Generally, four tides a day means twice as much quality fishing opportunity as two tides a day. That said, areas like Rockport and Baffin Bay, where bay-to-Gulf passes are few and far between, tend to have water movement far more dictated by wind than tides.
The critical factor is the amount of rise and fall. You mention the 0.04 measurement, for example. This would translate to a near-nonexistent amount of fall (4/100 of an inch below mean tide level) as opposed to -(?)0.35 (as for the minus sign question mark, I am guessing you are pitching the negative reading out as a for-instance possibility as opposed to a quote from a tide table, since the high tide measurement would show an increase in the water level, in this case of just over 3/10 of an inch above mean tide level).
My revamped website/blog,
www.coastalanglers.com, has a Tide Prediction page which, if you plug in the dates and location, will provide accurate info (and rest assured, the geographic location up and down the coast does play a role as well, since all readings are based upon specific measurement stations, such as the Clear Lake Channel or Aransas Jetties, etc.).
Further complicating matters is the fact that wind can play such a major role in seasonal water levels. A hard north wind blows the water out, and can create dangerous navigation scenarios in oyster-heavy bays like West Galveston Bay. Conversely, a strong, pumping south wind blows the water in (the most extreme example being during a tropical storm or hurricane, when a massive amount of water from far out in the Gulf is carried in via a "storm surge").
When you are fishing bay areas with sloughs or feeder channels, a falling tide tends to be great (when sufficient water is dropping to pull forage species out of the sloughs and deposit the baitfish, crabs and shrimp into the areas near the shorelines). A north wind can, again, exaggerate this effect, which can make areas like this prime fishing locales at this time of year ... especially several days after a cold front, and specifically in shallow areas with dark mud bottoms that draw and hold heat.
All that considered ... and I sure as heck don't claim to have all the answers (and anyone who does is kidding himself), a lot of this boils down to the specific area you fish ... deep water or shallow, jetties or flats, etc. As a rule of thumb, if you can fish any area in which the water level and/or bottom contour/consistency changes considerably in a short distance, you are working in a promising area. Color changes, and perhaps foremost, the presence of bait/forage species are also key indicators for productive casting.
Hope this helps at least a bit.
Good fishing and a very happy holiday to you and yours ...
Boz
