A tide chart is more important than an early start, slack water as a rule means slow fishing.
With some species it means no fishing.
If you ever decide to go to the keys to fish on the reefs, there are 6 things you need to remember.
The first 3 are picking the time of day the water/current is moving.
The second three is keeping the chum flowing.
When one or the other stops, so does the fishing.