The Saltwater Magazine for Gulf Coast Fishing!
OFFSHORE CURRENT PREDICTIONS... Whether you dive, fish or just like to float around, this table provides you the relative strengths of current in the West Gulf on the day you plan to journey offshore.
How is this information useful to fisherman? Read on...
The type of currents prevailing in the deeper waters of the Gulf are completely different from the tidal currents which flood and ebb in the coastal bays. Offshore currents are called Rotary Currents.
Research has proven that all offshore fishing is controlled by these currents. Current speed dictates when life in the seas will be active or become quiet and listless. The theory of fishing with the rotary currents was first published by Harold Wells in 1965.
This table provides provides you the ability to choose the days when offshore rotary currents will be most favorable.
On the scale, the figure 10 represents average speed and time duration of approximately three hours of movement. This movement is followed by a three hour period of diminishing current speed and, therefore, feeding activity.
Each number above, or below the average number 10 represents an increase or decrease of 5 percent in strength of flow and fifteen minutes in additional or less time.
As an example, a speed rating of 15 shows a current flowing 25 percent stronger than average and lasting one hour and fifteen minutes longer than average currents. This 15 rating will have four hours and fifteen minutes activity out of each six hour period of tidal cycle for that day. A speed rating of 6 shortens the time of activity by one hour and has 20 percent less strength than an average current.
The longer and stronger current action always indicates the better fishing days offshore.
There is no clearly defined line to indicate where the rotary currents become onshore tidal currents. It is generally accepted that waters over 5 fathoms (30 feet deep) will have rotary currents.
MORE ABOUT ROTARY CURRENTS...
The characteristic action of rotary currents is a continuous speeding up and slowing down process. Normally, a minimum velocity increases to the maximum velocity over a period of approximately three hours. The velocity then gradually slows to the minimum in the next three hours. These currents never come to a complete stop or a slack water period as there is no reversing movement.On an average day there will be three hours of feeding action followed by an equal time of minimal activity in each six hour period of that day.
This rotary type current, not being confined to a definite channel, changes direction of its flow continually. In a tidal cycle of 12 hours and 25 minutes, the direction will have swung the full 360 degrees. This constant change of direction is always clockwise on the compass rose.
While this change of direction averages 30 degrees each hour, the degrees of change each hour are not constant. As a rule, the direction of flow changes least when the current is flowing at its maximum speed and the greatest change of direction occurs during the hours of minimum current. Thus, some hours may see the current direction swing as much as 40 to 50 degrees, while others show a change of only 10 to 15 degrees. This can be important to you because while the fish are not biting during a lull in the current, you can swing off the spot where they will be feeding when the current stirs them again up.
(There's 3 months of Rotary Current predictions in each issue of Gulf Coast Fisherman magazine.)