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Ever since we began using
the ocean for transportation, the direction of currents and
their characteristics were important to navigation. In
present time, the knowledge of the currents and knowing how
to recognize and use these currents can spell success or
failure when fishing.
The color of warm water
currents tends to be a beautiful blue color, but the cooler
currents tend to be green. When the two butt together, a
distinct color line or rip is formed and a great area to
begin fishing. Both side of the rip should be fished; you
don’t know where the fish could be. You think it would be
the worm side, but not always. The ocean bottom, current
edges, eddies and up welling brings nutrients and baitfish
to the surface and the pelagic fish will follow. When the
right conditions are present, we can spot these rips,
eddies, up wellings and color changes and then fish these
areas for great success.
The definition of an ocean
current is a horizontal movement of water over the ocean
surface. Currents are propelled by wind circulation. Large
currents are generated by energy flows from the tropics to
the polar regions and these large ocean currents have
constraints: continental land masses. The land masses cause
the currents to form a circular motion that is called a
gyre. In the North Atlantic, the western boundary current
that we’re concerned with is the Gulf Stream. It runs from
the Florida Straits northward along the east coast and into
the North Atlantic. The Gulf Stream is a deep ocean current
traveling 24 to 75 miles a day and the Western Boundary
currents can reach down to 3,300 feet below the ocean
surface. The Western Boundary Currents are as follows: North
Atlantic – Gulf Stream: North Pacific – Kuroshio: South
Atlantic – Brazil: South Pacific – East Australia: and
Indian Ocean – Agulhas.
In the Atlantic, Northern
Hemisphere, there are three major currents, Gulf Stream,
Canary, and North Equatorial, which form a gyre that is
known as the Sargasso Sea. In this area an ocean estuary is
born of sargassum weed that harbors all kind of ocean life.
Storms and wind shear weeds from the gyre that from the
great weed lines in the Gulf Stream and the Gulf of Mexico
we strive to locate and fish.
There are also slower
moving subsurface currents that move throughout the oceans
due to the differences in the seawater densities. The
differing densities are a result of water temperature and
salinities.
In the North Atlantic, the
seawater begins a “downwelling”, or downward movement, that
is caused by high evaporation rates, which cools the water
and decreases the salinity. The seawater moves southward
along the east coast of North America and South America
until it reaches Antarctica. The cold, dense seawater moves
eastward and then splits into two northward currents. One
current moves into the Indian Ocean along the east coat of
Africa and looping around the coast of India. The other
branch flows into the North Pacific along Asia and loops
along the Allusion Islands and southward along the west coat
of North America and then westward above Australia and meets
the India branch. The two branches form one current and move
south of South Africa and northward along the west coast of
Africa and Europe into the North Atlantic to complete the
journey. This journey takes an estimated 1,000 years to
complete. |
