This week’s synopsis will be short and sweet, mainly due to the amount of cloud covering all of the major shots as this front rolls in. We have been hearing mixed reports across the Gulf, with nothing being “on fire” just yet. There have been a few yellowfin tunas caught at the FADs, swordfish at the spur, and we had a report of some wahoo caught closer in.
We are unsure about how the fishing is going to be this week close to shore as no one has had a banner trip just yet, but we are anticipating that the fishing picks up any moment now.
Sea Surface Temperature
The shot this week is a bit covered by clouds, but later tonight and into tomorrow we should hopefully get some clear shots. Get your subscription to Hilton’s before the season starts so you can check it out on the days that we are not writing a synopsis.
We have seen a small push of warm water that has made it to the Oriskany and the Ozark off of Pcola/Destin, but we are not extremely excited about this just yet. If you are headed out this week, focus on trolling over steel structure, or well-defined ledges because that will be the first place that the bait starts to hang out and then the wahoo are not far behind.
Altimetry
A nice upwelling has pushed through the MS Canyon ending around the double nipple area. If we were headed out today with unlimited range, we would start fishing near the ghetto rigs and then work our way further south. There is a backflow eddy that is pushing warmer water into our area on the east side of the Gulf of Mexico and it reaches about 40 miles from the squiggles. We are hoping that this continues to push a lot of warm water into our area.
A downside right now is the giant downwelling sitting in the green canyon that we anticipate will move into our area at some point once the backflow eddie moves further offshore.
Currents
The backflow eddie that we talked about last week is still moving strong, but it is turning to the west just south of the FADs. We are watching this closely to see if it brings more warm water into our area. If you subscribe to Hilton’s go take a look at the currents chart in the green canyon, it is a textbook backflow and a very wild one sending lots of currents into the green canyon area and is what we are hoping will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico into our area.
Chlorophyll
There is no chlorophyll report today as the cloud cover is too extensive. You can see a 7 day shot below.
