We are back with our week 49 synopsis for the Northern Gulf. We have not received any first hand fishing reports yet other than there were a few small wahoo caught at the western FADs this past week.
This week we are forecasting above average fishing conditions if the weather allows you to get out there. Find the warmer water, current, and structure, and you should be able to locate a good area for fishing. There are still wahoo around in that warmer water close to the shelf and we believe the tuna fishing in the MS canyon should be HOT this week with the altimetry conditions changing for the better.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
There was a perfect shot this week of the SST if you go to the Thu Dec 07, 2023 07:00 UTC shot. If you want to see the exact image that we are working on below here, then scale your shot from 78 to 71 degrees so that the breaks are more drastic.
You will see in this shot that there is a push of warm water starting from south of the squiggles and working its way northwest to end around the nipple area. This time of the year you are wanting to look for the warmer sea surface temperatures, so we would fish the warmest water that you can find that overlaps structure. The eastern fads are in warmer water than the western ones, so we would prefer those due to this temperature difference.
The MS Canyon rigs are showing a range of water temperatures from 72-75 degrees. We believe the tuna bite will remain steady and hot throughout the winter from the MS Canyon to the shelf and over to the Viosca Knoll/Lumps area.
ALTIMETRY
The altimetry over the last 7 days has remained consistent with last week’s report, with the addition that the areas on the fringes of the MS canyon rigs are starting to show positive upwelling signs. This should mean that the fishing near the Proteus, Appomattox, Blind Faith, Horn Mountain, Nakika, etc. should become extremely good over the next week.
There are no altimetry reports to write about closer into shore as it remains the same as last week.
CURRENTS
The currents this week look stronger than they have in previous weeks. The strong current line that is running northwest is also correlated with the warmer water push that we are seeing in our SST shot from this week. This would mean that any structure (floating or bottom) near the stronger current lines and pushing into the nipple would be areas of interest to fish and a place that we believe bait will be holding.
There are also signs of the upwelling event near the MS Canyon happening as marked by the arrows in the picture.
CHLOROPHYLL
There is also not much to write home about in the SST shot from today as it is covered up by clouds. You will see the 7 day aggregated SST shot below, which shows that the majority of the gulf is still in blended blue/green water.
