Hilton’s Offshore — Here is a recap of fishing conditions off of the Mississippi Delta this past weekend; all of the images are from Saturday, May 02, 2020. There were contrasting stories of success and not so much success — looking back in time allows you to understand and learn what is important and not so important when viewing the charts to determine where to go tomorrow based on recent historical catches.

Hilton’s not only provides the ability to look back in time (a few hours to several years), but also provides the tools (Hilton’s Electronic Logbook Program H.E.L.P.) to reconstruct your fishing trip, fish catch locations relative to that day’s imageries, and save as a log for future reference.

There is a massive upwelling cyclone way offshore (dark blue in the altimetry shot) situated between the Loop Current and huge warm core eddy to the east. This time of year we (and the fish) are looking for warmer water — later in the summer we will be looking for cooler water.

The top image shows the massive warm core eddy on the east side with a backflow eddy pushing this plume of warm cobalt blue water westward fueled by the counterclockwise northern currents of the cyclone. I have created a route along the northern edge of this plume using our Trip Planner.

You can compare that route showing the position of that edge to all of your other parameters; bottom topography, water color, altimetry, surface currents, or… it’s own history allowing to to understand the dynamics relative to which way it is going and how fast so that you can plan to intercept it.

Seeing the relationship of this surface structure to bottom topography can be important – intersection points, for example where this break runs across the shelf at the West Florida Slope is notable since some fish are following the shelf and some are following the break. There will be a bell curve of fish numbers at these intersection points increasing your chances of success.

Although blue water has pushed northward past Horn Mountain and near the Double Nipple, the lack of current became a MAJOR issue according to several reports I received back. Although there were a few fish caught south of Horn Mountain and Delta House, look at where there is good current and you will see where most of the fish were caught this weekend.

This includes not only the structures where this warm plume of blue water hooks northward into the various spars/drillships off of the Mississippi Canyon, but further west where very similar conditions (same good current, warm, blue water) pushing through the Green Canyon area.

Having the ability to look back in time really helps in determining where to go tomorrow. Hilton’s can H.E.L.P. you!

All the best,

Thomas J. Hilton
www.HiltonsOffshore.com