When is high tide cape may
Reading The Cape Cod Canal Tide Chart
Dave Anderson here you may remember me
as the sweaty guy in the surf casters
Journal video once in my canal back but
today I'm going to talk about the canal
tide chart and how to decipher it I'm
gonna make this really simple I don't
think there's too many secrets left with
timing you're fishing at the canal but
if you're new to it or if you just don't
feel like you have a full grasp on it
this should die in pretty quickly so the
basics of fishing at the canal that you
need to pay attention to win the current
changes not when the tide changes and
the reason why these current changes
don't coincide with high and low tide is
because the tides outside of the East
End and the West End are vastly
different both in timing and in height
so the East End tides the Cape Cod Bay
tides can reach heights of more than 10
feet while the tides in Buzzards Bay
seldom if ever reach five feet see
there's a major difference there a lot
more water is piling up outside the East
End than what's happening outside the
West End also the tide timings are
different so out in Buzzards Bay outside
the West End high tide is occurring
about two and a half hours on the
average before the hot side outside the
East End so you kind of picture how
they're sort of chasing each other and
the the sandwich tide the East End tide
is higher so you know they're sort of
following each other and the tides
running this way and then Buzzards Bay
reaches its height and starts to fall
but this one's still going up so now
this is increasing the speed because now
the water at this end is rushing to fill
the void left by the tide draining out
of the West End after a few hours the
tide in Buzzards Bay reaches low and
then starts to come back up this one's
still coming down and then they equalize
that's when the that period of slack
water happens
and that's also why you know as the the
difference between the two starts to
reduce the tide slows down so that's why
that period of time before the turn of
the tide can be so good for fishing one
it's easier to fish because this curve
doesn't move so quickly but also I think
it makes it easier for the fish to feed
so that is like the target period as a
canal fisherman so the column that
you're looking at on the tide chart
reads railroad bridge current turns east
and if you want to plan your trip so
that you have the best shot of getting
in on these epic blitzes then you want
the a.m. the morning current change the
morning east turn to occur within two to
three hours of sunrise historically this
is when these major blitzes happen these
tides occur around the moon the current
is the strongest the tides are the
highest than the lowest and the belief
is that these stronger times draw more
bait into the canal and the fishing just
erupts during these quote-unquote
breaking tides and that's really it the
only thing that I can add is that if you
look at the sandwich column and you you
know follow it across from the type that
you are eyeballing and you see that
there's another star next to the tide or
even better a double star these are -
times these are times when the time is
lower than the average low and these
double star tides single star tides they
tend to produce the best fishing of each
cycle of tides so if you're seeing that
then your chances are even higher than
they were just just hitting a breaking
tide and that's really it's it's super
easy you know you're gonna plan your
trip for when that Eastern occurs around
sunrise and if you see that double star
tide in the sandwich column all the
better so if you're traveling in from
wherever it makes it pretty easy which
is
find that tide on the chart and plan
your trip and you're gonna give yourself
the best shot at getting in on some of
these great hits it doesn't mean it's a
guarantee it's been a little harder to
predict over the last five years or so
but historically that's when you want to
be there good luck this year
