Tidal Flow Charts ??
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Reeds almanac contains tidal charts
http://www.reedsalmanac.co.uk/
your local chart will have purple diamonds and a tidal flow box on the chart referring to the diamonds. Not as detailer as reeds but have a look at the price of the almanac. ouch
http://www.reedsalmanac.co.uk/
your local chart will have purple diamonds and a tidal flow box on the chart referring to the diamonds. Not as detailer as reeds but have a look at the price of the almanac. ouch
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Try your local yacht chandlers, and look in the charts section or books, and look for the Admiralty Tidal Atlas for your area. (Its a black and yellow A4 booklet). There will be a map inside for each hour of the tide showing tidal strength and direction. I think the detail may differ by area but I have the Isle of Wight and Solent one and wouldn't be without it. I keep it by the chart all the time. They are not expensive, and you can get them mail order. Last time I looked in Marine Superstore in Port Solent they were only a few quid each, and they don't go out of date like an Almanac. Hope that helps.
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Hi,
If you can lay your hands on Admiralty Chart 777, Land's End to Falmouth, it has ChrisP's diamonds on it, each with a letter in and in the bottom right of the chart it gives you the tidal flow for that diamond.
For instance diamond A is a couple of miles off Cape Cornwall and the legend says that 6 hours before HW the tidal flow is bearing 332 degrees at 04 kts on a spring and 0.2 kts on a neap, and gives this detail for every hour of the tide for that diamond and all the other eight diamonds on the chart.
Obviously can't put them all down here, but if you want to bang me an e-mail with the bit of coast you're interested in I'll send you all the tidal flow details you want for that bit of coast. I think I can scan them into the e-mail from the chart and then give you the LAT and LONG of the diamonds
Cheers.......
Peter
If you can lay your hands on Admiralty Chart 777, Land's End to Falmouth, it has ChrisP's diamonds on it, each with a letter in and in the bottom right of the chart it gives you the tidal flow for that diamond.
For instance diamond A is a couple of miles off Cape Cornwall and the legend says that 6 hours before HW the tidal flow is bearing 332 degrees at 04 kts on a spring and 0.2 kts on a neap, and gives this detail for every hour of the tide for that diamond and all the other eight diamonds on the chart.
Obviously can't put them all down here, but if you want to bang me an e-mail with the bit of coast you're interested in I'll send you all the tidal flow details you want for that bit of coast. I think I can scan them into the e-mail from the chart and then give you the LAT and LONG of the diamonds
Cheers.......
Peter
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Charts do have the mysterious purple diamonds ( a few) but the Tidal Atlas shows more detail of currents, and is easier to visualise because the map has arrows drawn all over it, showing direction of flow and thickness of line indicates strength. The chart table is more accurate for navigation as bearing and speed are given for each location. It it were me (and it is) I would buy both chart and Tidal Atlas. I'm not on commission either, wish I was...
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Cheers guys - Peter I was going to drop you a line simply because you are vitually a neighbor and I enjoy reading your posts!!!
Salar - many thanks I have already ordered a tide atlas on your recommendation - a customer of mine has Mylor Chandlery. Perhaps you could give me a few tips. My purpose in getting this info is to give me a bit of help when anchoring up on a mark. Obviously the wind is going to be a major factor that will determine where the baits end up but I do seem to be frequently 'missing' the ground after I put the pick in. I can find the mark and try to judge the likely drift direction but feel that I am 'off' too frequently. I freely admit that this is partly inexperience but in my defence we are finding marks - catching decent fish and have not had any of the total balls ups that we see on Falmouth slip every Sunday. We are not getting it wrong - just not a right as I think that we could.
Salar - many thanks I have already ordered a tide atlas on your recommendation - a customer of mine has Mylor Chandlery. Perhaps you could give me a few tips. My purpose in getting this info is to give me a bit of help when anchoring up on a mark. Obviously the wind is going to be a major factor that will determine where the baits end up but I do seem to be frequently 'missing' the ground after I put the pick in. I can find the mark and try to judge the likely drift direction but feel that I am 'off' too frequently. I freely admit that this is partly inexperience but in my defence we are finding marks - catching decent fish and have not had any of the total balls ups that we see on Falmouth slip every Sunday. We are not getting it wrong - just not a right as I think that we could.
Tip for you when anchoring a mark, the modern way is to arrive at the mark and drift for 10 min, zoom in the gps on the plotter screen and look at your snail trail. This is the direction you will drift when you eventually drop anchor. Motor up along the same line as the drift and drop anchor ahead of the mark. Drop back on the anchor warp until you are on the spot you want.
An older way was to have a couple of small buoys, floats and some thin line with a weight on the end. Sash weights are ideal. Get to your mark, drop one of the buoys over and drift back for a few mins. Drop the second. You now have 2 points of reference to either drift or set anchor over a chosen mark/wreck. This method is very good for drifting a wheck or reef as the buoys give you a fixed point of referance to judge your drift from
An older way was to have a couple of small buoys, floats and some thin line with a weight on the end. Sash weights are ideal. Get to your mark, drop one of the buoys over and drift back for a few mins. Drop the second. You now have 2 points of reference to either drift or set anchor over a chosen mark/wreck. This method is very good for drifting a wheck or reef as the buoys give you a fixed point of referance to judge your drift from
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Cheers Chris - it's obvious really - and I think that we do do (doodooo!!) something like that, just probebly have not got the discipline to do the same thing every time - hence the inconsistent results (plus a tad unsure what the GPS is actually capable of telling us ). We are out this weekend and will try to apply a bit more method.
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Its surprising how far from a mark you end up after deciding to drop anchor. If the tide is running hard you will have drifted a bit while the anchor is falling, then it will drag a bit before digging in, then you let out rope, probably 3 x depth of water. Then you fish, and the tide takes your bait even further back! Use the GPS track feature like ChrisP says, mark the point you want to target, let the boat drift, then steer to the mark noting the bearing. When you get to the mark, keep going on the smae baering for, say 150 metres then mark again and anchor. See where you end up relative to the first mark, if you are not on where you want to be then up anchor and drop again the same relative position from your first anchor mark as you were in error over your fishing mark. If you have done that carefully you will be spot on. Spend some time getting used to your GPS features if you haven't already, so you can do all that stuff without having to mess with the manual. Hope that helps. An easier way is to fish near other boats, you can generally work out tide and wind push by looking at them, and eyeball estimate where the anchor is relative to the boat by looking at the angle of the anchor rope.
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Hi again,
excellent advice all round about anchoring - definately a black art!!! Dare I suggest another option; don't bother. Try drifting over your mark, say a couple of hundred metres either side. OK this means you need to 'repair' the drift every now and then, and how often you have to do this will obviously depend on the wind and tide combnation, but fishing on the drift over a good mark can often be more productive than anchoring over it.
Cheers, and tight lines
excellent advice all round about anchoring - definately a black art!!! Dare I suggest another option; don't bother. Try drifting over your mark, say a couple of hundred metres either side. OK this means you need to 'repair' the drift every now and then, and how often you have to do this will obviously depend on the wind and tide combnation, but fishing on the drift over a good mark can often be more productive than anchoring over it.
Cheers, and tight lines
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Hi Peter - I have to admit that when we first started out we tended to drift - if I am honest this was probebly due to a fear of loosing my anchor however by using the right anchor and rigging it so that it trips if it becomes stuck fast - I am more comfortable sticking the pick in. Coincidentely our catch quality has improved. We still drift for pollack - mackeral etc however the Ray, conger , huss and LSD's and as yet the odd Bass are coming to anchor. I think that both methods have there merits but accurate anchoring on a mark is a challenge, and one that I want to crack. I am also a bit lazy so spending a couple of hours in the same spot is quite appealing. I also want to experiment with some groundbaiting - whilst snorkelling I have seen the effect that a small amount of food - like bread - has around a reef. So if you see a nutter on a blue strikliner shovelling handfuls of boiled rice and stale sandwiches and stuff over the side - come and say hello - it's probebly me and Charmaine. - Steve
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Hi again,
Orkney Strikeliner eh.....nice boats. No wonder Charmaine comes out with you. Mine's a pitched pine on oak carvel-built tank of a boat built in the Appledore yard 30 years ago and wieghing in at just under 3 tons for her 22 ft and my dearly beloved wouldn't be seen dead on it!!! Mind you, with a big tub of 2-year-old salted mackerel strapped inside the port side smelling like a gorilla's armpit when it's opened to bait the lobster pots, and with a twin cylinder Lister diesel chuffing away the whole trip I don't blame her.
Your observation about anchoring producing better results than drifting is very interesting, (now there's a post which would have some legs if anyone put it up there - but I won't!). There is a good liitle reef mark about 2 miles off from my harbour and for years I anchored over it with reasonable success. But a couple of years ago I got lazy and couldn't be bothered to do the anchoring thing which I used to do in much the same way as described by salar earlier, and I decided to drift over the mark instead. Well, my fish count went up significantly - OK not in quality perhaps, but certainly in quantity. So I haven't anchored there since. Your observation tempts me to drop the hook next time out to that one to do a comparison.
Anyway, tight lines and all the best for now.........
Peter B
Orkney Strikeliner eh.....nice boats. No wonder Charmaine comes out with you. Mine's a pitched pine on oak carvel-built tank of a boat built in the Appledore yard 30 years ago and wieghing in at just under 3 tons for her 22 ft and my dearly beloved wouldn't be seen dead on it!!! Mind you, with a big tub of 2-year-old salted mackerel strapped inside the port side smelling like a gorilla's armpit when it's opened to bait the lobster pots, and with a twin cylinder Lister diesel chuffing away the whole trip I don't blame her.
Your observation about anchoring producing better results than drifting is very interesting, (now there's a post which would have some legs if anyone put it up there - but I won't!). There is a good liitle reef mark about 2 miles off from my harbour and for years I anchored over it with reasonable success. But a couple of years ago I got lazy and couldn't be bothered to do the anchoring thing which I used to do in much the same way as described by salar earlier, and I decided to drift over the mark instead. Well, my fish count went up significantly - OK not in quality perhaps, but certainly in quantity. So I haven't anchored there since. Your observation tempts me to drop the hook next time out to that one to do a comparison.
Anyway, tight lines and all the best for now.........
Peter B
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