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Question about Tide Tables

3K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  hans_on1 
#1 ·
I am trying to learn more about the daily fluctuations of tidal movement and how it is reported on the tide charts. If the chart says high tide is +1.20, what is high tide 1.20 feet higher than? Is it higher than mean sea level (MSL)? I see some days where high tide is around +1 foot and low tide is also a positive number such as +.4 feet. Does this mean that both low and high tide is higher than MSL?

Another observation I have made is that based on the charts, there is much less tidal fluctuation in the middle of the state at the Port O’Connor station than what is predicted at the north station (Sabine) and south station (South Padre Island).

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
I can’t help you there and feel confident that I have you the right technical info. What I can recommend is using a tide graph rather than chart with numbers. When that graph is making a long swing you got a good window in tide. The steeper the line the harder the tide.

My simple mind looks for days with a long steep tide. I have 4 days a week I can fish though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#3 ·
Troutsupport.com has some excellent videos explaining things like this. Go to his website and get all four videos. A great investment for any fisherman anywhere.

Here is a small snap shot he was gracious enough to share.
TIde & Current for Coastal Bay Anglers - YouTube


Most important for me is the differential from high to low. As you ask above if they show a +1.2 high and a +1 low that is only 0.2 foot of water exchange...which is not much. Whereas a +1.2 high and a -0.6 low is 1.8 foot of water exchange. Which is a good bit of water movement.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Agreed, the differential measure between the low peak and high peak and a key metric to consider. If you hadn't noticed, the winter period is when there is an abundance of mostly 2-tide days. The frequency of 4-tide days increases as we move into Spring and Summer.

This is my favorite website for tide data: https://tides4fishing.com/us/texas/eagle-point#_tidal_coefficient

If you a late model Lowrance or Garmin, they tell you the current tide information in their Information sections. I think some people forget that they have this real-time information at their fingertips.

Tides are driven by gravity and the rotation of the earth, moon, and sun. It is a measured metric based on predictable things (planet rotation and position). Weather is a mixture of a number of dynamic factors, most of which are far less predictable than the movement of the planets. I'm of the opinion that tidal forecasting and weather forecasting are not similar in that tidal forecasting has a higher degree of accuracy than weather forecasting.
 
#7 ·
I am trying to learn more about the daily fluctuations of tidal movement and how it is reported on the tide charts. If the chart says high tide is +1.20, what is high tide 1.20 feet higher than? Is it higher than mean sea level (MSL)? I see some days where high tide is around +1 foot and low tide is also a positive number such as +.4 feet. Does this mean that both low and high tide is higher than MSL?

Another observation I have made is that based on the charts, there is much less tidal fluctuation in the middle of the state at the Port O’Connor station than what is predicted at the north station (Sabine) and south station (South Padre Island).

Thanks in advance.
The daily height is measured against MLLW or Mean Low Low Water
(MLLW = The average of the lower low water height of each tidal day observed over the National Tidal Datum Epoch. For stations with shorter series, comparison of simultaneous observations with a control tide station is made in order to derive the equivalent datum of the National Tidal Datum Epoch. https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/datum_options.html)

This prediction is only based on the sun and moon locations from history and does not include meteorological (weather) influence like Grem said.

Also, this is the same 'prediction' that Chartplotters have. Chartplotter tide graphs are not real time, they are only station point predictions based on historic patterns, they don't include weather influence either. But they are handy to have while on the water and if you learn all the parameters they can still be very usefull.

I see some days where high tide is around +1 foot and low tide is also a positive number such as +.4 feet. Does this mean that both low and high tide is higher than MSL?
Sorta correct, but yes they are both higher than the MLLW

Tidal Fluctuation in regards to mid coast vs upper coast
The tide bubble is the same. It moves east to west following the moon and is delayed in getting to points west of say Galveston. The reduced fluctuation on the middle and lower coast has more to due with where the tide stations are located inland of the pass where as the Galveston Stations have direct huge unencumbered flow from the jetty cut and there is several right there at the jetty cut. Yes there is one or two at the big jetties at POC but if you're comparing forecast against stations like Port Lavaca or seadrift, those will be much more muted.

Hope that helps. The biggest thing is go when it's moving. 4 tide days are great but theres a lot of fish caught on 2 tide days. There can also be slack periods even on the 4 tide days and our redfish video shows how to use Wind driven current to catch a limit of reds and you can use it for trout as well during slack periods.

if you have any more questions than that feel free to email me at
tobin@troutsupport.com
 
#8 ·
Thank you all. I did purchase the Trout Support DVD's and maybe I need to dust them off and watch them again soon.

Full disclosure...….I am working on calculating the heights of tide to figure out if I will have issues getting my boat inside my boathouse. My calculations are based on the fact that the bulkhead at our community is 5 feet above Mean Sea Level which I believe would be higher than Mean Low Low Water (MLLW). As long as water is no higher than about 2 feet above MSL, I should be fine getting the boat in and out without having to lower my top.

I understand now that tide tables use MLLW as the datum and so assuming that MLLW is lower than MSL, I have a slightly larger margin before there is a problem. I do not think that normal tides will be more than 2 feet above MSL unless there is some sort of tidal surge related to a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The low point on the boat house is at the entrance so once I get the boat inside the boathouse, the tide can be significantly higher without any problems. In the unlikely event my boat is inside and the tide does come up more than 2 feet above MSL, I can lower my top to get it out of the boathouse.
 
#9 ·
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/w...219&timezone=GMT&datum=MSL&interval=6&action=

Don’t know your boat house is, but your maximum 2 feet clearance above MSL isn’t likely going to cut it, even in “normal” times outside of tropical events. Above is the link to the station at the Galveston Railroad Bridge. Levels there got to 2.33 feet above MSL, not MLLW, early this morning simply due to a North East breeze.
 
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