This week for the Alabama region in Hiltons we are forecasting an excellent week of fishing for when the weather gives you a chance to go fishing. The cooler temperatures that we are feeling on land are also being felt by the fish as a welcome relief to what was an incredibly hot summer. This time of the year we are not focused on finding rips or temp breaks as much as we are looking to fish structure.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
If you click the THU Oct 26, 2023 07:40 UTC sea surface temperature (SST) shot, you will want to adjust it to be a max of 79 and a minimum of 75 to see what we are talking about. There is a push of warmer water that has settled from the nipple area working its way north to the southwest ledge and then across to the Ozark. This warm water push extends as far south as the double nipples and the FADs and we are seeing the temp being right around 79 for most deepwater oil rigs. If you go back to Tuesday’s (TUE Oct 24, 2023 02:40UTC) completely clear shot, you will see there is a temp break starting around the Viosca Knoll area and ending at the yellow gravel area. This area matches up with the bluewater push that we see on the chlorophyll chart and is worth monitoring into the weekend to see if it continues to come together.
ALTIMETRY
The latest altimetry shot for the day shows an upwelling happening at the deepwater oil rigs, which makes sense because there has been an extremely hot bite at the rigs for the last two weeks. This nutrient dense-water is being pushed to the surface near these structures which is the start of the food chain for pelagic predators. We expect these deepwater oil rigs to be holding fish for the next few months as long as the good altimetry stays on top of them.
CURRENTS
The latest current shot for the day shows the currents moving in a counterclockwise rotation in the same area that we are seeing the blue in the upwelling. You will also see where the currents break off of the counterclockwise direction and are headed north northwest towards the elbow and nipple area. The nipple and yellow gravel area would be an incredible place to fish this weekend for wahoo and blackfin if you can find a good bottom structure to troll. There are also strong current lines (For the Alabama Region) running through the squiggles straight north for guys fishing out of PCB that might want to hit the shelf in that area for wahoo and blackfin also.
CHLOROPHYLL
The latest chlorophyll shot (select 3 day shot) shows a big push of deep blue water that starts near Viosca Knoll over off of Louisiana and extends east northeast all the way to the nipple. The Gulf north of that bluewater push looks to be a clear green or blended blue green water, which is still ideal for chasing pelagic predators. We would expect that if you headed straight south from Orange Beach or Pensacola it would gradually go from green, to blended, to blue and we would not expect to be fishing a rip this time of the year as stated above. We would still choose either to run to the oil rigs for marlin and yellowfin tunas or to fish structure in 200-300 feet of water for wahoos and blackfins.