Salmon Fishing - Tide or Current

We know a number of factors are involved in timing one's salmon fishing, water conditions, time of day, tides, and currents.

In perusing the tide and current graphs it becomes apparent that tide and tidal current are rarely aligned.  For example today, 06 July, the afternoon low tide at Edmonds, WA is at 1:16 PM.  The slack current is at 3:00 PM.  That is a 1 hour 45 minute lag. 

So which is the more important factor, tide or current?

My vote is current. While tide might affect holding areas based on depth, my belief is current triggers feeding locations and timing. And you aren't going to catch fish unless they are feeding.

In tidal rivers I have had too many times where the bite just goes insane as the the slacks after high water and the current beijing flowing out.

In saltwater current seems to funnel the fish closer to structure or the shore making them easier to find.


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Current.  In my favorite hole, the fish bite on the flood----as the flood current gets moving , which is usually 1to 1.5  hours after the "book" turn of the tide.  I'll usually start fishing at the book turn, though.