SORD HILTON’S WEEKLY SYNOPSIS
WEEK 52 SYNOPSIS
The final week of the year and it looks like we will have a nice weather window to fish once more in the Northern GoM on Sunday.
We are projecting average fishing for the last few days of 2023 and into the new year. There have been multiple cold fronts that have moved through the past 4 weeks, which has significantly cooled off the Gulf of Mexico. In previous years, the water temperature has stayed higher than it is right now, so we are not certain that we will have the same winter wahoo bite that was hot in January and February last year. You will see last January’s SST below and you can compare that to the current SST and conclude that we should have a below average winter season off of Orange Beach/Destin/Panama City Beach.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
If you scroll back to Thursday’s satellite shots, you will pull up 3 very usable shots to get an overal idea of what the Gulf looks like right now.
The northern areas closer to land are showing temperatures below 70, which would rule out any true pelagic fishing this time of the year. We would avoid any areas showing black in the far north for trolling. The further south you move you will see that there is slightly warmer water in the 71-73 degree mark. This is still on the colder side for Pelagics, but they will stay in this temperature as long as there is bait around for them to eat. Near the spur you will see an even slightly higher temperature from 72-74, which is still the lower end of comfortability… but you are most likely going to find the majority of your fish in this area. We would focus on targeting structure/ledges/rigs/etc. that are in this warmer water. Further south you go you will see a much warmer 74-76 degree water which is ideal temperatures for almost every pelagic fishing save for mahi-mahi which are typically caught in much warmer waters.
ALTIMETRY
The shot from this week is showing favorable conditions forming closer to the double nipple area and almost out to the eastern fads. There is still a very nice upwelling south of Lloyds ridge and extends as far west as Ursa, Mars, Titan, Blackhawk, etc. If we had unlimited range we would be fishing the rigs on the edges of this upwelling.
CURRENTS
We are seeing stronger current lines to the east of the eastern fads that are moving directly north. This area of current intersects the warm water push that we have seen on the SST chart making it a prime area for the next few days. The area of water around the MS Canyon rigs is slightly moving west, but looks slack for the most part.
CHLOROPHYLL
There is not anything to write about in the Chlorophyll chart this week. Find the bait and you will find the fish regardless of the color of the water right now.
WEEK 3 SYNOPSIS
If it wasn’t a brutal storm, then let it be sub-freezing temps… this winter we can’t seem to catch a break. Our prediction for this week’s fishing is below average, unless you have the ability to run 100+nm to get to the warmer water in the MS Canyon or Green Canyon.
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
To get a good idea of the SST this week, you have to go back to Monday’s shot that did not have much cloud cover. The MS Canyon water has warmed up a touch from the past week to be between 71-72 degrees. The rigs over here will be holding tunas for the entire winter, but finding a weather window to get out to them is the biggest challenge. The rest of the northern gulf is falling in the 68-71 degrees range, which is the very far low end of the spectrum that you can catch pelagics on. We believe that it is not worth it to go troll closer in at these temperatures. It is better to wait for a weather window when you can reach the warm water in the MS Canyon than to “just go”... especially in the cold and wet temperatures we are seeing right now.
ALTIMETRY
Man do I love a good altimetry shot. This week’s shot shows three separate upwelling events, with one of them an area of interest that is closer than in previous weeks. This upwelling event should bring much needed nutrients to the surface that will allow for great “future fishing” opportunities due to the SST being on the far cold end of the spectrum. You will also see that there are two constant upwellings south of the MS Canyon that have been there for two weeks or more. These two will be fun to track once we start to move into more prime time fishing season of March/April/May.
CURRENTS
There is not much to write about for this week’s current shot. We have slack current over the MS Canyon and the two constant upwelling events shown on here.
CHLOROPHYLL
There is not a great report on the Chlorophyll chart right now and it has remained this way for the past 7 weeks. We will start monitoring the changes in Chlorophyll when we have our first meaningful change this year. Below is the most recent satellite shot.
WEEK 4 SYNOPSIS
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
The shot that we are looking at is back to yesterday afternoon’s shot, so if you go into the archives you’ll be able to find this one. We scaled our shot from 65* to 79* and it gave us a good indication of what you will see when you are out there. The water closest to land is a frigid less than 67 degrees, the second layer here is 68-70 degrees, and the third layer is 70-71 degrees. If you continue to look further out into the Gulf you will see some warmer water, but that is mostly out of reach for even the biggest of sportfishing boats. We are looking forward to temperatures warming up come mid to end of March, where there will be more to look at on the sea surface temperature chart.
ALTIMETRY
The altimetry shot right now is showing three main upwellings extremely far south, with the furthest west one edging the Green Canyon. If you have a boat leaving from Louisiana, we would focus on chasing the edge of that upwelling and fishing rigs that are on the edge or inside of that upwelling. There is a small downwelling sitting over the MS Canyon rigs right now, but if you can find bait in this area you should be able to find some predators behind them.
Further inland there are some blue spots that denote an upwelling, but after evaluating the currents chart, it looks like these may just be pockets of very cold/dense water closer to land that are showing up as full upwellings.
CURRENTS
The currents this week are showing mostly stagnant water hanging around close to shore, with a little bit of current still pushing north through the squiggles and eastern fads.
CHLOROPHYLL
For the first time in about 8 weeks, we see a slight change in the chlorophyll shots this week where there looks like a defining line that separates the deep green water from the blended blue green water. There still are not any distinctly blue parts this week, but we will continue to track when the blue water starts moving back into our area.
WEEK 5 SYNOPSIS
It is fishing time boys and girls! If you have not checked the weather, check it, and get that boat ready to go. We are writing the synopsis a week early because we will be out on the water the next two days chasing some fish. If you see the team in Venice tomorrow afternoon, come over and say hello. This week’s synopsis is looking good for those who are able to run far to find some fish. We did get a report of a few wahoo coming out of cold water, so we want to retract our statement from the previous weeks that the water temperature is a little too cold for wahoo. They are out there if you put in the work to go find them!
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
The shot we are looking at is today’s most recent shot, which is the first time this has happened in the past few weeks. You will see in the shot below that there is an area of warm water hovering around the MS Canyon rigs, with colder 66-68* water directly north of there. It looks like a very good temperature break just south of the Double Nipple that could be worth checking out. We have confirmation from a boat that fished yesterday that actual water temperatures from a GPS unit are probably a few degrees below what Hilton’s is currently showing, but the fish are still there. If you can find the bait, you will find the fish!
ALTIMETRY
The Altimetry shot for this week confirms what we talked through last week that the cold, dense water close to the coast is showing up as a downwelling when in fact it is just cold water. There is a slight downwell hovering over the MS Canyon area and if you are looking to chase big pelagic species we would fish directly south of Venice for wahoos this time of the year. The tunas are not as affected by altimetry this time of the year as they are chasing bait all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi. This also follows what we said in the previous paragraph, if you find the bait you will find the fish.
CURRENTS
We will take a break from currents this week since nothing has changed, but we want to take a minute to talk through what the loop current looks like in the Gulf of Mexico. You can see here that there are two currents active in this chart. We are going to watch for the loop current that is outlined here to hopefully begin to move a bit further north, which will then spin off backflow eddies into the prime fishing grounds that we have reached. These backflow eddies create upwellings that force nutrients to the surface, thereby starting the food chain for pelagic species.
CHLOROPHYLL
The Chlorophyll chart does not have much to write home about this week as cloud cover has affected the shot from being taken clearly.
