I'm with ALS on this.... It's not fishing close or further into the beach depending on the tide. Like they say in real estate, it's all about location and the conditions in a given location.
You want to be in a location where there are likely to be fish like channel edges, lumps, drop offs etc and the same area has to have the right conditions at the time your are fishing it which usually is dictated by the tides/currents and the wind direction.
Tides influence the direction of your drift in the bays and the ocean areas leading into the bays. Currents do the same out on the open ocean. Ocean currents although influenced by tides does not dictate their direction as much as they do in the bays.
Example..... If you are in the Raritan Bay an outgoing tide in general is going to make you drift west to east. Incoming will be east to west.
If you are fishing the open ocean it's not like you are going to drift into the beach on an incoming tide or away from the beach on an outgoing tide. You will be drifting with the currents.
Water movement and its direction, be it current or tidal flow is important since you want to be moving with it, not against it. If you're drift fishing and the wind causes you to drift against the current or tide you might as well be sitting home on the couch. You want to drift with it since you want your bait presented in the same natural direction and speed as the current or tide.
This is why you will see people using drift socks or power drifting. They are trying overcome the effects of the wind and make the boat drift in the direction of the tide/current in a location where they think the fish are.
This is why you will also see boats drifting in certain areas. The best areas are where the wind is not pushing them against the tide. It might not be where most of the fish are but its location where the conditions are best.
Here is a cool site that gives you the direction and intensity of the currents/tides in the NY bite area
http://hudson.dl.stevens-tech.edu/ma...ncontrol.shtml
In the screen shot below you will notice the direction the current/tide is flowing. Notice that it flows in different directions at different locations indicated by the arrows. If wind was not an issue, and usually when it less then 10 knots you could fish any of these locations. If the wind is a factor you want to choose an area where the wind is pushing you the same direction of the current.
Also notice the colors are different in certain areas. This is the intensity of the movement with red being most intense and blue less. If you we fishing a red area and you had the wind pushing you in the same direction you might have too fast a drift in which case you'd want to move to a blue area. Sometimes you might be in an area with no drift at all and you will want to move into a red area.
At the end of the day, you want to obviously be fishing an area where the fish are and the conditions will allow your boat to move in the same general direction as the current, not the wind.
