Morning, y'all. There's no calm day in this week's forecast, so the table below is worth a close read.
- Gulf water 75 degrees Orange Beach buoy
- Bay water 73 degrees Pensacola Bay
- Sunrise 6:12 am Sunset 4:54 pm
- Moon Waxing crescent
The short version
- Calmest days in the forecast: today, Friday, and Sunday. Seas up to 3 feet out to 60 nautical miles.
- Rough most of the week, worst on Monday: East wind 25 to 30 knots; seas 7 to 10 feet, at times 13 past 20 nautical miles.
- Water: 75 degrees at the Orange Beach buoy, 73 in Pensacola Bay, and the Gulf's sliding down while the bay's climbing.
- Open: gray triggerfish, king and Spanish mackerel, cobia, redfish, sheepshead, and red snapper on listed days (see the table for who that covers).
- Closed: flounder through Nov 30. Greater amberjack and gag grouper are done for 2026.
Updated Nov 12, 2026. Next report Nov 19, 2026. Times are Central (CST).
What the water's doing
The Gulf's cooling off. The NOAA buoy off Orange Beach read 74.8 degrees this morning. Its daily average topped out at 77.6 on Nov 6 and it's given back 2.8 degrees since. Inside, the NOAA station at Pensacola read 72.9 at 5:30 am, up from an average near 71 on Nov 10.
Right now the buoys show moderate seas: 2.6 feet at the Orange Beach buoy and 1.3 feet at the buoy farther out, wind around 16 knots at the Orange Beach buoy and 14 farther out, and no marine advisories posted for our waters.
The Escambia River is running 1,460 cubic feet a second at Century, up from 1,120 a week ago.
The week ahead
Here's the National Weather Service marine forecast, day and night. Wind is in knots (1 knot is about 1.15 mph), and a nautical mile is about 1.15 regular miles. It's a forecast, so check the latest one before you head out, and the captain makes the weather call on the day.
- Thu 3 ft
- Fri 3 ft
- Sat 5 ft
- Sun 3 ft
- Mon 13 ft
Highest seas in each day's forecast, 20 to 60 nautical miles out, in feet. Daytime forecast, counting the “at times” figure.
| Day | Pensacola Bay | Gulf, shore to 20 nautical miles | Gulf, 20 to 60 nautical miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu | NW 10-15; waves 1 ft or less; moderate chop | NW 10-15; seas around 2 ft | NW 15-20, diminishing to 10-15 this afternoon; seas 2-3 ft |
| Thu night | N 5-10; waves 1 ft or less; light chop | N 10-15, gusts to 20; seas around 2 ft | N 15-20; seas 2-3 ft |
| Fri | N 5-10, becoming NW 10-15 with gusts to 20 in the afternoon; waves 1 ft or less; moderate chop | N 10-15; seas around 2 ft | N 10-15, gusts to 20; seas 2-3 ft |
| Fri night | N 10-15, gusts to 20, diminishing to 5-10 after midnight; waves 1 ft or less; moderate chop | N around 15, gusts to 20; seas around 2 ft | N 15-20; seas 2-4 ft, at times 5 |
| Sat | N 5-10; waves 1 ft or less; light chop | NE 10-15, gusts to 20, diminishing to 5-10 in the afternoon; seas around 2 ft | NE 15-20, diminishing to 10-15 in the afternoon; seas 2-4 ft, at times 5 |
| Sat night | NE 5-10; waves 1 ft or less; light chop | NE 10-15; seas around 2 ft | NE 10-15; seas around 2 ft |
| Sun | E 5-10; waves 1 ft or less; light chop | E 15-20, diminishing to 10-15 in the afternoon; seas 2-3 ft | E 15-20; seas 2-3 ft |
| Sun night | NE 5-10, rising to 10-15 after midnight; waves 1 ft or less; moderate chop | NE 15-20; seas 2-4 ft, at times 5 | E 15-20; seas 3-5 ft, at times 6 |
| Mon | NE 10-15, rising to 15-20 in the afternoon; waves 1 ft or less, then around 2 ft in the afternoon; choppy | NE 20-25, rising to 25-30 in the afternoon; seas 4-6 ft, at times 8, building to 5-8 ft, at times 10 in the afternoon | E 25-30; seas 5-8 ft, at times 10, building to 7-10 ft, at times 13 in the afternoon |
| Mon night | NE 15-20; waves 1-2 ft; choppy; A slight chance of thunderstorms after midnight; Winds and waves higher in and near thunderstorms | NE 25-30, diminishing to 20-25 after midnight; seas 6-9 ft, at times 11; A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms; Winds and seas higher in and near thunderstorms | NE 25-30; seas 8-11 ft, at times 14; A slight chance of thunderstorms; Winds and seas higher in and near thunderstorms |
Thursday, Friday, and Sunday are the least rough of it.
Tides, sun and moon
Mostly one high and one low a day this week, with an extra high or low on one day. Low water comes around midday (11:23 am today, 12:11 pm Friday, 12:53 pm Saturday). High water comes overnight (12:19 am Friday, 1:00 am Saturday); no high tide falls today. High and low water have about 1.6 feet between them, and less as the week goes on. Sunrise is 6:12 am and sunset 4:54 pm, so the days are short. Skinny moon this week: first quarter Nov 17, full moon Nov 24.
What you can keep
Sizes are total length unless the row says fork length, which runs from the tip of the nose to the fork of the tail. Each row says who the rule covers, and the fish name links to its FWC page.
| Fish | Who it covers | Status | Dates | Bag, as FWC writes it | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red snapper | private boats, and charter boats with no federal permit in state waters | Open on listed days only | Nov 14-15, 21-22, 26-29; Dec 5-6; more days listed after that | 2 per person (included in the 10 per harvester per day state snapper aggregate bag limit); Charter captain and crew: zero | at least 16 in. total length |
| Gray triggerfish | Gulf state waters | Open | through Dec 31 | 1 per person | at least 15 in. fork length |
| King mackerel | Gulf state waters and Monroe County | Open | year-round | 3 per harvester | at least 24 in. fork length |
| Cobia | Gulf state and federal waters | Open | none listed | 1 per person or 2 per vessel, whichever is less | at least 36 in. fork length |
| Greater amberjack | Gulf state and federal waters | Closed | 2026 season was Sept 1 - Oct 13 | 1 per person | at least 34 in. fork length |
| Gag grouper | Gulf state and federal waters, outside Monroe County | Closed | 2026 season was Sept 1-30 | 2 per person within 4 grouper aggregate; 0 fish bag limit for Charter Captain and Crew | at least 24 in. total length |
| Spanish mackerel | Gulf and Atlantic state waters | Open | year-round | 15 per harvester | at least 12 in. fork length |
| Redfish | Panhandle Region | Open | year-round | 1 fish per person per day; 4 fish vessel limit; Captain and Crew bag limit prohibited while on a for-hire trip | 18 to 27 in. total length |
| Sheepshead | Gulf and Atlantic state waters; state rules extend into federal waters | Open | year-round | 8 per person; Vessel Limit: 50 per trip during March and April | at least 12 in. total length |
| Flounder | state and federal waters off Florida | Closed | Oct 15 through Nov 30 | 5 per person | at least 14 in. total length |
Charter boats that hold a federal reef-fish permit fish a separate federal red snapper season, set by NOAA Fisheries.
Flounder is closed through Nov 30, so any flounder goes back in the water. Rules change, so check the FWC page for your fish before you keep one.
From the old-timers
An 1883 U.S. Signal Service book of weather sayings, H. H. C. Dunwoody's Weather Proverbs, has this one:
Mullet run south on the approach of cold northerly wind and rain.
Whether the mullet read the forecast or not, the north wind shows up today.
How we put this together
We call this a conditions report, not a catch report. It's what the water and the weather are doing, straight from the NOAA buoys, the NOAA tide station at Pensacola, the National Weather Service marine forecast, the river gauge at Century, the Naval Observatory, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, all read the morning of Nov 12, 2026. Averages and changes are worked out from those readings, and every report is read by a person before it goes up.
Credits: marine forecast and alerts from the National Weather Service; buoy readings from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center; tide predictions and water temperature from the NOAA tides station at Pensacola; river flow from the U.S. Geological Survey (provisional data); sun and moon times from the U.S. Naval Observatory; fishing rules from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
This report is general information compiled automatically from public sources (NWS, NOAA NDBC and CO-OPS, USGS, USNO, FWC) and may be delayed, incomplete or wrong. It is not a forecast for your trip, is not for navigation, and does not replace the official forecast, the official rule text, or the captain's judgment on the day. Fishing rules shown are for general information only and do not have legal force; check the current official rules at myfwc.com and with NOAA Fisheries before you fish, and charter and private-boat seasons can differ. Data is provisional and subject to revision; this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency.
Come fish with us
Open dates are on the Charters page, or call (850) 483-5011.
“And every misery that I miss is a new mercy; and therefore let us be thankful.”
Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (1653)
See y'all on the water.