HOW DO YOU FISH THE TIDES ?
Whenever the water is moving. The higher/lower the tide, the more water is being pushed around, along with the bait, which makes the predator fish more active. Generally the incoming tide is more productive, but it depends on your locale. Check your tide charts for the days when the difference between the high and low tides is greatest (+6.1ft./-1.2ft.) and try to fish those times. Good luck
General rule is two hours before and two hours after high tide.
You don't fish the tides by any rule of thumbs. You fish the tides by trying to understand how they are moving the water and affecting what the fish you are targeting require given the conditions of that day.
Are they seeking warmth? Then they will move into the flow of an outgoing tide draining a shallow dark bottom water body. If they need cooler warmer the incoming tide will be more beneficial.
On a hot day faster running and cooler water will have more dissolved oxygen and favor more aggressive feeding. They may also set up adjacent to an outgoing flow to feed on prey being swept out. A rising tide may give them access to boulder fields or other shallow areas with shellfish, crabs, etc. that they cannot normally reach. Tides around water bodies with narrow outlets will be delayed by the restricted flow through their connection. Tides at mouth of rivers will be interacting with the strength of the river outflow.
The location fish will hold in will vary through the tide as the depth and speed of flow changes through the tide. So when fishing in shore, tide is a critical factor, but there it becomes more of a question of how the tide is interacting with structure than when during the tide to fish a wide area.
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