I liked the yesterday's forecast - sunny and warm, not much wind - so headed up to Jonathan Dickinson despite the tide prediction, which was for low tide around 12:30. We're somewhat in the middle of the tide cycle, when there isn't that much inflow or outflow from the tides. I thought that might mean there wouldn't be much fishing action, but decided to give it a try anyway.
Well, I was right - caught no fish at all; just the odd bite here and there. I did see some otters, though, that I captured on video. They were fun to watch. I didn't see them catch anything but over the course of the day I bet they did better than I did.
I've been trying to figure out why it is that there seems to be less current on an incoming tide at JD than on an outgoing tide. Thinking about it, I've come up with an hypothesis that makes sense. Right now, and for the past several weeks, there's been quite a bit of water coming downstream on the Loxahatchee, due to rain we had this past month. It could be that this flow coming downstream mitigates the speed of the incoming tide. I've noticed that the water level at high tide does get well up on the trunks of the mangroves. But it may be that the incoming tide is fighting against the flow of fresh water coming down the Loxahatchee from upstream. This would also explain why when the tide is flowing out, it moves with quite a bit of speed - not only is the lunar cycle pulling the water toward the ocean, there's also the outflow of fresh water from the Loxahatchee. If someone has a better idea, I'd like to hear it.
Here's the video I shot: http://youtu.be/U2gSYWck75o
You'll see otters but no fish.
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