You can put a price on all the tackle you buy to use on the Nanticoke river. You can price the boat you use and the license you are supposed to have. But you just can't put a price on fishing the right tide. Just last weekend I had a youth tournament there with my son. We started off just after dead low so I realized I would be fishing the incoming water all day long. Or at least until the end of the tournament. I figured an incoming tide left nothing to chance so I decided to keep the run time down to a minimum by staying within a half mile or so of the ramp. We spent a good amount of time fishing Walker's creek and picked up one for the bucket. My son caught a short fish on a drop shot rig right where I thought they would be. But nothing else. Why is that? I knew what the water was doing, the weather was predictable (stable) and you could almost guarantee that plenty of bass were located in the area. It seems like they are always plentiful in Walker's.
Regardless, there wasn't much time to boat 4 more as the water was getting higher and higher every minute. The DuPont feeder creek finally filled in to the point you could actually get in there. I told Andrew "This is where it can happen for us really quick, so stay on your feet and just keep on casting". I was wrong of course as we left without so much as a bite. In the end, he was happy to just catch that one short fish. As it turned out, nobody did exceedingly well that day with the winner bringing in 4 fish for around 5 pounds.
Add it all up and this is what you get on a crappy ass tide. The water gets high and the fish spread out up into places you can't cast to, as well as the fact that I think it turns off the bite too. These fish here live a strange life that is so dictated by the tide that thier catchability changes from night to day in the few hours it takes for the tide to change. That's why you can't put a price on when the tide is right.
