Always tried to start fishing two hours before low.

 

Hi all,
I’m fairly new to jetty fishing, mostly spend my time on rivers or lakes.
I’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos, have the appropriate gear, and a strong respect for the sea and what it can do out there on the rocks.

What I’m still not crystal clear on is things like tides, moon phases, and atmospheric pressure. (Do the latter two even matter?)

I’ve read that incoming tide brings in food for the fish around jettys. I would assume this would be a better time to fish than an outgoing tide? Or would slack tide after the high tide be better?

Any thoughts on fishing the jetty side vs the ocean side?

I went out to Newport a couple weeks ago on the south jetty. Got a bite or two, and caught a crab but that was it. There were a few kids out there who all struck out except for catching a wolf eel.

Planning on hitting the Barview jetty in a week or two to give it another go.

Targeting rockfish, but a ling would always be sweet.

Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks all!

The Barview jetty may be closed for repairs .

 

I use a 9 wt fly rod with sinking line and about 4 ft of leaded line to get it down and a 9ft leader either with clam necks, sand shrimp or anchovies. for conventional equipment I use a large bobber with a 30 ft dropper to 3/4 oz weight and 6 ft leader. Sea gulls stealing your bait is the biggest problem. I like to start before low slack tide into high tide. The local bait shops can tell you what's the best time also, It can vary some. For sea Pearch I have always preferred 4 hrs before high tide all the way past high slack

 

Hi all,
I’m fairly new to jetty fishing, mostly spend my time on rivers or lakes.
I’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos, have the appropriate gear, and a strong respect for the sea and what it can do out there on the rocks.

What I’m still not crystal clear on is things like tides, moon phases, and atmospheric pressure. (Do the latter two even matter?)

I’ve read that incoming tide brings in food for the fish around jettys. I would assume this would be a better time to fish than an outgoing tide? Or would slack tide after the high tide be better?

Any thoughts on fishing the jetty side vs the ocean side?

I went out to Newport a couple weeks ago on the south jetty. Got a bite or two, and caught a crab but that was it. There were a few kids out there who all struck out except for catching a wolf eel.

Planning on hitting the Barview jetty in a week or two to give it another go.

Targeting rockfish, but a ling would always be sweet.

Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks all!

Before getting a boat we used to camp at Cape D and fishing the north jetty on the Columbia. With all the coho in the ocean this year I think it would be a good bet closer to Labor day weekend once those fish start pushing in. I always fished a herring or anchovy rigged under a float with a bobber stopper on a salmon size spinning set up, others liked the big blue fox spinners. Incoming tide is always a bit better, best times were to start fishing an hour before low through the high but you will get fish around either high or low tides. Bottom fishing there can be good as well casting/ retrieving swim baits or rubber worms.

 

Tide is all i've ever focused on. Barometric pressure is a myth to me, i've done well when its supposed to be poor and done poor when its at its best. Best for tides is 2 hours before(but anytime its incoming is better than outgoing) high till roughly half hour after slack when the tide is noticeably moving back out making your gear swing too much. I've tried many styles and had success with all, my best jetty fishing day ever was just a quarter ounce jig with a grub. Drop shot rigs work great to have presentation for multiple species but present a lot of snags.

 

IWade is spot on. Bring the kitchen sink (at least I do) some days they focus on jigs other days it’s bait. Work the jetty and find the holes that they are sitting in.

 

I might try something that looks like this.

 

 

iwade pretty much nailed it. 1 oz jig heads with 3-4” swim baits or grubs always work. Fish last 2-3 hours up to high tide. Keep moving til you find fish. The further out the better, within reason and safety. On flat calm days, always go all the way out. 10% of people catch 90% of fish on the jetties because most just stay next to the parking lot

 

There's two hooks to a pack, fish both, I like white/blue

 

 

I usually targeted Greenling so bait (shrimp) was used. I’d toss grubs occasionally but never did exceptionally well. If you want to target Ling Cod, you can dangle a herring under a bobber or retrieve one over the rocks like a grub. They will latch onto a Greenling fished that way too. Don’t forget night fishing for Blacks. That can be a lot of fun as well as productive.

 

Have done alot of jetty and rock fishing over the yrs and this is my gear
Storm swimbaits #1
Jigs #2
A walking staff that can double as a gaff is a must and can save your life and of course a PFD

 

The trick to jetty fishing in my experience is incoming tide. High slack can actually be an outgoing at the jetty as fresh water currents can be ripping and incoming can act more like your “slack” time when fish come out of the rocks to feed. And small natural looking baits like curly swim baits. You can catch fish on a lot of things but matching what they are actually feeding on seems to work best for bringing in doubles. Seems like their main food is small fish. Also artificial shrimp and small squid like 2” work well.
For lingcod a larger curly tail or better off herring works a lot better. The best being live bait of course.

 

July 23 has very mild tide swings, both in and out, from around 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. I'd fish the whole thing on days like this.

I'll add that Iwade has it right, except you can do the same thing on low slack as well with excellent results: fish the last hour of outgoing into the first couple hours of incoming -- you'll have a nice 30-45 minuts of slack.

On this day, I'd plan to be fishing 8-12, take a break, then fish again 2-5.

 

Beetle,

You can forget about barometric pressure, and mostly forget about the moon. Tides are super important. Note there are two high tides a day, but they are different heights! And there are two low tides a day, but they are different heights also. Look at the graph Codspeed posted for you and you'll see it.

Be very, very careful about slipping on the rocks. Sometimes the rocks in the splash zone get a thin coating of algae. The minute it gets wet, it becomes as slick as ice. The wetness can be nothing more than water from your shoes.

 

Felt soled shoes can save your butt.

 

Hey thanks everyone for the replies! Tons of great info, thanks very much!

 

Barometer matters for inland fish lakes and rivers
for the salt its all about tides

 

In our younger days, we would go on a weekend with a minus tide, pump up a bunch of sand shrimp the day before.
Put on some chest waders and venture out on the 'fingers' on the south side jetty (Newport).
We used short, stout trout rods with 12 lb. test and cheap snelled hooks and a 1 oz. round clip-on sinker (1/4 to 3/8 oz. lead head jigs tipped with sand shrimp worked well too).
Start by chasing the receding tide as far out on the finger as possible.
Drop your bait into any hole that looks big enough to pull a fish back out of.
The big rocks making up the jetty create caves the fish love to hang out in.
We caught every species you could imaging including wolf eels.
Perch, black rockfish, tons of kelp greenling, red irish lords, etc.
We would each carry a floating fish basket with a rope to keep that catch in.

Keep an eye on the tide and fish it back in when the tide rolls in.
It's messy, slippery but a ton of fun.
Might not be worth it now with the low allowed catch limits.

 

It's messy, slippery but a ton of fun.

Just makes you wanna keep going back for more.

 

 

Some tips for you are Some of the best lures for jetty fishing are jigs; don't fish the same spot along the inlet ad remember don’t stop fishing the jetties when the sun goes down

 

I have found places that sell bait and equipment have real time knowledge about when the best times to fish have been according to tides. It is most defiantly not just on incoming tide. It can range all over the place and allot of times they will recommend 2hrs before and after low. I have had good success with that and canvasing or noticing locals heading out fishing in groups.