We are back with our week 48 synopsis for the Northern Gulf. It has been 9 days since the last synopsis, so we are excited to dive in and see what has changed since Tuesday last week.
Our personal report is that we did not catch any wahoo close in over the last week. The water temp was 73 and we believe it is going to start dropping off over the next month. The fish will begin to move out to warmer waters and we should start to see a good bit of fish caught at the fads over the next two months.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
To get the accurate SST shot, check out the Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:50UTC shot from hiltons. We scaled this from 65-76 to get a better look at the shot. Starting close to Destin/Pensacola you will see a large blob of 72-75 degree water sitting near the shelf. This water should continue to produce wahoo until the temperature drops below 70 degrees. We have found in our area that once it falls below 72, we generally stop seeing them caught consistently close to shore.
The north central gulf around the FADs is holding at a constant 73-75 degrees. This area should be conducive for wahoo and tunas, with the occasional winter billfish.
Southwest of the Mississippi river mouth, you can see that the temperature is holding a bit higher than the rest of the Gulf. This is normal and expected for this time of the year and is the place where incredible numbers of wahoo like to hang out around heavy structures.
ALTIMETRY
The altimetry over the last 9 days has had some considerable changes. The first is that our area of interest near the fads has moved further south, away from the FADS and into open water. For an interesting take this week, if you turn on the “loop image” for the altimetry, you can see the effects of multiple days of north winds last week happening in video mode.
The second part is that we have a new area of interest building south of the MS River and we will watch that development over the next 7 days. Our hope is that this moves into the MS Canyon (Proteus, Appomattox, Nakika, Blind Faith, Thunderhawk/horse) and brings with it big tunas and the occasional marlin ready to eat.
CURRENTS
The currents are showing a stagnant current up to 60 miles off the coast. There are some stronger current lines running north west through the squiggles and the FADs that should be bringing warmer, moving water into the eastern FADs.
You can see in the picture below the area of interest that was over the fads has now moved south as also represented in the Altimetry shot. These are the arrows that are in the center of the image.
CHLOROPHYLL
There is not much to write home about the Chlorophyll this week. Most of the northern gulf is showing a blended blue/green color, without any deep blue areas.
