What You Need To Know About The Weather And Sea Conditions Forecast

From time to time, we get phone calls from customers about the weather a week before their fishing trip.   Our job as professional guides is to calm your fears or nervousness about going deep sea fishing.  We have the best marine forecasts in the world.  NOAA even placed a weather buoy just 12 miles south of Orange Beach.   This gives us accurate sea conditions and wave height.

What you need to know is, sure, weather does play a major role in whether or not you will have a flat calm day or a normal 2 to 3 foot swell.  Sure, winds, storms and rough seas sometimes cause us to cancel a trip.  This is especially true during the spring and fall season. Expect to go fishing if the sea conditions are less than 3 feet, most of the time we can go fishing.  Even if it is forecasting rain, we still go as long as the seas are not too rough.

What you need to know is we will never intentionally put you out in unsafe conditions.  Unlike the airlines that after take off, can get above the bad weather, once we depart, we are in the sea conditions, whatever they may be.  Sometimes the sea conditions remain constant, and sometimes they get worse as the trip goes on, or they subside.   We promise to always do our best to interpret the forecast so you have a great trip.

If the weather and sea conditions are looking iffy, we will try to communicate with you in advance of your trip.  If you do not hear from us, expect to show up on time at the boat or at the marina.

This is the weather you see when you open your smart phone.  This forecast is not accurate enough for fishing.

The Windfinder Smart Phone App

For illustration purposes, in the picture below, the smart phone app shows us that on Wednesday at 7 am, the wind is supposed to be coming from the North at 13 knots, gusting to 17 knots.  The seas are forecast to be from the south southwest and be 1.9 feet in height. The waves are 6 seconds apart.  This means the wind and wave height are within our boundaries and we will expect to go fishing.

This is the APP we use to determine the wind direction, wind speed and wave direction and wave height.  These are more accurate for what we are doing.

The Marine Weather Forecast

The picture below comes from the national weather service.  It shows almost an entire week’s forecast.  We use these two forecasts and compare them with each other.  If you look at Wednesday, it shows that they too are forecasting east winds at 1 to 2 feet.  By comparing these two forecasts, we are able to make a better guess as what to expect from the wind and waves on the day you want to go fishing.

This is a marine weather forecast specifically for our area and out to 20 nm offshore.

What You Should Expect

We hope every day is a beautiful sunny day and there is a gentle sea wind blowing in your hair.   We always want the seas to be calm.  Unfortunately, the wind and waves vary from day to day or hour to hour.

If seas are 3 feet or less and the waves are 4 seconds apart, we will likely go fishing.  The key to going is having the waves far apart as you can get them.  A 3 foot sea and 6 second wave period is almost calm.  It’s just a big swell and it’s safe and enjoyable to go.

If the wind is blowing less than 20 knots, we generally plan on going fishing as long as the seas are not bigger than 3 feet.  An average day is 10 to 15 knot winds and seas are about 2 feet.

We hope this page helps calm your fears and let’s you know we will always do our best to ensure you have a good fishing trip.  Be sure to read our policies page so you will find out how we handle weather and cancellations.

PLEASE KEEP YOUR PHONE YOU RESERVED YOUR TRIP UNDER WITH YOU!  Sometimes we have to call you and update you about weather, sea conditions and possibly change departure times or cancel trips.