The Gulf of Mexico keeps getting better and better. We’re feeling like a kid right before Christmas… except Christmas is 3 months long. We’re talking about April, May, and June… the second best three month stretch in the Gulf, outshined only by October through December. We received reports back from quite a few different places with blue marlins, plentiful small YFT, and of course the jumbo bite off of Louisiana.
We are forecasting a great week of fishing in the Northern Gulf if the weather allows you to get out there. There should be plenty of fish to be caught in the MS Canyon, especially 50-70# yellowfin tunas, and the jumbos should stick around closer to the shelf off of Louisiana. The backflow eddy that spun off the loop current has now started to rescind, but the plus side here is that the nice water reached the FADS which are in reach for many from the Northern Gulf.
Sea Surface Temperature
There was a clear shot from earlier today that we are doing our analysis on. You will see an almost distinct line running from the Ram Powell across the FADS and then ending just west of the Madison Swanson. We expect the warm side of this line to be holding pelagics. Once you hit 75 degrees, start looking for contours to fish or floating structure. This temperature is a great temp for most pelagic species.
Altimetry
The altimetry this week shows a downwelling that is starting to move to the south. This downwelling is associated with the backflow eddy that had moved into the area and is now rescinding from the area back to the loop current. The upwelling that is over the MS Canyon right now is moving to the northeast and hopefully bringing in nutrient rich water to the shelf. This time of the year I love to troll the “highways” or the lines between upwelling and downwellings.
Currents
The strong backflow eddy that had moved into our area has started to veer to the east rather than still pushing to the north. This will continue to rescind back to the loop current and we should see current levels go back to normal in our area. You will see that the edges of the upwelling moving into the MS Canyon are being shown here in the currents shot. There are still current lines running west to east through the fads right now in that area of interest that we outlined last week. We would still highlight this area as an area of interest and if you find any rips or sargassum lines there, it would be worth it to stop and troll for a few minutes.
Chlorophyll
The chlorophyll shot has been covered by clouds north of the FADS so we drew in roughly what we expect to be there… green water. The backflow eddy pushed in some great blue water all through the MS Canyon reaching as far north as the Petronius and then it stretches east to FAD7. If you can find areas where the blue water meets the green, spend some time trolling through this area. The bonus of this clear water is that we should begin to see more bait moving into our area and we tend to see a hotter swordfish bite when the water is clear and blue.
