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The Do's and Don'ts of Warm-Core Eddies
The Do’s and Don’ts of Warm-Core Eddies
September/October 2002 - Big Game Fishing Journal
Len Belcaro and I have not always been friends. My reason to dislike Capt. Len was simple. I spent from 1972 to 1983 proving to the world that warm-core eddies exist and are the key to successful canyon fishing. For 10 years, making 25 to 30 overnight, two and three day canyon trips, I risked life and limb to prove my point. Then, in the early 1980’s, here comes Len Belcaro with a computer, accessing satellites and telling people not only where the fish are but where they are most likely to bite. Hell, I was at the shelf with 25 to 30 know winds, 120 miles from shore, and Len was sitting in an office staring into his computers and knowing exactly what was going on in the canyons- it was upsetting. Then something very disconcerting happened. For 12 trips in 1987 I sealed his faxed reports and opened them on the third day while at the continental shelf; what we found was shocking.
Where the MAKAIRA ended up after three days of searching, hitting the 100-fathom line at the Dip and trolling east on the Bigeye Highway, sometimes as far as Hydrographer Canyon, was a warm-core eddy in the exact damn place Capt. Len said it was. I spent three years trying to discredit him. My case was simple. How can a man (who, by the way, is an accomplished fisherman and hunter in his own right) sit in a room in New Jersey and know what I knew to be true from his desk? Over time, Len and I have become good friends. Each year finds us in duck blood or chasing “the elusive Northern snowshoe rabbit”. I’ve seen Len roll over a 200-pound Russian boar, shot right through the heart with his flint-lock rifle and a patched round ball at 50 yards-not bad for a computer nerd.
For the first 20 years of my offshore fishing I was trying to make a career for myself. For the last 10 years I want only to help other fishermen and share what I have learned and here’s how I fish warm-core eddies.
Barta’s Beginnings
In the early 1970’s and mid 1980’s I used to fly my Cessna 310 religiously to the Dip at 14786/43282 prior to every canyon trip. In those days, I would record my observations while flying at between 50 to 150 feet off the deck. I turned east and headed toward Hydrographer. As soon as I discovered a water color change, whales, porpoises, sharks and weedlines, I would return home, land at Westhampton Airport and drive to Indian Cove Marina, jump on the MAKAIRA and leave for the canyon. In those days, on a three-hour flight at an altitude of 300 to 500 feet, you could see thousands of tuna in schools; their black backs were hard to miss. During winter months, we overlaid 20 years of records of Army Corp Bathometric charts over Navy water salinity charts to get an understanding of warm-core eddies. By the way, in the 1950’s the Navy proved that water salinity combined with water temperatures had a lot to do with how far underwater radar, voice and message communication would go. We discovered that warm-core eddies exist and started to develop a catch pattern. For example, 95 percent of all bigeye tuna we caught were on a specific corner of a warm-core eddy and then Capt. Len came along and destroyed my world.
Moving Forward
For the next 10 years we checked out Len’s Offshore Satellite Services charts to locate the edges of warm-core eddies. It saved us two days of searching. Most boats didn’t have a clue on how to fish them-aboard MAKAIRA we did, and almost every trip we returned with 8 to 12 bigeye, almost all 200 pounds plus dressed, 2,500 pounds of albacore, 1,000 pounds of yellowfin, two or three white marlin and a swordfish. We averaged 4 to 10 shots a night at swordfish. We developed night trolling with light sticks and absolutely crushed ‘em, and thanks to Len’s satellite charts we spent all three days in the right spot.
Let’s Get Back To Basics
Simply put, warm-core eddies are offshoots of the Gulf Stream which in the northeast runs 150 to 225 nautical miles offshore like a railroad track west to east. Warm-core eddies break off the Gulf Stream and rotate clockwise.
Warm water is not as dense and cold water and therefore a warm-core eddy remains high in the water column and holds its form as it penetrates and butts up to colder water. Gulf Stream water has an albeit temperature averaging 75°F, its nutrients, salinity levels and marine life are almost always consistent-“It’s the Stream”.
As this Gulf Stream water finally hits the 100-fathom curve, the warm subsurface water upwells onto the shelf. A classic temperature break in the spring is 55°F to 60°F on the cold side and 69°F to 76°F on the warm side. The current along the 100-fathom curve generally is east to west in direction. This will cause clockwise rotating warm eddies to move westerly in direction. The current inside the 100-fathom curve on the northwest edge of the warm eddy then predominately changes from a westerly flow to a northwesterly flow, bringing Gulf Stream water up and over the continental shelf.
The Apex
At the most northwesterly apex where the oncoming warm-core eddy hits the 100-fathom line is where the MAKAIRA has caught 95 percent of all tuna and bill fish over the last 30 years. Always, always, always I have found the greatest concentration of bait and life in this position. Why?
If you take a shallow container of water, best illustrated by an ‘oil change’ type of pan, fill it up with water and step back, with a garden hose giving it an angular stream of water-you will see the proof of my point-the water in the pan turns in a clockwise circle. As you keep a steady stream of water going at one exact point, the water leaves the pan and shoots out, soon there’s hardly any water in the middle of the pan and 80 percent of the water exits the pan at one place, assuming you keep the spray pattern the same. This is called the ‘hurricane effect’. The middle of the pan has no water left. This is a classic pattern of warm-core eddy and the point where the water leaves the pan is the apex. Every piece of debris will exit this pan in this location until the water is clean.
Over the last 30 years, our fish have been caught on the cold side of this apex. The reasons are simple: that’s where the bait is located and it’s always there. There is a huge misconception about fishing the cold side of an oncoming warm-core eddy at the apex. Most anglers steer clear of the colder water.
Scratching The Surface
For years aboard the MAKAIRA, we lowered a thermometer into the depths on the cold-water side down to 100 feet and 200 feet on a temperature edge that went from 59°F on the cold side and 74°F on the warm side. We usually found that as far as ¼ to 2 miles inshore of the shelf, the surface temperature was 59°F and the water was ugly green, cold and lifeless. The water at 100 feet was quite different-74°F. WOW! I call this phenomenon “overlapping”; the westerly flow of current at the apex overruns the top of the warm-core eddy and the Gulf Stream blue water is below the ugly green water, thus this is where the fish are often found on the troll.
A common mistake is fishing too close to the color change. On several occasions, while wearing a wetsuit and tank in the canyons, I dove to 100 feet at the apex and let the current take me under the cold water-it’s wild! The visibility at 100 feet depth was Bahamian clean water; the visibility at 50 feet was less than 20 feet. At the surface, the temperature was 55°F at 100 feet it was 74°F. I held a thermometer in my hand-I know this to be true and consistent.
While at 100 feet, I saw schools of tuna balling bait just like the TV show, Blue Planet. But guess what? The greatest concentration of fish was found to the west or northwest of the bait shown on the recorder. Aboard MAKAIRA, we proved that while working a huge concentration of bait on the apex of a warm-core eddy, the best bite always occurred north and west of this bait 1/8 to ¼ mile from the color change, almost every time. The reason is simple. Although cold water is denser than warm water, the approaching warm Gulf Stream water is driven in a northwesterly direction under the cold, green water because of the force of the rotation of the eddy and the density of the highly salinated water. Underneath the green water, you’ll find blue Gulf Stream water that extends northwest 1/8 to ¼ of a mile from where the surface blue water turns to green.
Flocking Is For Sheep
Offshore Satellite Services’ satellite charts are incredibly accurate. The problem is often it seems that OSS subscribers get their information, and 90 percent of them hurry to the correct places to fish on the chart-no sarcasm here. I fish these charts every weekend and of the last five years they have been accurate, often to within 1/8 of a mile. You show up at the hot spot, 50 boats are there, what do you do? And what mistakes do we all make?
First, we all fish in a fleet of boats that usually has a mediocre pick of fish, not a great one-flocking just like sheep. Everyone is afraid to leave, as time on the edge is valuable. Every time someone gets bold enough to go out on his own, somebody in the fleet hooks up and often you return back to the flock. Here’s a suggestion: Leave the fleet and move in a north and west direction from 1/8 to ¼ mile and pound the tuna, as often the fleet is catching fish at the apex but the larger schools can be found to the northwest.
For example, on June 25th a pure offshoot of the Gulf Stream was in Tom’s Canyon. It was a warm-core eddy drawing out a filament from the Stream. The fleet caught 6 blue marlin, 5 bigeyes and the average boat had 6 to 10 yellowfin. Out of 60 boats, 50 percent had fish and 50 percent were skunked. Being an absolute jerk, I left Shinnecock Inlet and approached Tom’s from the northeast, a run of 97 NM. The water went from pea soup green to clear green to blue. The fleet was hooking up and the VHF cracked-I listened to the radio and not my heart and brain.
After spending two days in the Tom’s, I caught 5 yellowfin in the fleet; 4 were 25 pounds and under, one was 45 pounds. Finally, frustrated and outfished by almost everyone, I returned to the spot before the green water changed to blue color, about 12 miles away. In one hour we loaded up. I should have turned off the radio and fished where no one else was-it’s that simple. We all need to follow our convictions more and believe in ourselves. If on this day, the fleet of 50 boats had been where I was at the end of my trip, everybody would have loaded up. Just because there’s a fleet of boats picking fish does not mean they’re in the right spot.
Tred’s Tips-Fishing Warm-Core Eddies
1.) Although there is, with excellent consistency, great fishing at the apex of an oncoming eddy closest the 100-fathom line, tuna unfortunately don’t read this stuff. Often the bite is somewhere near this apex. Many people are too “black and white” with warm-core eddy research. Stay loose-when the reel goes off, you’re in the right spot. You may not be exactly by the “book” says you should be, but you’re where the fish are. However, if everyone around you reports the fishing action to be slow, stay on the apex.
2.) To have great success over time, you must be able to fish the ugly green, cold side while your competitors are out-fishing you on the warm, blue side. It’s tough to do, but watch out when it breaks wide open.
3.) Knowing what I now know about warmer water getting trapped under cold water, it’s a great idea to use diving plugs and planners in this situation. I personally hate them and fish them poorly, but they often can be the ticket to hooking up.
4.) I have found that often new warm-core eddies at their apex often have so much bait it’s hard to catch fish on lures. Many people switch to natural baits trolled slowly. Often night clunking with cut butterfish is really hot. But, my favorite technique is to fish up-current or down-current from the schools of bait by about a ¼ of a mile. I believe that new fish entering the area may be more inclined to bite than fish that have already gorged themselves. I don’t know if this makes any sense but it has worked for me.
5.) Tuna don’t read these articles and therefore you must never miss the opportunity to troll through a warm-core eddy or up-current away from it. By working the eddy, you will often load up your tuna coffin before you get to the apex. The object is to catch-and if you’re catching, whatever you are doing is right.
6.) To get set up for your first warm-core eddy, remember the following. First, download an accurate, detailed satellite-generated ocean temperature chart. Then run to the most northern point of the approaching warm-core eddy on the 100-fathom line or closest to it. Next, find the temperature break, find the color change and find the bait. Finally, fish it, and if you’re a beginner don’t move. You will catch fish-it’s that simple, find the bait, find the fish.
Points Of Fact & Contradictions
A fishing report from a commercial fisherman or a buddy that’s current is worth 100 times more than any download chart. The primary reason some boats do very well consistently is that when they get on the VHF, everyone shares their information. Networking and helping other boats is the best tool we have to catch fish. Also, it’s possible to be a great tuna fisherman and never give a flying hoot about warm-core eddies. One can do this by getting to know the area really well, the Dip, the Tails, etc. Go there all the time, fish hard, put your time in. At the end of the season or 10 seasons you may not have outfished those who have mastered warm-core eddies, but you will be in the ball game with your catch rate.
If you have a reliable report that there’s fish in ugly, green water in an unlikely spot nowhere near a warm-core eddy, should you go? I would! Never forget, tuna don’t read. They migrate, they move, they have tails, they swim. You’ll find tuna where you find them, and that is not up to us but up to them. I am absolutely, unequivocally convinced that the Gulf Stream is the highway in which all tuna and billfish use to navigate to the northeastern canyons.
I hope this article will help those who seek a better understanding of warm-core eddies. Let me end with a final thought. Aboard MAKAIRA, we only troll 30 pound rod and reels with 30 pound line. It makes the part much more exciting. All of us need to use lighter tackle; we all need to remember that in our tough fishery, it’s the quality of our experience that needs to lead the way, not the quantity of our catch. I wish everyone a great season-find the bait, find the fish and mug ‘em up.
September/October 2002 - Big Game Fishing Journal
Len Belcaro and I have not always been friends. My reason to dislike Capt. Len was simple. I spent from 1972 to 1983 proving to the world that warm-core eddies exist and are the key to successful canyon fishing. For 10 years, making 25 to 30 overnight, two and three day canyon trips, I risked life and limb to prove my point. Then, in the early 1980’s, here comes Len Belcaro with a computer, accessing satellites and telling people not only where the fish are but where they are most likely to bite. Hell, I was at the shelf with 25 to 30 know winds, 120 miles from shore, and Len was sitting in an office staring into his computers and knowing exactly what was going on in the canyons- it was upsetting. Then something very disconcerting happened. For 12 trips in 1987 I sealed his faxed reports and opened them on the third day while at the continental shelf; what we found was shocking.
Where the MAKAIRA ended up after three days of searching, hitting the 100-fathom line at the Dip and trolling east on the Bigeye Highway, sometimes as far as Hydrographer Canyon, was a warm-core eddy in the exact damn place Capt. Len said it was. I spent three years trying to discredit him. My case was simple. How can a man (who, by the way, is an accomplished fisherman and hunter in his own right) sit in a room in New Jersey and know what I knew to be true from his desk? Over time, Len and I have become good friends. Each year finds us in duck blood or chasing “the elusive Northern snowshoe rabbit”. I’ve seen Len roll over a 200-pound Russian boar, shot right through the heart with his flint-lock rifle and a patched round ball at 50 yards-not bad for a computer nerd.
For the first 20 years of my offshore fishing I was trying to make a career for myself. For the last 10 years I want only to help other fishermen and share what I have learned and here’s how I fish warm-core eddies.
Barta’s Beginnings
In the early 1970’s and mid 1980’s I used to fly my Cessna 310 religiously to the Dip at 14786/43282 prior to every canyon trip. In those days, I would record my observations while flying at between 50 to 150 feet off the deck. I turned east and headed toward Hydrographer. As soon as I discovered a water color change, whales, porpoises, sharks and weedlines, I would return home, land at Westhampton Airport and drive to Indian Cove Marina, jump on the MAKAIRA and leave for the canyon. In those days, on a three-hour flight at an altitude of 300 to 500 feet, you could see thousands of tuna in schools; their black backs were hard to miss. During winter months, we overlaid 20 years of records of Army Corp Bathometric charts over Navy water salinity charts to get an understanding of warm-core eddies. By the way, in the 1950’s the Navy proved that water salinity combined with water temperatures had a lot to do with how far underwater radar, voice and message communication would go. We discovered that warm-core eddies exist and started to develop a catch pattern. For example, 95 percent of all bigeye tuna we caught were on a specific corner of a warm-core eddy and then Capt. Len came along and destroyed my world.
Moving Forward
For the next 10 years we checked out Len’s Offshore Satellite Services charts to locate the edges of warm-core eddies. It saved us two days of searching. Most boats didn’t have a clue on how to fish them-aboard MAKAIRA we did, and almost every trip we returned with 8 to 12 bigeye, almost all 200 pounds plus dressed, 2,500 pounds of albacore, 1,000 pounds of yellowfin, two or three white marlin and a swordfish. We averaged 4 to 10 shots a night at swordfish. We developed night trolling with light sticks and absolutely crushed ‘em, and thanks to Len’s satellite charts we spent all three days in the right spot.
Let’s Get Back To Basics
Simply put, warm-core eddies are offshoots of the Gulf Stream which in the northeast runs 150 to 225 nautical miles offshore like a railroad track west to east. Warm-core eddies break off the Gulf Stream and rotate clockwise.
Warm water is not as dense and cold water and therefore a warm-core eddy remains high in the water column and holds its form as it penetrates and butts up to colder water. Gulf Stream water has an albeit temperature averaging 75°F, its nutrients, salinity levels and marine life are almost always consistent-“It’s the Stream”.
As this Gulf Stream water finally hits the 100-fathom curve, the warm subsurface water upwells onto the shelf. A classic temperature break in the spring is 55°F to 60°F on the cold side and 69°F to 76°F on the warm side. The current along the 100-fathom curve generally is east to west in direction. This will cause clockwise rotating warm eddies to move westerly in direction. The current inside the 100-fathom curve on the northwest edge of the warm eddy then predominately changes from a westerly flow to a northwesterly flow, bringing Gulf Stream water up and over the continental shelf.
The Apex
At the most northwesterly apex where the oncoming warm-core eddy hits the 100-fathom line is where the MAKAIRA has caught 95 percent of all tuna and bill fish over the last 30 years. Always, always, always I have found the greatest concentration of bait and life in this position. Why?
If you take a shallow container of water, best illustrated by an ‘oil change’ type of pan, fill it up with water and step back, with a garden hose giving it an angular stream of water-you will see the proof of my point-the water in the pan turns in a clockwise circle. As you keep a steady stream of water going at one exact point, the water leaves the pan and shoots out, soon there’s hardly any water in the middle of the pan and 80 percent of the water exits the pan at one place, assuming you keep the spray pattern the same. This is called the ‘hurricane effect’. The middle of the pan has no water left. This is a classic pattern of warm-core eddy and the point where the water leaves the pan is the apex. Every piece of debris will exit this pan in this location until the water is clean.
Over the last 30 years, our fish have been caught on the cold side of this apex. The reasons are simple: that’s where the bait is located and it’s always there. There is a huge misconception about fishing the cold side of an oncoming warm-core eddy at the apex. Most anglers steer clear of the colder water.
Scratching The Surface
For years aboard the MAKAIRA, we lowered a thermometer into the depths on the cold-water side down to 100 feet and 200 feet on a temperature edge that went from 59°F on the cold side and 74°F on the warm side. We usually found that as far as ¼ to 2 miles inshore of the shelf, the surface temperature was 59°F and the water was ugly green, cold and lifeless. The water at 100 feet was quite different-74°F. WOW! I call this phenomenon “overlapping”; the westerly flow of current at the apex overruns the top of the warm-core eddy and the Gulf Stream blue water is below the ugly green water, thus this is where the fish are often found on the troll.
A common mistake is fishing too close to the color change. On several occasions, while wearing a wetsuit and tank in the canyons, I dove to 100 feet at the apex and let the current take me under the cold water-it’s wild! The visibility at 100 feet depth was Bahamian clean water; the visibility at 50 feet was less than 20 feet. At the surface, the temperature was 55°F at 100 feet it was 74°F. I held a thermometer in my hand-I know this to be true and consistent.
While at 100 feet, I saw schools of tuna balling bait just like the TV show, Blue Planet. But guess what? The greatest concentration of fish was found to the west or northwest of the bait shown on the recorder. Aboard MAKAIRA, we proved that while working a huge concentration of bait on the apex of a warm-core eddy, the best bite always occurred north and west of this bait 1/8 to ¼ mile from the color change, almost every time. The reason is simple. Although cold water is denser than warm water, the approaching warm Gulf Stream water is driven in a northwesterly direction under the cold, green water because of the force of the rotation of the eddy and the density of the highly salinated water. Underneath the green water, you’ll find blue Gulf Stream water that extends northwest 1/8 to ¼ of a mile from where the surface blue water turns to green.
Flocking Is For Sheep
Offshore Satellite Services’ satellite charts are incredibly accurate. The problem is often it seems that OSS subscribers get their information, and 90 percent of them hurry to the correct places to fish on the chart-no sarcasm here. I fish these charts every weekend and of the last five years they have been accurate, often to within 1/8 of a mile. You show up at the hot spot, 50 boats are there, what do you do? And what mistakes do we all make?
First, we all fish in a fleet of boats that usually has a mediocre pick of fish, not a great one-flocking just like sheep. Everyone is afraid to leave, as time on the edge is valuable. Every time someone gets bold enough to go out on his own, somebody in the fleet hooks up and often you return back to the flock. Here’s a suggestion: Leave the fleet and move in a north and west direction from 1/8 to ¼ mile and pound the tuna, as often the fleet is catching fish at the apex but the larger schools can be found to the northwest.
For example, on June 25th a pure offshoot of the Gulf Stream was in Tom’s Canyon. It was a warm-core eddy drawing out a filament from the Stream. The fleet caught 6 blue marlin, 5 bigeyes and the average boat had 6 to 10 yellowfin. Out of 60 boats, 50 percent had fish and 50 percent were skunked. Being an absolute jerk, I left Shinnecock Inlet and approached Tom’s from the northeast, a run of 97 NM. The water went from pea soup green to clear green to blue. The fleet was hooking up and the VHF cracked-I listened to the radio and not my heart and brain.
After spending two days in the Tom’s, I caught 5 yellowfin in the fleet; 4 were 25 pounds and under, one was 45 pounds. Finally, frustrated and outfished by almost everyone, I returned to the spot before the green water changed to blue color, about 12 miles away. In one hour we loaded up. I should have turned off the radio and fished where no one else was-it’s that simple. We all need to follow our convictions more and believe in ourselves. If on this day, the fleet of 50 boats had been where I was at the end of my trip, everybody would have loaded up. Just because there’s a fleet of boats picking fish does not mean they’re in the right spot.
Tred’s Tips-Fishing Warm-Core Eddies
1.) Although there is, with excellent consistency, great fishing at the apex of an oncoming eddy closest the 100-fathom line, tuna unfortunately don’t read this stuff. Often the bite is somewhere near this apex. Many people are too “black and white” with warm-core eddy research. Stay loose-when the reel goes off, you’re in the right spot. You may not be exactly by the “book” says you should be, but you’re where the fish are. However, if everyone around you reports the fishing action to be slow, stay on the apex.
2.) To have great success over time, you must be able to fish the ugly green, cold side while your competitors are out-fishing you on the warm, blue side. It’s tough to do, but watch out when it breaks wide open.
3.) Knowing what I now know about warmer water getting trapped under cold water, it’s a great idea to use diving plugs and planners in this situation. I personally hate them and fish them poorly, but they often can be the ticket to hooking up.
4.) I have found that often new warm-core eddies at their apex often have so much bait it’s hard to catch fish on lures. Many people switch to natural baits trolled slowly. Often night clunking with cut butterfish is really hot. But, my favorite technique is to fish up-current or down-current from the schools of bait by about a ¼ of a mile. I believe that new fish entering the area may be more inclined to bite than fish that have already gorged themselves. I don’t know if this makes any sense but it has worked for me.
5.) Tuna don’t read these articles and therefore you must never miss the opportunity to troll through a warm-core eddy or up-current away from it. By working the eddy, you will often load up your tuna coffin before you get to the apex. The object is to catch-and if you’re catching, whatever you are doing is right.
6.) To get set up for your first warm-core eddy, remember the following. First, download an accurate, detailed satellite-generated ocean temperature chart. Then run to the most northern point of the approaching warm-core eddy on the 100-fathom line or closest to it. Next, find the temperature break, find the color change and find the bait. Finally, fish it, and if you’re a beginner don’t move. You will catch fish-it’s that simple, find the bait, find the fish.
Points Of Fact & Contradictions
A fishing report from a commercial fisherman or a buddy that’s current is worth 100 times more than any download chart. The primary reason some boats do very well consistently is that when they get on the VHF, everyone shares their information. Networking and helping other boats is the best tool we have to catch fish. Also, it’s possible to be a great tuna fisherman and never give a flying hoot about warm-core eddies. One can do this by getting to know the area really well, the Dip, the Tails, etc. Go there all the time, fish hard, put your time in. At the end of the season or 10 seasons you may not have outfished those who have mastered warm-core eddies, but you will be in the ball game with your catch rate.
If you have a reliable report that there’s fish in ugly, green water in an unlikely spot nowhere near a warm-core eddy, should you go? I would! Never forget, tuna don’t read. They migrate, they move, they have tails, they swim. You’ll find tuna where you find them, and that is not up to us but up to them. I am absolutely, unequivocally convinced that the Gulf Stream is the highway in which all tuna and billfish use to navigate to the northeastern canyons.
I hope this article will help those who seek a better understanding of warm-core eddies. Let me end with a final thought. Aboard MAKAIRA, we only troll 30 pound rod and reels with 30 pound line. It makes the part much more exciting. All of us need to use lighter tackle; we all need to remember that in our tough fishery, it’s the quality of our experience that needs to lead the way, not the quantity of our catch. I wish everyone a great season-find the bait, find the fish and mug ‘em up.
