Tides - planning?

[Pugs]

Quick question,

I am planning to fish the same tides I did last year (where I had decent catches) but have noticed that on a particular day/time of tide/moon phase there can be as much as week's difference, so a decent session last year i.e. 5th May, 5 % Moon, 6M, HT @05;30 could be completely different to the 5th May 08.

Do I go for, the 5th May or look for the 5%, HT early morning around the 5th May (may be a weeks' difference... which I don't understand)

Any explanations?

[rocket]

I would go for the same size of tide.

[alasdair]

The date doesn't matter, it's the state of the sea that does. Go fish similar tide conditions and the fishing should be the same. I say that, but the weather on the day and the weather before hand, wind direction, swell etc will all alter the mood the fish are in ie. it might be a totally different box of frogs to this time last year.

The moon works in a 28 day cycle, that's around 13 times a year. As we only have 12 months nowadays the date+tide will fall out of synch between years. It gets even more complicated with the elevation of the sun etc but you get the idea.

That said, give it a go as you never know.

[FishingGuernsey]

I would say the size/time of tide as well as wind direction and some of the key factors, but with things like state of that size tide, moon phase, cloud cover, air pressure, water temp/clarity etc etc, that's why it takes so long to work out how a mark fishes at it's best and why bass anglers are loath to give away marks they have taken years to work out!!