28 spots where Aug is estimated to be the peak (◎). Our own estimate.
See each species guide for its season & spots.
Tide cycles are counted differently from country to country. Japan uses five bands (ohshio / chushio / koshio / nagashio / wakashio). Korea uses fifteen — the lunar-calendar system called 물때 (mulddae).
It runs like this: from 1물 up to 13물, then 조금 (jogeum) and 무시 (musi), and back to 1물. One turn takes 15 days and repeats twice a month. The water moves hardest in the band called 사리 (sari), roughly 6물–9물; it slackens most around 조금 / 무시. In Japanese terms 사리 corresponds roughly to spring tide and 조금 to neap.
Note: there are two counts — the West Coast (7-mulddae) and South Coast (8-mulddae) systems — one day apart. This site uses the South Coast system.
Why Korean rather than Japanese? Sort the same 35 days by Japan's five bands and you get spring 58% (11 of 19 days), middle 67% (8 of 12), neap 33% (1 of 3) — plus one "long tide" day with no fish and no "young tide" days at all. Almost identical to the Korean coarse bands (사리 58% / 중물 62% / 조금 33%). That is inevitable: Japan's "spring tide" and Korea's 사리 (6물–9물) are the same set of lunar days. At that resolution the name changes and nothing else does. But split it into fifteen and, inside 사리 alone, 8물 produces fish on 5 of 6 days (83%) while 6물 manages 2 of 6 (33%) — that much spread was hiding inside one word. Korean counting is not "better"; this is a question of resolution.
The full record spans 280 trips (2013–2026), of which lure casting — which began in December 2015 — accounts for 161 trips and 378 days on the water — 86% of them travel trips. The table below uses only the 35 days for which the outcome — including blanks — can be pinned to the exact day (reef topwater: yellowtail / GT — Tsushima, Iki, Goto, Korea, Iriomote, Okinawa). Mixing in catch-only posts pushes every band up to ~80–90% and hides the signal, so we deliberately keep the sample small.
| Band | Days fished | Days with fish | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 사리 (6–9물) | 19 days | 11 days | 58% |
| 중물 (middle) | 13 days | 8 days | 62% |
| 조금 (slack) | 3 days | 1 day | 33% |
The single best band was 8물 (5 of 6 days = 83%), then 5물 (3 of 4 = 75%) and 7물 (3 of 5 = 60%).
★These rates are not evidence of a difference. 조금 has only three days — swap one and 33% becomes 0% or 67%. The 사리/조금 gap is indistinguishable from chance (Fisher exact p=0.57). Showing a real difference would need ~40 days per band (120 total); we have 19 and 3.
사리 and 중물 are almost identical (58% vs 62%). A trip from Tokyo means three days of fishing, so a schedule aimed at the spring tide still lands one or two days on the 중물 either side. What matters is not "which 물때 is today" but whether you are inside the window running up to, or falling away from, the spring tide. That is why the 3-day window score, not the single-day score, leads this table.
The full reasoning, with the actual catch records behind it, is written up in Japanese: read the Japanese version
| Date | Dist. to 사리 | Band | Weight | Place | Species |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-05-26 | 3 | ③ | 30.0kg | 沖縄県 西表島 | GT |
| 2022-07-01 | 2 | ② | 20.0kg | 沖縄県 西表島 | GT |
| 2023-05-27 | 6.5 | ⑤ | 28.0kg | 沖縄県 西表島 | GT |
| 2023-10-12 | 2.5 | ③ | 29.0kg | 韓国 済州島 | Yellowtail |
| 2023-10-13 | 1.5 | ② | 33.0kg | 韓国 済州島 | Yellowtail |
| 2024-03-25 | 0.5 | ① | 34.8kg | 長崎県 五島 | Yellowtail |
| 2024-03-23 | 1.5 | ② | 26.0kg | 長崎県 五島 | Yellowtail |
| 2024-11-30 | 0.5 | ① | 28.0kg | 長崎県 五島 | Yellowtail |
| 2024-11-30 | 0.5 | ① | 24.0kg | 長崎県 五島 | Yellowtail |
| 2026-01-10 | 6.5 | ⑤ | 23.0kg | 沖縄県 西表島・仲の神島 | Dogtooth |
| 2026-03-01 | 2.5 | ③ | 20.0kg | 沖縄県 西表島・波照間 | Bluefin trevally・GT |
6 of them fell within ±2 days of 사리 (bands ①②), 5 at ±3 days or more. On the yellowtail side, fish over 20 kg came from three trips — six fish — and two of the three sat on the core (±1 day of 사리, band ①). 35.3% of trips were inside that window, so two out of three landing there by chance has a probability of 28.6% (binomial). Like the rates above, it cannot be told apart from chance.
On the GT side, fish over 20 kg came from five trips; the catch day is confirmed for all five, and none was on the core. The odds of missing the core at least this often by chance are 11% — still within noise.
All six came after the year the reel changed. The tackle side of the story (Japanese): the retrieve length mattered more than the tide
| Date | Lunar | Mulddae | JP name | Day | 3-day | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8/1(Sat) | 19 | 11물 | Middle | 40 | 32 | · Outside |
| 8/2(Sun) | 20 | 12물 | Middle | 30 | 26 | · Outside |
| 8/3(Mon) | 21 | 13물 | Middle | 26 | 23 | · Outside |
| 8/4(Tue) | 22 | 조금 | Neap | 22 | 23 | · Outside |
| 8/5(Wed) | 23 | 무시 | Neap | 22 | 24 | · Outside |
| 8/6(Thu) | 24 | 1물 | Neap | 24 | 27 | · Outside |
| 8/7(Fri) | 25 | 2물 | Long | 26 | 32 | · Outside |
| 8/8(Sat) | 26 | 3물 | Young | 30 | 44 | · Outside |
| 8/9(Sun) | 27 | 4물 | Middle | 40 | 62 | △ Edge of the window |
| 8/10(Mon) | 28 | 5물 | Middle | 62 | 82 | ○ Inside the window |
| 8/11(Tue) | 29 | 6물 | Spring | 84 | 95 | ◎ Core of the window |
| 8/12(Wed) | 30 | 7물 | Spring | 100 | 95 | ◎ Core of the window |
| 8/13(Thu) | 1 | 8물 | Spring | 100 | 84 | ○ Inside the window |
| 8/14(Fri) | 2 | 9물 | Spring | 86 | 64 | △ Edge of the window |
| 8/15(Sat) | 3 | 10물 | Middle | 66 | 45 | · Outside |
| 8/16(Sun) | 4 | 11물 | Middle | 40 | 32 | · Outside |
| 8/17(Mon) | 5 | 12물 | Middle | 30 | 26 | · Outside |
| 8/18(Tue) | 6 | 13물 | Middle | 26 | 23 | · Outside |
| 8/19(Wed) | 7 | 조금 | Neap | 22 | 23 | · Outside |
| 8/20(Thu) | 8 | 무시 | Neap | 22 | 24 | · Outside |
| 8/21(Fri) | 9 | 1물 | Neap | 24 | 27 | · Outside |
| 8/22(Sat) | 10 | 2물 | Long | 26 | 32 | · Outside |
| 8/23(Sun) | 11 | 3물 | Young | 30 | 44 | · Outside |
| 8/24(Mon) | 12 | 4물 | Middle | 40 | 62 | △ Edge of the window |
| 8/25(Tue) | 13 | 5물 | Middle | 62 | 82 | ○ Inside the window |
| 8/26(Wed) | 14 | 6물 | Spring | 84 | 95 | ◎ Core of the window |
| 8/27(Thu) | 15 | 7물 | Spring | 100 | 95 | ◎ Core of the window |
| 8/28(Fri) | 16 | 8물 | Spring | 100 | 84 | ○ Inside the window |
| 8/29(Sat) | 17 | 9물 | Spring | 86 | 64 | △ Edge of the window |
| 8/30(Sun) | 18 | 10물 | Middle | 66 | 45 | · Outside |
| 8/31(Mon) | 19 | 11물 | Middle | 40 | 32 | · Outside |
On tuna topwater. We hold only four records; three of them fell on 2물–4물 (the small side of 중물). It is a bait-driven fishery, so slacker water keeps the schools tight and makes bird piles easier to read — the reasoning holds. But it is four records. We are not publishing a table.
On GT. This is not a question of how much data we have. Nor is it a claim that GT is a “reef fish” — the waters this angler happens to fish for GT are simply full of reefs and channels. In that terrain, the day is decided by the hours in which current pushes through a pass or slit — which way it ran, and from when to when. A day-level tide cycle cannot express that in principle. If you are after GT, use the measured tide chart on each spot page.
Real highs and lows differ enormously by location. Always check the measured tide chart on the spot page.
Johor Estuary Barramundi (Chedin)Desaru / PengerangKuantanPulau Pemanggil / Tinggi
Only spots at their peak this month are listed (our own estimate). Spots that are in season but not yet at peak are on each area page: Peninsular Malaysia（17） Borneo（13） Sumatra（9） Java (ponds)（2） Lesser Sunda (Bali+)（3） East Indonesia（3） Thailand（7） Vietnam（1） Philippines（2） Taiwan（4） East Asia (CN/KR)（1） Japan（2） Sri Lanka（1） Papua New Guinea（1） Australia E (QLD)（3） Australia W (WA)（1） New Zealand（8） Micronesia (West)（3） Micronesia (East)（3） Melanesia（11） Polynesia（9） Hawaii & C.Pacific（4）
Our own estimate — a prediction from sources & past trends, not official data. Varies with weather & tides; catches not guaranteed.