I leave the city to fish suburb and country ponds/lakes.  But I ride my bike over this river a lot  b/c its only 10 blocks from my house.  The weather has been so nice that I'm gonna give it a second try and wet a line.  This is the Schuylkill River that runs through Philadelphia, merges with the Delaware River and into the Atlantic. It's tidal water.  There is a dam 1/2 mile north of these pix/map link.  I have tried fishing above the dam but it's a barren waste land. It is a very heavily populated area. Every small fish ends up on the end of a bait hook and every decent fish ends up in the frying pan.  This lower section however is tidal and less pressured so I think it may produce some fish.  I know guys just below the dam catch shad, striper, smallies/LM, catfish and carp.  There is a nice park along the river so I was going to walk the path and flip a tube along the walls for smallies (and I never see anglers along this section as opposed to above the dam).  And I can fish the eddies behind the bridge pillars from above (the pillar in the pix with my finger covering lens are at least 10x15').

I don't know much about large river fishing and/or tidal water. What is the best time to fish it?--high tide, on the back end of HT, incoming/out going? Any suggestions on how/when to fish it?

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=schuylkill++river&ll=39.954516,-75.180219&spn=0.000789,0.001321&hnear=Schuylkill+River&gl=us&t=h&z=20

In tidal fishing an important factor is knowing which species favor incoming or outgoing tide.  Rule of thumb is a period of time (like 30 or 60 minutes) just before and after a tide change, we call that the "window".  That's the time baitfish are usually more abundant, which brings in the gamefish.

The Schuylkill has smallies and largemouth in the tidal section. Try and fish around the 2 hours of the tide change, last hour of outgoing, and first of incoming or vice versa. Not a big population of bass, but they are there and catchable.

Best tidal action is south on the Upper Chesapeake Bay tidal Rivers, about an hour ride to the Northeast River.

I'm borderline defended that you didn't ask me first!!!

I'm borderline defended that you didn't ask me first!!!

don't put the cat in a burlap sack and toss him off the bridge. let him out of the bag!