We are back with our week 47 synopsis for the Northern Gulf. As a brief glance-back to the previous week, our forecasted area of interest on the altimetry chart has now been confirmed and we are reporting a high confidence for this area over the next week. The warm water continues to stay close to shore and it has changed from being blended blue to clear green.
We expect the fishing to continue to be hot around the shelf ledges and structure as well as in our area of interest. The fishing in the MS Canyon will remain steady, but pick up once an upwelling event moves back over the area.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
The rain scattered along the Gulf Coast today means that we are going back in time to Monday to find a usable SST chart. You will see on the below image that the warm water continues to stay in close, hanging out at the shelf. Once the colder water (below 70*) begins to move further south then we will see the bait move out as well as the bite on the shelf die off. This event typically happens mid-January for the Northern GoM.
The MS Canyon floaters continue to remain in warmer water around 76-78 degrees. This temperature means the tunas should be up and feeding most hours of the day, which would make sense after seeing the large amounts of smaller YFT be caught.
There are no rips or large sargassum lines of note and to reiterate, we do not look for those this time of the year.
ALTIMETRY
The altimetry this week has a few things to note. The first is the area of interest that we highlighted the last two weeks. We now have high confidence that the fishing there will be strong for the next week. The second is the developing downwelling event that is now over the MS Canyon floaters. We believe that the bite here will remain steady for the next week and will pick up once an upwelling event moves back over the area. The last part is an upwelling that is trying to form to the west of the MS Canyon and looks like it is moving towards the east. This could merge with the area of interest by mid next week.
CURRENTS
The currents this week show a stagnant current over the MS Canyon rigs, which correlates with the downwelling event happening in the MS Canyon. There are still strong current lines to the east over our area of interest highlighted in the altimetry chart. We would seek out the areas of stronger current where you can find bottom structure (ledges, wrecks, fads) and once you find the bait you should find the pelagic species.
CHLOROPHYLL
The chlorophyll charts this week are showing a large swath of blended blue green water starting between 40-50 miles offshore. The nearshore ledges will all have clean green water on them and water clarity will not affect wahoo or blackfin tuna fishing. If you find the bait you will find the fish, regardless of the water color this time of the year. Another thing to note is that there is a push of bluewater, we believe being associated with the upwelling event, that is moving to the east over the MS Canyon rigs.
