I’ve always been a curious person and asked a lot of questions. When I was a kid growing up on our farm it got to the point with the guys that worked there that their response one out three times would be, “Go get us a bucket of electricity, then we’ll answer that question.” Cruel, but probably fair in retrospect given the amount of questions I would ask every day all day. I regularly drive my fiancee crazy to this day with all the questions I ask. I am not sure if she asks me to just stop talking because she is tired of not knowing the answers to the questions or if its just the continual onslaught of questions that drives her crazy. Probably the ladder, as she is a smart lady. My niece, who is nine, has limited me to three questions per hour, she actaully keeps track. It sort of stunned me actaully when she invoked the limit. I had picked her up from school and was dropping her off at home on my way to visit with a boat electronics shop. As we were driving she just turned and said, “You ask way too many questions, I am limiting you to only three questions an hour that I will answer.”  I actaully had to think about that on the way home and consider if I had a problem. Then as in the past when I considered this topic, I concluded it’s just curiosity and desire to know things. I will admit that in my younger years my questions were all over the place and I could have probably answered some of them myself if I had taken a little more time to think about it, so I get the “bucket of electricity” requests, but as I have grown older I have gotten better at asking questions. What does that mean, well when I was in the venture capital business my good friend and mentor Tom would say,” In this business you do not need to know everything, you just have know the questions to ask. Anyone can ask questions, but one of the important things that can differentiate  a good VC from a great one is a great one knows the “right” questions to ask.” It’s a good observation or all of us.  As I think about the whole thing more,  I actaully think others have a problem, how in the world can people go through life and not know how things work, why they work etc… I will admit that as I have grown older sometimes when it comes to human dynamics/interactions I just do not ask questions and just go with it. I’ll let your mind run with that thought without elaborating any further.

Having said all that, understanding tides and what causes their rise and fall has recently again sparked my curiosity. I had to ask the question of myself, “Given how much time I spend saltwater fishing and rely on the tide or stage of the tide when chasing striped bass or whatever other species, shouldn’t I have a very firm understanding of what causes and/or influences tides? Wouldn’t understanding tides improve my fishing?” I answered my own question, the guys who used to work on the farm, my fiancee and niece I can only imagine would be rejoicing if they knew I answered this one myself, and of course the answer is, “Yes”. I asked my brother Spencer if he knew about tides this morning, his response,”You should not be worrying about the tides right now, we catch stripers all the time with what we know, get back to work on our fund raising and selling our 2009 Lateral Line line so we can make some money.” Response noted and it’s a very correct answer, but I still want to know and since I am the older brother, well I am going to postpone that work until this afternoon. And it’s freaking Saturday and I should be out fishing anyway if it were not for this forecast from NOAA for my portion of the Chesapeake Bay, “Small Craft Advisory now in effect through late tonight Today SW winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Waves 2 to 3 ft. A chance of showers and tstms in the morning… then showers and tstms likely in the afternoon with vsby 1 nm or less.” And if I hear any s*%& from him I’ll just quote Emerson, “Nothing is so certain to perpetuate ignorance as failure to investigate the facts”. I am sure that answer will get me an ear full. Anyway, in all the years I have been on the boat and asked whoever I was fishing with that I thought might have the answer what causes the rise and fall of the tide I have always received generally the same answer, “The tide is controlled by the moon and the sun and wind can play a roll”, or, “The moon and the sun, just do not worry about it too much, the tide chart will tell you what you need to know”, or, “Your a computer geek, don’t you have that program on your blackberry?”. Could it really be that simple that its just the sun and the moon with wind playing a role? What goes on in the development of those tide tables we all rely on so much? Why are some tide tables accurate and why are some just way too off to use? Why are the tides in the Chesapeake a few feet a day, while in the northeast you can see tides varying as much as fourteen feet? Why are there two high tides in some parts of the world and even the US  and only on high tide in other parts? Why is the high tide difference between Choptank Light and the Bay Bridge as much as an hour and the tidal difference between the northern Bahamas and the southern Bahamas just thirty minutes when Choptank Light is maybe 20 miles by water, yet the difference between the northern and southern Bahamas a few hundred miles?

Well, I am on the quest to answer these questions, but I do not think I will get to them all today. However, I have some preliminary findings from some reading this morning. The following is in no specific order other then the order I discovered the data:

1. The word “tide” is a generic word used to describe the vertical delta (difference) between high and low tides at a given location. It does not describe the horizontal water flow (current) or its velocity during the rise and fall of the tide.
2. The moon is only capable of displacing the water on the surface of the earth by approximately twelve vertical inches.
3. The gravitation of the sun can only displace the oceans by approximately six vertical inches.
4. This means that when the moon and sun are aligned to pull in the same direction over the center of the Atlantic Ocean, the maximal tidal range due to the sun and moon is only approximately eighteen (18) inches. This means I have some work to do because the tide is more then that in most all the places I fish which includes the Chesapeake Bay, most all the Atlantic Coast, Gulf Coast, Bahamas, etc…
5. When the United States decided to drill off the coast of Alaska for oil it was vital to get accurate tidal predictions for Prince William Sound and its tributaries where tankers would be transporting and removing hazardous cargo. The programs that were developed to make the tide predictions used 114 independent variables which all influence the range and timing of the tides.  Two of the independent variables were of course the sun and moon, which means there were another 112 variables that were needed to make accurate predictions.
6. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration uses 37 major independent variables that have a measurable influence on the earth’s tides to develop the standard tide tables that they distribute annually and are considered “the standard” in the US.
7. Dr. Arthur Doodson is regarded as a world class oceanographer and credited with much of what we now know about tides, what the variables are that influence them and our ability to predict them. According to his research which is regarded as accurate, there are a total of 396 variables that influence tide height and tide times.

Clearly I have my work cut out for me to truly understand Tides and given that afternoon will approach sooner then I might have wanted, I will have to set aside my investigation for the moment. I am however a bit more satisfied now that I know what I do not know and can now go and learn it. This also opens the door to better understanding “currents” and their flow through out the tide. Understanding currents might prove to be more important then understanding tides since current is really what we need to know when we are fishing a tide. Man, a whole other topic to look at…I’ll tackle tides first, then current.   Expect more on tides and currents from me as I dig in and investigate these amazing phenomenon further and share what I learn which hopefully will make you and me better anglers in our quest for a tight line.

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