# Last Years water Quality



## tjkelly17 (May 27, 2008)

I talked to several buds and guides who continue to say how bad last year water quality was. They say it was the worst in several years. HOw bad was it, compared to years past; and on an average year, how far out do you have to go to find bluewater during the summer for wahoo/dolphin etc


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## amarcafina (Aug 24, 2008)

The water quaility was bad last year due to the flooding that took place on the Mississippi river, dumping tons of slit into the gulf! It should be better this year but only Mother Nature will know!


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## bigone (Jan 2, 2008)

I know on 10-12 offshore/rig trips we had only 2 or 3 that the water conditions were perfect and macthed rip charts/Roffs reports. The water at the spur and north of the spur was horrible most of the summer, although we caught some decent fish it was alot of fuel to run around looking for good water and conditions. Maybe I should switch to bottom fishing where it doesn't matter.


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

I remember checking Supermap last year & several times blue water was 100+ miles out of Destin. :sick


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Needless to say the water quality sucked last year from the end of june til the about september. There were still fish to be caught but trolling wasn't necessarily the best option. We still managed some nice tuna at the rigs by fishing live baits deep with either a breakaway weight or off the downrigger at slow speeds. Same went with wahoo at the nipple and other closer in spots, if your bait got deep(40+ft.)you could still manage a few wahoo. Hopefully we'll get dealt a better hand this year.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

It will have to do with the runoff down the Mississippi and how hard the Mid-West gets hit with spring rain, but it should be a great improvement over last year.


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## Heller High Water (Nov 1, 2007)

Last year we had better water quality in the spring than in the summer. Late in the season you could find some patchy water within 35 miles but it really didnt produce much. Had to be on your A game to have a decent catch last year. HOPEFULLY the fish god will bless us this year. :bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown


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## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

Last year was the worst offshore year that I know of going back to '66 when we started fishing offshore. At various points during the year the MS. River was at 25 and 30 year highs. All that fresh water affects the Gulf. The real pretty water, think Bahamas as they have no rivers and not that much rain,is very high salinity which is also high in oxygen. Offshore fish need and seekhigh oxygen content water. 

Typically the season starts off with good water and green water begins to show mid to late summer. You can catch fish in green water later in the season. I guess they have moved in during the summer following the bait in good waterand if the water gets green they continue to hold around the bait sources.

I'm hoping this year will be better and the fuel bill will be less too!


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## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

Part two....typically out of Destin you have decent chance with Wahoo from 180-300 feet of water around structure. SW of Destin you can hit 300' right at 25 miles out. I've caught decent Wahoo in 100' of water that is only 10 miles So. of Destin. Decent sized Dorado tend to be further offshore. It has been a long time since I have caught a Dorado north of 15 lbs inside of 30 miles from Destin.


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## Downtime2 (Sep 27, 2007)

We tagged our blue in the International 133 miles out. Right where chocolate milk met cobalt. Nasty all the way back. Long run in nasty water. Worst I have ever seen.....


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## tjkelly17 (May 27, 2008)

Thanks for the input. Very interesting. Surely it cant be that bad two years in a row. Maybe this is the year...


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## whatcon (Oct 3, 2007)

I ran across this while trying to see what to expect this year as far as water quality goes. It shows just how much crap really drains into our fishing hole.

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010000/a010057/a010057_H264_640x480.mp4


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

For those interested in river flows the USGS and USACE have some good sites.

The USGS site is blank for LA for some reason today, but I check it pretty often and the Miss. is on the low side of normal at Baton Rouge (it has been green lately, 36%ile last time I checked). You can see by the color coded dots that the floods in the upper Miss basin are being offset by low flow in the Ohio and Tennessee basins.

http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/

The Corps site has good detail data.

http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/new/layout.cfm


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

Here's the last ten years at Baton Rouge from the Corps site.










You can see last year was the highest of the ten. This year looks pretty good so far. They do also divert water at the Old River Cut above Baton Rouge so that can be a little distorted. Here is Natchez.


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## Cutter (Oct 3, 2007)

Ripchart true color from July 2007. Due to all of the flooding in the mid-west, the mighty Missisip had aplume of watering jetting 220+ miles into the GOM.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

wow


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## Joey_d133 (Feb 16, 2009)

I bet the fish were stacked in on that rip though


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

Howdy, 

Here is a shot showing just how far offshore the dirty waterwas positionedlast year (middle of July 2008) - looks like Petronius was the only place with decent water on this day unless you went to Mars/Ursa and beyond....










All the best,

Tom


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