It’s on. The season is officially here. We kick off this weekend with the first billfish tournaments of the Gulf circuit, the Billfish Extravaganza and Louisiana Gulf Coast Billfish Classic. We will start getting routine reports from the top fishing teams in the Gulf of Mexico over the next few weeks.
We anticipate that this next week is going to be incredible fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a combination of incredible water that has been hanging around our area, with a backflow eddie that pushed warm water, bait, and pelagics closer to the shelf, and the SST temp is 72+ across the entire Gulf of Mexico.
Sea Surface Temperature
There was a great SST shot this morning and we have zoomed in on the screenshot below so we can start to highlight a few areas where we believe there could be rips forming. We scaled the shot from 72-78 degrees to get this higher resolution. You will see just north of the spur there is a great rip that has been sitting in this area for quite a while now. We would expect that there is a sargassum line formed up right around there.
To the east towards the squiggles there’s also a potential rip area, denoted by the red line drawn on the map. You can also see a backflow eddie shooting into the madison swanson, with another rip towards the west there.
Altimetry
The upwelling continues to sit over the MS Canyon, which we are hoping brings incredible fishing to the Billfish Extravaganza and the Louisiana Gulf Coast Billfish Classic. The backflow eddie that shot into the spur area has now rescinded south and is sitting over Lloyds Ridge right now. There is a nice pocket of water sitting over the eastern fads and towards the squiggles.
Currents
The most interesting thing about the current shot right now is the strong current line between the FADs headed straight north towards Oriskany. This line also circles back around the nipple and yellow gravel area. We would expect that this area is holding pelagics like wahoos and blackfins around the structure that the current intersects. This can be sunken wrecks, ledges, or natural bottom areas.
Chlorophyll
We did not get a clear shot the last 3 days, so we are working off of a 7 day image. The shot does give a great view of what the water looks like in the Gulf of Mexico though, so check it out below!
