I’m fishing in Washington on the West coast in the nisqually river to be exact. I was wondering how the tides affect fishing? what tides I need to fish. Why to fish these tides? Basically I need to learn the low down on these factors or if they even matter. I need as much detail as possible to know this. I am also fishing for chinooks and cohos (kings and silvers) if that materrs. Be grateful you in advance.
How Does The Moon And The Weather Affect Fishing For Salmon In A River?
January 23rd, 2010 
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The moon phase controls the tides. Usually, a huge high tide during the nightime hours (which happens during a full moon) will bring a original batch of fish in from the ocean. Fish for these salmon in the first 5 to 6 miles of tidewater the next morning. Ahead of schedule morning always seems to yield the best bites. Troll cut-plug herring on excellent weather days. Switch to spinners when it rains. An incoming tide is usually better for trolling than an outgoing tide. Many anglers attach and use a bait-wrapped Kwikfish on the outgoing tides, effective for chinook. At low slack tide, look for chinook to head to the deepest fill up that is closely available. Find that hole, and drop a herring right to the bottom. Jig it up and down about 18 inches, and sometime during that low slack period you should get bit. For silvers, throw a #3 blue fox spinner in pink, yellow or blue. Have fun and excellent luck!
I find that several factor usually are in effect. River fishing is during the spawning runs. Temperature, Rain, and time of year are the most noticeable contributing factors that start the process. The fish feed ahead of schedule in the process and stop as they go up the rivers. Then the only reaction is protection of spawning redds.
I always pay attention to the moon phases as I feel they affect all aspects of the fishes behavior, from feeding to spawning to just laying low.
Of course there are hundreds of opinions on the subject, some folks just don’t consider it vital, but I’m always watching it along with the changes in barometric pressure, as I believe these are key factors in your success. Here is a excellent article for you to read…………..
You can get some excellent thoughts from additional fishermen and their reports on My-Fishing-Report.com
Keep in mind that these are all ONLY guidelines. You can catch just about any fish, any time if you’re in the right place and there’s the right fish.
Tides are only an issue when the fish are close enough to the mouth of a river to have a right effect on them. They will be less “aggressive” on the outgoing tides that cause them to work harder. Therefore, they are a small less likely to strike and expend energy when they don’t have to. Once they reach that “certain” point in a river system where tides no longer have a significant effect, they are more free with their movement, assertion of territory, and curiosity.
Salmon tend to go up river systems at night through ahead of schedule morning before the sun has had a chance to warm the fill up too much. When the fill up temperature rises above a certain point the fish tend to become lethargic. (It’s really different for each river system since the air temp and average fill up temp are always different depending on place).
I’ve always had the best luck from officially authorized time (I can’t start before 1 hr before sunrise on my community river) through about 10/11ish. As well as the last hour of daylight.
EDIT – Salmon do not ACTIVELY feed once entering original fill up. Their throats close, and block anything from entering their stomachs. They still attack and bite, but gennerally baits (ie. herring/anchovie/sardine) will work closer to the mixing salt/original fill up where there are still some fish that haven’t siezed yet. Once they have siezed, the benefit of bait on a lure (ie. sardine wrapped KFish/FlatFish etc.) is only to provide a familiar fragrance for the fish to key in on.