Tides / Guides

Guides

How the water moves, when anglers watch it, and what each light time on a station chart means.

Tides

• How tides workWhy the water rises and falls twice a day on most coasts, what a tide prediction measures, and why the gauge down the road can read differently.
• Spring tides and neap tidesSpring tides are the larger highs and lows around the new moon and the full moon. Neap tides are the smaller ones around the quarters.
• Best times to fish a tideMoving water, the turn, dawn, and dusk are the windows anglers watch. How to read them on a Tides Scout station chart.

Light

• First lightFirst light on a Tides Scout chart is astronomical twilight, when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. It is earlier than dawn.
• Nautical twilightNautical twilight is the part of the morning and evening when the sun is between 12 and 6 degrees below the horizon and the sea horizon becomes visible.
• DawnDawn on a Tides Scout chart is civil twilight, when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and the day is light enough to see without a lamp.
• Blue hourThe blue hour is the short cool-colored window around dawn and again around dusk, between civil twilight and the golden hour.
• SunriseSunrise is the time the upper edge of the sun appears on the horizon at that station. The chart shows it in local time.
• Solar noonSolar noon is when the sun is highest, not when the clock says 12. It is the middle of the day length, not the middle of the clock day.
• Golden hourGolden hour is the warm light just before and after sunrise, and again just before and after sunset. The chart lists both windows.
• SunsetSunset is the time the upper edge of the sun disappears below the horizon at that station, in local time.
• DuskDusk is the end of civil twilight. The sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and the landscape is losing its light.
• Last lightLast light is the end of astronomical twilight, when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon and the sky is dark.
• Day lengthDay length is the time from sunrise to sunset at that station. It does not include dawn, dusk, or the twilights.