Hello people. I am hoping to get some direction on doing offshore fishing. Perticularly about gathering some accurate info about the surface conditions of the water. I have found noaa marine forecast to predict wave heights. I would assume coming from such a reputable source it would be pretty accurate. Can anyone comfirm? Also, in your experience, what would be the max wave height you would go out in?
Any information pertaining to an enjoyable day on the water out there would be awesome. Doesn’t even have to be just about wave height. I guess you could consider this as responsible research to attempt some offshore fishing come better weather next year.
Good luck! In my opinion 50% of the learning curve for offshore fishing is learning how to interpret the weather predictions. You need to look at wind direction, wind speed and location of high pressures in addition to predicted wave height. It is not unusual for the NOAA forecast to be 2 - 3 ft with a 20 knot Northeast wind and the Edisto buoy showing 6 ft wave height. The best days are when a high pressure is sitting directly on us. Like most of us you will probably have to learn “the hard way”.
Parker 2520
Like the lizard said. You can have 4’ seas that are just swells and no problem, or 3’ that are 4 seconds apart and will beat you up. Mostly, avoid any wind out of the north east. That is almost always nasty. Winds from the west at 5-10 are mostly pretty good. And any forecast more than one day out is not trustworthy.
Olde Man Charters
843-478-1538
Oldemancharters@gmail.com
286 Seafox/Twin 300’s
Spend some time figuring out how to use the forecast charts that pop up when you click on the dots offshore on this map
http://www.sailflow.com/map#32.006,-80.151,9,1
wave height and interval, wind speed and direction are all on these charts. with other stuff
Thanks fellas. All valuable information.
Afishianado, on the graph chart, can you tell me what"per (s)" means?
I have an idea but don’t want to sound like an idiot
seconds between waves. 10 would be 6 waves per minute. Higher “per(s)” numbers are better. When it gets down below 8 that’s bad IMO
Below the "per(s) column is the days column. Hold mouse down on that and slide across the days to see what that does.