This article will look at the difficult task of fishing big tidal river systems in America, and the even more difficult task of trying to understand how they operate compared to the regular rivers and lakes found in Europe. Tidal rivers are linked to the water found in the coastal ocean systems, and the one I primarily fish in New Jersey is the Raritan River which runs out into Atlantic Ocean south of New York City. Now I don’t want to give away my exact location, but this section of river is located very close to the coastal estuary. This means the river has a high level of salt content, contains both freshwater and saltwater fish that are brought in and out with the twice daily tides and has an abundance of natural food including huge crabs. In addition to this the waters level, flow, temperature and clarity are highly influenced by the moon phases, rainfall and coastal weather systems. It really is a head banger to try and understand when might be the best time to attempt a session for the best possible chance of success. This winter I have spent approximately ten sessions in one particular swim and every time I think I have it figured it out, something else influences the fishing and throws me off course again. There have been days where I think the fishing will be great and it’s been poor and times where it’s been great when conditions have looked awful. No two days are ever the same in fishing, and this statement is no truer than when fishing these complex river systems.

First session February 2012 (very unusual mild winter weather)…..My first ever session in this location was probably my most successful for fish numbers which just shows that often the more time you spend fishing here and the more you learn the less it seems you actually know. As soon as I got out of my car I saw fish after fish rolling close in and knew that this was going to be a great day. Setting up as quiet as a mouse I got the rods into position and knew it would be minutes before a rod rattled off……….The next hour passed and not only did I not have a run but the fish stopped crashing as the tide began to push out, lowering the water level, revealing more of the dry river bed. I was puzzled. It appeared that the fish were moving in conjunction with the tides. I decided to take a quick walk up the high bank to see if I could see anything moving down river when a rod rattled off and a nice high teen was the first fish in the net. Let the madness begin! I ended the session with around twenty fish, the best four going between 20lb and 25lb including a nice brace of 20’s. Lessons learned from this first session were that 1) the high tide seemed to produce more fish than the lower tide 2) the brighter the weather the more picks up I got and 3) the low tide also revealed some unbelievable snags such as sunken trees and sharp boulders.

I was working in upstate New York four hours away in the spring and had not been able to fish the swim for a month, but had seen a couple of the locals had taken a few 30s so I was pumped to get down there again. The next few sessions produced plenty of fish but nothing bigger than low 20s, and I had been pestered by some of the huge snags out in the middle of the river that were cutting through my 40lb braided mainline. I decided to bring my good buddy Sean down one weekend from New York to break his New Jersey carp cherry. We did a three day session, fishing days only and it messed with our heads beyond belief. We arrived on the Friday morning at first light ready to hit low tide as it started to move to high tide. It must have rained heavy the night before because low tide was up to the bank higher than I had ever seen the high tide. We got our banksticks up as high as we could in the river bed and were fishing in almost chest deep fast running water. I could not believe it, and I thought this session was going to stink. I gave Sean the side of the swim I that had previously produced the bigger fish. He cast in his first rod and before he had even placed the bobbin on the line the rod was away in less than 15 seconds. Welcome to New Jersey I remember saying. That first hour we took 6 fish to high teens and then the tide came so high we had to pack up…….gutting! We fished another accessible swim for a few hours with not even a bleep and then when the tide began to drop went back to our swim and took around ten fish before it went dark. Not a great session for this swim. Day two saw the tide and water levels back to normal but we experienced insane winds that blew Sean’s pod over twice. The day finished pretty much the same as the day before. I was not too happy, but I did manage a nice chunky 23lb fish which was a different shape to the normal torpedo shape fish found here. Day three it rained all day, it was freezing cold and high tide produced only four fish. It was just dropping dark and the tide was now 40 yards from the bank and was at a level that hardly ever produces fish. Let’s pack up I said, I’ve had enough, what a sucky weekend. As I said that my rod rattled off. As I hit it Sean’s rod rattled off. Unbelievable, the river was doing the opposite of everything it had taught me to date. Sean landed a cracking dark 27lb fish, which made the hard session somewhat successful, and I was pleased he had had a decent fish even if not the 30 we were after.

My most successful session in this swim came when I did a short session on my way to work. I decided to fish from 7am till 12 noon as I had work starting at 2pm. I turned up and saw a few fish crashing like they primarily do at first light so figured I would get a few fish for my effort. I had been switching between Frenzied Maize and Dynamite pop ups over the past few sessions, and this session it was all about those bright yellow Dynamite pineapple & banana fluros. I decided to try a different pop up rig for this session using a multi-rig tied to a long shank size 6 hook prototype hook. I felt this was more suitable for the snaggy swim than the pop up rig I use in for my open water fishing. I landed an 18lb fish within ten minutes and then somehow managed to lose the next four to mainline cut offs.

I was being cut off on the take, and the strike and they felt like decent fish too. The worst thing about this swim is that the main snags are underwater even at low tide so I have no idea what they are, how big they are and it is a big negative of fishing this swim as sessions unfortunately tend to end in a lost fish or two, and its rarely to hook pulls. With lots of 30s, some known 40s and a 50lb state record being caught in this area over the last two years it’s really not a place you want to lose fish. I decided that for the next run I would not tighten the drag too much and would see what happened if I let the fish run a bit as I felt some of the cut offs were on the rocks located close in on the river bed (seen in the pictures), and not necessarily fish taking me directly into snags. I felt the problem was that the floating braid was being pushed under the rocks and tree stumps by the tide. In order to combat this I got my rods as high as possible to keep as much of the line out the water as I could. The two changes worked great because the next run resulted in the line pinging off around 6 snags and I was then connected to the fish…..however, the bugger still decided to snag me herself. I walked down the river bed and managed to change the line angle and get the fish free. As she came up the shallow margins I saw a huge mouth and knew this was my first USA 30 and the fish that had kept me battling with this swim. AVE IT!!!……a big wild fish in the net and a new USA PB of 33lb 4oz. Pictures taken, the fish safely returned and the right hand rod rattled off 30 minutes later. I grabbed my second net and the net poles dropped out of the spreader block just as another huge light colored fish popped its head up. I don’t believe it, this is another 30. I dropped the net handle, grabbed the net which was drifting off down river and tried my best to somehow squeeze the carp into the semi open hand held net. GET IN!!! This was one of the really light colored fish that reside in this murky water. 31lb exactly, what a session! I could not help but think about the fact I had lost four in a row and then landed two 30s……what had I potentially lost? I tried not to let that bother me to much as I had just broke the 30lb mark in America twice and had a new PB. I really am a perfectionist sometimes.

Conclusion……………..My five top tips for catching big tidal river carp are:

1. Beef up your tackle. There are all sorts of snags hidden in the depths, and the tides are often so strong that 4oz leads and heavier are required to hold bottom. Up your hook size and thickness, I have had a few hooks come back straight!
2. Keep a log book. This is a top tip for any fishing environment, but especially tidal systems. Try to identify patterns of fish activity, feeding behavior and location in relation to tides, seasons and weather.
3. Keep as much of your line out of the water. I have recently invested in a new pod that holds my rods in an almost vertical position to keep line off the bottom. Tides moving my braid under snags are how I am losing most of my fish so adjust your set up accordingly. Pike/catfish type floats fished above the leader also work well as all that is on the river bed is the lead and the hook link.
4. Baiting approaches. You need to adjust your baiting approach to the tides. Quite often if the swim dies down I will spod a small amount of particles around the swim and let the tide take it up or down stream to draw fish back into the swim. If there are lots of fish in the swim I will create tight baited areas by spraying boilies and using method balls or stringers. During high tide the fish come in really close so I will focus on lightly feeding close in and fishing the margins. As the tide begins to go out I begin to bait up the center of the river heavily to hold them as they push away from the bank.
5. Finally…..Fish as often as you can. You will hopefully learn more each time you go. I initially heard that low tide was not even worth fishing. However, I have still caught decent fish during this time. If you ain’t on the bank, you won’t catch em!

Tight Lines,

Craig “Brit” Parkes