggest contributing factor was the weather conditions, why they didn't bite again. Um otherwise, if you had similar conditions, I wouldn't be surprised that if you smoked them again.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense, and it makes it sound really simple of like, well, just bass 101, man, is it high skies, you know, slit column, don't throw chatterband. I was sitting there like, it's gonna happen at any minute.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

I can feel it. Yeah, and that's the thing that gets a lot of guys with tidal fishing, is it it's just another factor that you can over-emphasize sometimes. Sometimes you just go bass fishing and just pay attention to your current conditions and not worry about the rest of it, and you catch them.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

Good advice. Deeke, you got anything else for Brian? No, man, super helpful, super intuitive, and uh man, the delta is such a cool place.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

Yeah, Brian, I I think you kind of hit on it a decent amount throughout the show, but I was gonna wrap this up with basically what do you think is the biggest mistake people make on the delta? But I think you just told Deacon the biggest mistake.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

It is the biggest mistake.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

The bass is still a bass, even if the water moves up and down. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

Love it. Well, dude, thank you so much again for the time. A lot of juice in this one. Uh, certainly helped me get a better understanding of title, that's for dang sure. Uh, because I feel like it's it's it's one that is like when you talk about it, it makes it simple. But when you get there, it's a whole other story. But at least gives people a good foundation, like when they're going to it for the first time, or to better understand it if they live on it now. But it's been the highest asked topic of our show is to talk about tide. So appreciate the juice, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Of course, anytime, guys.

SPEAKER_04 50:06

All right, folks, and that was Mr. Bryant Smith talking about the West Coast, the Delta. Now we're gonna transition over to the East Coast, talking some Potomac, some the James River, Delaware River, things like that with Mr. Pete Gloostik from the Bass University. All right, folks, and now we are with our rep from the East, no stranger to the show, no stranger to the educational side of bass fishing because he's the dean himself, Mr. Pete Glustik. Pete, what's going on, man?

SPEAKER_05 50:36

Hey, Bailey, man. It's always great to catch up with you. And uh good to good to see you and glad to be on the show, man. I love this topic we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_04 50:46

I know. I I think I'm gonna get spoiled here with uh with the dean because I get you on the pod, and then I get to see you next week at iCast, so it works out.

SPEAKER_05 50:55

Uh that's that's cool. We are uh we're all busy, aren't we? I uh it's a it's a big weekend bass fishing. I can't wait to get down there too. It's gonna be, of course, I was wor I always worry about the heat at ICAST. My God, it's been 100 degrees at my house the last couple of days.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

So yeah, I can barely handle it in New York, man. Nevertheless, Florida.

SPEAKER_05 51:13

It's like what are we gonna do? Did did did New York see those hundred degree days? Did you get that up there?

SPEAKER_04 51:20

No, we we got to 96 one day. Um but the you know this northern blood, that's that's cooking. So that's that's uh that's called the entire my entire house, all lights were off, ACs cranking, fans on everywhere, and I'm in my basement in the dark just editing footage because I didn't want to step outside.

SPEAKER_05 51:43

No kidding, no kidding. It's it's hot and the fish the fish know it. I mean, uh you know, it does a lot of different things to them, too. So it's uh they don't have air conditioning that they can turn on, unfortunately, for them.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

No, I guess their air conditioning is basically current, right? I mean, that's like probably the closest they can get to.

SPEAKER_05 52:03

Uh well, you know what it is? What they got it going on right now is we we got this big fronts and and these thunderstorms that uh that tend to come with these big heat waves, um, cool it off. But this this is a big one, man. This is bringing up moisture from the south. It's dumping inches of rain all all over the now. The Chesapeake is the big estuary that I'm always talking about, but the whole chest uh Chesapeake watershed is just getting inches of cool freshwater rain right now. So after uh a week of uh of hot, hot, hot, they're they're you know, everybody's cooling off in the in the waterways now.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

Oh, so so is this is a a good thing then for the fisheries, what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does, it does a couple of things. Um, you know, we had to br briefly mention before the show that we we've we've kind of been drought's a harsh word, but we haven't had as much rain as we've normally had, and what when that happens, uh the salt water creeps up into our tidal waters, and you see uh all kinds of things like uh crabs are really one of the big indicators, the blue blue clap crabs, uh the blue claws. Um the um like even all the way at the tippity top of the bay where it's almost it's freshwater, the mouth of the Susquehanna River, you'll see all the dock owners start throwing crab traps out off of their docks. Uh when when you get into these hot summer days with with uh little bit little bit of rain, the crabs get right up there around the dock pilings and and they catch their dinners right off their docks this time of year.

SPEAKER_04 53:50

So I guess there's somewhat of a positive to it then. Get some fresh crab. That's that's interesting. So does that then with this cold rain, does that reverse that a bit, or is that just simply just gonna make the fishing all around better?

SPEAKER_05 54:08

Yeah, it well boy, that's a that's a loaded question, Bailey. Hard to answer straight up. But I can tell you this when um when the salt water creeps up, the fish get what I call crazy eyes. And um it's it's man, you you can see them. You can be out on uh the Chesapeake in particular because the water gets really clear this time of year. The grass is fully matured and it's filtering all the particulates out, so you can see five to ten feet down on the Chesapeake in the summertime, and and the the salt water's up, and you'll you'll see groups of three to five pound bass swimming around, like uh, you know, in a fish tank, and and you can't make them bite, you just can't. They're uh they get create what I call crazy eyes, you know, and and you'll see it. Like I I remember when the elites were here, um, and they had their tournament there in the summer, like the the flats, that main part of the flat that we all like to fish so much, was so challenging that none of the competitors fished there during the tournament. It just the fish were still all there, but something weird happens, like they feed nocturnally or um you know, or or something something that changes in them. But when they get a lot of salt water up there, it uh it just makes them a lot harder to catch. So the the the fresh water helps. Um, you know, it it you know it moves things around, it it cools the water off a little bit. Maybe we get a little bit more of a feed during the day, and um, you know, it can it definitely helps. It helps the fishery too, but it pushes it, it does, it pushes the crabs back down, it pushes some of that saltwater bait fish that come up. Uh, it can push them down, you know, a little bit further on the river systems, and um, and it's just kind of an ebb and flow. Well, there you go. That's it's a tidal pun, right? Sort of the like the freshwater comes in and it in it in the drought, the salt water comes up and bait fish move around. So it's very dynamic, and that that's the best thing that you can say about these fisheries is they are extremely impacted by their surroundings, by you know, rain, drought, heat, cold, they they are affected very, very quickly. So, as a tidal water angler, you you you have to learn how to adjust to some of these conditions and spend a lifetime uh trying to learn as much as I can about it, uh living on the Delaware River and fishing the Chesapeake all the time. It's uh I've learned a lot, still a lot to learn. Uh, and and always enjoying that process.

SPEAKER_04 56:54

Yeah, that was one of the conversations we had with Bryant, and you know, walking away from that 30 minutes with him, I want to pitch this question to you. Obviously, you having being well traveled, you know, fishing tournaments all over the country, obviously with Bass Yo going everywhere all over the country. Do you think tidal fisheries are the most challenging fisheries to understand?

SPEAKER_05 57:19

Oh man. You know, it's uh for me, Bailey, it it's it's so weird. I I find the tidal tidal water is the easiest thing in the world to wrap your brain around, but that's because I I live on it. Uh, you know what I mean? It's like I I can look at the water and know what the fish are doing. You know what I mean? And that so, you know, for me, that's it, it's just it's like it's anything you do all the time, you become very good at. And like I can I can step out on the river, I can see the level and see the the direction of the flow. And I already have a visual of how fish are going to be setting up on the eelgrass beds or a piece of hardcover habitat, or whether or not the creeks are gonna be firing, or I need to stay out of them. Like those, all those things just uh uh just occur to me in in my mind naturally. So um to me, it may may seem easy, but I guess in the in as I look at it from the outside, it probably is very complex to somebody that's looking at this stuff for the first time, and I hear it all the time, Bailey. Like you hear um like the tournament competitors from the south, or you know, that that grew up fishing um reservoirs, you know, they often will use this phrase like I just ignored the tides. And and they do that uh to simplify all the problems and all the variables, and they they try to they just try to ignore them and they they can do it on great fisheries, you can do that, like the Potomac, which is full of bass. Um you can very often uh you can ignore the tides, be very, very successful at it. Um you know, so to to your to your point, to me, the most complicated thing is the is the reservoir, you know, because I didn't grow up fishing on the Tennessee River chain. So when the dam operators release water, it changes everything. When they hold water back, it changes everything. Well, those guys can do the same thing I can do. They can look at the bank and see whether or not the water's coming up or it's stable, or you know, they they're used to hey, 11 o'clock, they're gonna turn the faucet on. You know what I mean? So they're they're used to adapting to their set of variables, and I'm used to mine. So that's always challenged me. I had to learn a lot to be good at the reservoirs, but but looking at the title complexities of that, yeah, it's there's a lot, there's a lot going on there. So from somebody looking at that for the first time, it's pretty complex.

SPEAKER_04 59:59

Yeah, and I I say that from first person experience, like me trying to think about the Potomac and stuff like that. It's like trying to wrap my head around because in New York it's different. Yeah, our lakes are cheat codes, you just go out there, fish, doesn't really matter what time of year you're gonna catch some bass, you don't have to think too hard. Whereas like when you get a factor in, I show up and it's okay, is it high tide, is it low tide, is it going out, is it coming in, and then factoring that into like where can I actually fish that has water on it? Like, we don't have that problem in glacial lakes. So it's that is a whole nother obstacle. And one of the things that I want to pitch to you that Bryant said as uh as a way to how to start to understand an area or how to understand a tidal fishery was don't go running around chasing and trying to find different areas, find one area and stay there all day long.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:52

Uh that is a great solution. Uh and like I mentioned on the Potomac, that's that's a successful way to adapt to the conditions. And and and what what and and I agree with that when you can get away with that. Um when one here's one of the pro one of the things that we have that's unique to where I live. I live on the Delaware River, and it has a seven-foot tide swing. So it's you might have water. You can't like you the you can't pick an area because it literally goes dry. And you know, and then when the water comes up, it floods like you know, you're you're it's seven feet deep where you were standing on dry ground just you know a few hours ago. So it's uh you know, in that that is, you know, exemplifies it like in in that scenario, you really have to move. Move now. You I take you to the Chesapeake now, uh, which is just a few hours away, it has a two and a half foot tide swing. So the the that is a very effective way on those types of systems uh to stay. You find an area that has fish, and especially, you know, an angler that's trying to learn how fish behave. Yeah, you if you find an area that's got good habitat and some fish in it, stay through the various tides and see how the fish adjust and what the changes are. And a lot of times you're you're really better off doing that uh you know on a two and a half foot tide swing because the the fish aren't going to move that much, and you can you can see what they do and and they're so cool, and it still fascinates me to this day, Bailey. Like on, you know, let's take a grass bed on the on the Potomac. On low tide, and this is this here's a little cheat code for all you guys that are new to tidal water. Low tide is frog tide. Just write that, just write that down. Um in the summertime when the when the water temperature, everything's you know, yeah, suitable for that type of fishing, you know, the the grass is mature, the grass will lay over, and the canopies become at their most thick, and it's a great time for topwater, great time for frog fishing. Now, when when that grass stands up, now there's a lot of space between the tops of the grass and the the surface of the water, it's not not as good for for topwater fishing. So um that's a that's a simple truism and um that I use, you know, but by staying in an area, you learn that. Like uh at low tide is a good time to be frogging. And as you get into the higher tides on the same habitat, you want to you you your chatterbait, spinner baits, flipping, getting baits that can get down to the fish are more effective. So by by yeah, but Bryant's you know concept is a great one. It really helps you learn the different types, you know, of habitat, how the fish relate to each at the various tides, you can learn an awful lot by just sticking to an area and fishing it through the tides.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

Yeah, and that was he, of course, goes in completely 180s himself. Like when you get really good, then you can chase the tide down the river. But it's like from understanding, like trying to get a picture and a general learning of title, it's find an area now. Granted, if you're on the Delaware River, make sure you got more than seven feet, apparently, otherwise you're not gonna have water. But stay there all day just to start putting together some details. And I think, yeah, you're gonna need to spend a lot of days, I feel like, on a tidal fishery to really start trying to piece together the puzzle of a title body of water. I've like again going back to being extremely challenging in my mind, but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:51

Uh well, let me let me uh like kind of piggyback off of uh Bryant's interview. It's fun because he he interviewed before me, so it's fresh on your mind. And and uh I it it's always fun for me to talk to another tide order guy, you know, because we seem to be talking our own language at times, you know. Yeah, I think so. But but he uh running the tides is something that is we do a a lot of and we chase the tide up the river systems, and um a great way to think of that is that the low tide, and we'll take we'll we'll start talking about the low tide, it'll occur at the mouth of your river system, the part that's closest to the bay or the ocean. And then and then you'll ch you can chase that low tide all the way up the river. You can if your river's 70 miles long, you can actually fish around the low tide uh for hours if you run the tides correctly, versus if you're camped out on a spot, you'll get low tide for about an hour. But if you run the tides up the river chasing that low tide, for instance, we're frog fishing now. Let's use a hypothetical. We're we got a low tide. We're catching them on a frog. Uh, I'm gonna start down on the southern part of the river. Hits low. I'll fish for 20 minutes, catch a couple five pounders, you know, in a perfect world, right? I'm gonna I'll run 30 or 40 minutes to my next good frogging spot, hit the low tide again, hit the low outgoing again, and uh for a couple of 20 minutes, and then pack up, run another 30 or 40 minutes up the river, and now I'm fishing low tide again. So I'm I'm fishing my winning pattern, successful pattern, and I'm able to fish it for a lot longer by tracking the tides up and uh and running with the tides, and you can do that, you know, depending on the pattern that you find. You know, you can find um here's another here's another great one flooded trees on the bank, high tide pattern, right? It's a tremendous, right? Because uh on the Delaware River, for example, uh a tree that's laying in the water, it'll be high and dry at low tide. I mean it'll be two feet out of the water, but at high tide, it the the branches are flooded, they it creates current breaks, opportunities for bait fish to get up and feed on what's freshly flooded, the bass will follow that tree up and and they'll use it to ambush on high tide. So um, you know, you can do the same run the high tide pattern on something like uh blow down trees. Um it's a it's a tremendous way to to get out there and and catch them on a on a high tide, um, high tide pattern by running that particular tide. So you'll find that different types of habitat excel on different levels of tide, and uh, and the seasons can change things. You you know, sometimes you'll want to fish the middle parts of the tide. Um, sometimes the the tide also current is a big part of it, Bailey. Like uh, you know, the how much flow you're getting on a particular piece of habitat uh really matters. And the tides, you know, it may it may like as you approach low tide and you approach high tide, the flow always slows down on a on a waterway. So the maximum flow usually occurs hours, you know, an hour after low or an hour after high. So if your pattern revolves around heavy current, um, you know, you're gonna want to try to concentrate on that part of the tide.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:35

Um almost look for areas that are Bryant mentioned this for the delta is finding pinch points so that the current is faster.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:44

Yes, that that's a great and and it's so interesting because on the dead we do the opposite on the Delaware River because it has a seven-foot tide flow. In order for the seven feet of water to come and go, it rips. You can imagine how much flow you get. It's it's like I don't know, five miles an hour, it's just so fast, it's ripping. And uh so in in in the Delaware, we we actually have to look for flow, less flow on certain tide phases, so that because the fish just can't effectively sort of feed and thrive in that heavy flow, but on places like uh like Brian's talking about, and places like uh the Mississippi Delta, uh, they we call them Tranosas, or they call them Tranossas down there, the the pinch points, places where things do neck down and will increase the flow a little bit and give the predators a real chance to feed. Yeah, those are really important places on places that have a lower tide swing. Uh, like you see on the Gulf of anything off the Gulf of Mexico has got that low flow. Um, same thing down in Florida, like the the St. John's River has a very uh you know one foot, maybe uh one and a half feet of tidal swing. Uh those, yeah, you're looking for extra current in those places. And then in places like the Hudson River, which you're a New Yorker, you need to be a Hudson River expert, Bailey. I'm gonna challenge you to get out there and fish the tidal sections of the Hudson. But the Hudson has a big tide swing and the Delaware have big tide swings, and in those instances, you're you're actually looking for habitat that is slightly off the main flow uh to have success.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:36

Well, I will say I've one, I've heard good things about the Hudson River going to your to your comment here. But you know, Pete, for me to go fish the Hudson River, I would have to ditch Lake Erie, I would have to ditch all of the finger lakes, Lake Ontario. Do you see where I'm going there? Oh nida.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:55

Uh as tempting as that is, but it it is cool though.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:59

It and I love fish, all those places you named are like Disneyland, like Taku says. But yeah, the uh the Hudson is too, man. It's really a cool place, and it's got some unique habitat. It has uh something called water chestnuts that grow the banks of the Hudson, and right now, this is the time, like uh late June and July. Uh they make a canopy and and the bass just bust through them. Uh and it's the most challenging habitat you'll ever fish in the world getting a fish out of. Like uh they're the stalks are like tough as braided line, you know. They uh yeah, so you get a big fish in there and he's hard to get out, and it's just a lot of fun, and it's it's unique, it's got a lot of history, it's a whole different kind of fishing. You see these hundred-year-old lighthouses, maybe probably 200 years old, up and down the the river system, and uh it's it's got a big tide flow. But one of the cool parts about uh the Hudson is historically um it's it's a largemouth fishery. And um, and to go back in history, Roland Martin won the first bassmasters there uh man a long time ago, probably back in the 70s, and um, and it was all largemouth dominated, and now the smallmouth have really exploded on the on the Hudson. So it's a tidal smallmouth bass factory. If you it's there gobies in it, it doesn't have I I don't know if it has gobies. I don't know. I don't know if that's because the Hudson technically connects to does it connect to Lake Ontario? It it does, it it it's connected through canal, you know it's connected, right? There's canals they gotta be in there, I would imagine. And I don't know if that's because they don't look like Lake Ontario smallmouth, they're river smallmouth like the Tennessee River looking smallmouth, they're long and they're uh they're relatively thin. They fight, they swim in that current all the time. But man, oh man, is it's so cool to be on these big river systems with you know eddies ripping, and you you throw a chatterbait in there and a smallmouth rips the rod out of your hand. It's pretty fun stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:16

Absolutely. All right, all right. For you, Pete. I'll make a trip. I'll make a trip. Uh just for you. Uh you know, you twisted my arm there, it sounds pretty good, actually. Uh, but dude, like talking about the Delaware for somebody that's brand new to tidal fishery uh fisheries, you know, obviously Delaware that sounds pretty extreme with a seven-foot change, but what tide would you recommend for somebody trying to understand a fishery to launch out of and start fishing? Would you rather start on a low, high, and like what is the prime time window that you're usually looking for?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:56

I'll I'll give you the simplest course of action on pretty much any and river system, and we'll we'll keep the uh these blow down trees in mind in in this example. Is get your get your boat on the water, get on the water, whatever, even bank fish from the water on within uh two hours of low tide, the last two hours of outgoing tide. This is the this is a great place for anybody to start tidal water fishing. And um the Delaware River is a great example because it's such a dramatic tide swing. And if you went up a creek, any creek in in the river, with within an hour of low tide, most of the trees are out of water, they're high and dry. The ones that are left in the water have all the fish on them. So it's it's it's a really great place to get started and to look to get a few bites, and uh is at low tide. You go out into anywhere on the system and you look for the habitat that still is got is got some flow on it, still has a little bit of depth. And and when I'm talking tidal water, a little bit of depth is relative. I'm uh 12 inches is plenty of depth on a tidal water system.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:16

Just enough for their backs.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:17

Just enough for their backs. You look and docks, a lot of our uh river systems have docks on them, and the ends, the end pilings are the ones that have the the two feet of water on them at low tide. Trim docks are tremendous um you know targets at a low tide situation. Uh e super easy to figure out, and uh so go out right before low tide and fish whatever area you're in and look for the habitat that's still holding a little bit of depth and a little bit of flow at low tide. It's gonna be your quickest way to get bites if you're new to tidal fishing.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:57

I I love this so much, and I hope the uh the audience is is putting these two together here because I'm seeing similarities between you and Bryant with like obviously the how the Delta fishes versus you know the the Potomac or the Delaware. Um and one of the things that Bryant mentioned with the Delta, he's like he he, of course, capped it off with I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but he's like on low tide, find the mats that have two foot of water on them because on high tide they'll have obviously up to five, but they're always going to have a bass under them if they have two feet of water on low tide. That's exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:39

Yep, sound sound advice, and and and this is fat, it's fascinating to me. I've never fished a delta, but I think it's also important to find the mats that don't have a sea lion feeding in them.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:52

He didn't mention that. He's like, you don't need to look in the middle of the channel because they know they'd get eaten.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:00

I was talking. Uh who the heck was the describe? I can't remember. Um, but maybe big fish bailey. I don't know. One of those guys, uh, one of the West Coast guys was telling me about the image of a sea lion munching down a 10-pound bass. Uh, you know, I've seen that dude. It was crazy. Oh man, that's it's uh the sea lions have decided that they don't want to migrate anymore, and they are they're uh munching on all those freshwater fish up in the Delta right now. But somehow they're surviving. They still catch monster bags out there, even with all that sea lion pressure.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:40

Yeah, I don't think they can fit into the reed, so I guess uh that's probably where they're hunkering down. I don't know, but uh the this is this has got me fired up because I really want to go fish. I was actually very close during COVID to taking four or five days when I was unemployed and going to sleep in my truck and fishing the Potomac every day. But then I was like, wait, the same drive, I can go fish champlain, so I did that instead. Um I was very curious though to try to understand tidal fisheries. Um, so and Pete, I got two things left for you here. Appreciate your time as always. This is already learning a bunch. But two basic questions for you, and that is if you're going to a tidal fishery, what three rods are you gonna have on deck regardless of where you go?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:29

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna steal one from you because I'm gonna say four. And uh because I just I just rigged them out. I just rigged them up because uh my me and my son went out uh yesterday on the Delaware. Um uh and it's such a basic fishery that it you just keep it so simple and it's all the the ABCs of fishing, you're gonna have to have uh something to flip, uh, a creek. I I selected a creature bait, uh cleanup crawl. Um I select a shaky head. I use a weedless shaky head, a slider head, if you guys are familiar with that. Because in the tidal stuff, it I'm fishing around. I can be fishing around industrial old barges one minute, tree blow down trees the next, and and grass beds the next. So the slider head can come through all that stuff really, really well. So I have those those are my two um going in after the fish kind of baits, flipping or or you know, pitching with the finesse and the and the flipping bait. And then I have uh crankbait and a spinnerbait. It's like one, one, two, three, four. They're my four tools I'm gonna take with me. Uh I'll add, you know, like a frog and frog in season, I'll add Busby top. You add all those other things, but those four, they will get you through every day on a tidal water. Beauty.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:54

Okay. Now, with that, to cap all this, uh uh, all this off. What do you think is the biggest mistake people make um tidal fisheries?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:04

Uh that's uh what I see people I here's what I see. I see people fishing the wrong places at the wrong tide, and they don't understand that. Um, and it's under it's perfectly understandable that you got to have that learning curve. But I will I will watch from a distance, I'll watch people fish uh, you know, something on the wrong tide. And I'll say to my partner, other, you know, they're on a great spot, but it's the wrong tide. And this is um this is a tough one to swallow as an angler because Bailey, you can be sitting on the mother load of fish, the greatest place on the entire system. Yeah, and if you're there, if you're there at the wrong tide, you won't know it. And you'll fish right through them, right past them, you'll fish and over them, under them, and the whole nine yards, so and not know that you you're on the biggest school of fish on the whole river. So it's important to to try to identify. Oh, and here's how you do it, here's how you fix that. If you're fishing a piece of habitat, I teach this all the time. I and I'm glad I remembered it, that it looks good. You're like, man, they should be here. I should be catching them, but you haven't truly fished that habitat until you fished it on all the different tide phases. So if you're there, for instance, if you're there on a high tide and you're looking at this spot and you're like, man, this looks too good, make come back at a low tide and look at it again. Uh same thing. If you're uh if it's low tide and you're like, Where, where, why aren't they here? Come back on a different different tide cycle. If you're there at low, come back on higher water. If you're there when the water's flowing out, come back when it's flowing in. Give it two minimum of two looks on that piece of habitat, and then you you're gonna understand whether or not the fish are using it or not. So the biggest mistake people make is fishing a really, really good spot on the wrong tide cycle, and that's how you get around it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:17

Got it. Okay. That that is like the one thing I think that stresses me out the most thinking about going to a tidal fishery is like like like Bryant was saying, any any like four plus pound fish that you catch on the Delta, he goes, There's never none none of those bites are an accident. There's always a reason why you're getting those bites. And he's like, You exactly what you said, he mentioned of like if you're on the wrong tide, you're in the right spot, you'll fish right over the fish. And I I can't I can't imagine how many people do that on an everyday basis because of because of that. And I'd probably be one of them. And that just stresses me out thinking about that. That's that's why I think tidal fisheries are so challenging, but I think that's a a great way, is and I that's why I think you you can't really get a good grasp of tidal fisheries in one day. You have to come back multiple days in a row to really start getting a good picture.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:15

It it's true, it's true, and you can reverse your strategy, like you know, make sure, you know, if you want to hit something at low tide, you know, oh know your tide charts. Um, you know, people say I like to ignore ignore them because it simplifies it, and that's true, but I'm I'm opposite. I want to know. So, you know, the the beauty of uh of the tide charts, especially on all your electronics now, is like, man, you can you can pull that tidal wave right up on your screen and you can see exactly what tide cycle you are right now. Here, here's another good one that that is so important to us as tournament guys, but it's important anybody wants to catch fish. When you start catching fish, you wanna you wanna it's not as important as the time the time is nowhere as important as the tide. So you want to look at okay, I smashed four pounders here, uh, and I look at my tide chart. I was at the end of incoming tide, let's say. Well, your tournament might be three days from now. Well, at practice, at that end of incoming tide might have occurred at 10 o'clock in the morning. Three days from now, that same tide's not going to occur till one o'clock in the afternoon. So it it moves about one hour a day, about 50 minutes a day, it cycles forward. So it's not as like on a different, like on a glacial lake, it's about the time. All right, I got the bite in the a.m., you know, so I gotta make sure I'm back to this area tomorrow in the a.m. on the tidal river, it's all about the tide. And uh you just and you'll be scratching your head like, oh man, I caught them here two days ago. But you look at your watch and you're like, Well, man, I'm three, I'm three hours, you know, behind. I got it this bite's not going to occur till the afternoon today. So um, you know, that's that's an important post to tide trumps time every you know, all every day on the tidal water.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:18

And I've I feel like thinking about that now. That might almost like when you get good with understanding where to be on what tides, and then you see the time or you see the the what part of the tide to be at that prime spot, it probably helps you time manage your day a little bit easier. So at these two times, I gotta be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:42

Yes, yep, and and and here's where you can take advantage. Um as a tournament angler, um, you can not worry about it. Like, oh, everybody's gonna be running for that spot first thing. Let them, that's not the right tide. Yeah, you know, they're gonna be running for a great spot, but those fish aren't gonna be activated till way later in the day. So you it gives you the freedom to go fish other areas, and then you show up, Bailey, and all the guys that started there and didn't catch them have now left. Uh and now the premium tide cycle is happening, and you know, times when you get it right, you have it all to yourself just by you know having a little knowledge.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:29

Uh, I can just picture you pulling into a spot laughing, knowing that seeing everybody leaving, you're like, ah, suckers.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:37

It's beautiful, it's beautiful when that happens. I hate it when I'm wrong. That happens plenty of times, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:46

That's awesome. Uh this is great. Pete, I I learned a bunch. Um, I'm sure the audience did too. Uh, obviously, for the folks that are tuning in there. If they listen to this show, I hope that they're listening to Bass You because they can gain 10 times as much knowledge with you guys over at Bass You. But uh appreciate the time as always. You always drop a lot of knowledge on this show, man. And uh uh appreciate it. Appreciate you coming on here.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:13

Man, I appreciate it. I want to, if I may, I want to invite everybody to download the new Bashu app. Bash U 2.0 is out there. Download, download it, get over to Bash University. We I skim the surface. So we have Mike Iconelli, we have Brian Schmidt. Uh, I have a lot of tidal water seminars on Bash University as well. It's all at your fingertips. So if you're if you're interested in learning and fishing tidal waters, we've got a great set of tutorials for to help you catch a lot more fish.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:45

I I've said it every time you've been on the show, but the most learning I've ever done from home is literally when I've sat there and just watched Bass Yo videos. The library is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:57

That's that's awesome. Well, thank you for that, Billy. Appreciate you. And uh I love you having you part of the program, and uh, it's always great to hang out with you and talk fishing, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:06

Heck yeah, we'll see you in Orlando in a week, I guess. I mean, it's coming up quick now.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:13

But uh oh my goodness, here we go.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:16

Yeah, ICAS is back, but uh Pete, appreciate it, man. And uh we'll be talking to you soon.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:21

All right, Bailey. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:25

All right, outro. Yeah, man. All right, folks, and that is gonna do it for today's show. Sorry again for the uh long rambling introduction, but uh it's not often that Deke and I get to sit down and chat with each other, being obviously two different sides of the country, but uh it's fun ripping these pods every week. And so when we get to rambling sometimes, you guys know we have rabbit holes and uh we definitely go down them a little bit too long sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:51

But dude, it's gonna be it's gonna be good to see you next week. It's been a minute. Yeah, yeah. Looking forward to it. Not looking forward to the heat of Florida uh in the summertime, but you know, AC is generally a great thing. Um, so we'll we'll have that in uh in the iCast itself. But looking forward to that, and man, just continuing on with the brand, everything we're doing, just excited for the future.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:16

Heck yeah, folks, if you're gonna be at iCast, of course, obviously let us know, give us a shout. But uh we'll be there wandering around. We've got a bunch of biz meetings to attend to, but hopefully, like Deke said, spending most of our time in AC and then getting out of there. But uh, we'll be bringing you guys a show on site at iCast. It's probably brief, but just basically quick to the point. What we've seen that is actually worth paying your attention to, keeping an eye on, uh, coming out of post-ICAST. Um, so you'll have that to look forward to next week, and then obviously getting back to our standard regularly scheduled programming. But folks, appreciate y'all for the time today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week on the next one.