How to plan a flood tide
A flood tide is an invitation. Start with the moon to find the big tides, then the calendar for the days the water clears the marsh. Check the hour, set an alert, and know your ramp and how you're getting there.
As the day gets close, watch the wind, the clouds and the temperature. Then find the closest live gauge, see how the station nearest your spot runs against it, and whether the water is tracking above or below the prediction. Then again, there's only one way to find out.
Every app shot is the live TidalMap app on the web or iPhone. The tide alert is an iPhone feature. Live gauge readings are from 28 October 2026. Tide times and spot names are blurred. Not for navigation.
Which high tides actually flood the grass
Most high tides never reach the grass. A flood tide is the handful of days a month when the high is big enough to push water onto a marsh flat that is usually dry, and the redfish follow it in for the crabs.
The moon picks those days. Around a full or new moon the pull is strongest, and the tidal coefficient shows it: roughly 80 or higher and you are likely looking at a flood. In TidalMap's tide calendar you can set a high-water mark for a station so only the tides that clear it are flagged.
Then check the hour and the wind. A flood at ten at night is a story, not a plan. Wind can push water in or hold it out for a whole day, so once the day arrives, the live gauge beats the prediction.
Transcript
A flood tide is an invitation. You still have to show up on the right day.
Start with the moon. The big coefficients push the water up into the grass.
Then find the days the water clears the marsh. Not every high tide is a flood.
Check the hour. A flood at ten at night is a story, not a plan.
Set an alert, because you will forget. Everybody does.
Pick your ramp, and know how you're getting there before the water does.
As the day gets close, watch the wind, the clouds and the temperature.
An offshore wind can hold the flood right off the grass.
Find the closest live gauge. It tells you what the water is really doing.
The station nearest your spot runs about twenty five minutes later, and a couple tenths higher.
Right now the gauge is a foot above its prediction. That's what should happen where you are.
Then again, there's only one way to find out.
Go explore. The grass will be waiting.
TidalMap. Know when to launch.