CatchWindow fishing intelligence

South Port Everglades, FL Daily Water Report — August 23, 2026

Diving owns South Port Everglades today. The 8.8 score is built on light wind, a nearly flat sea, available clarity, and warm water, and it sits a tick above yesterday’s 8.7. Wildlife watching at 7.8 and boating at 7.5 make a strong supporting cast; fishing at 7.1 is honest rather than electric. Surfing remains a non-event at 4.5. These are suitability scores, not safety clearances, and the water still gets a vote. Open-Meteo’s current and forecast mix has a representative south wind of only 4 knots, gusting to 5, with air around 27.3 degrees Celsius that feels like 33 in 86 percent humidity. The day is not uniformly meek: wind can run from 0.5 to 16.3 knots, and the strongest gust, 18.3 knots, is due at 18:00, stacked on the 0.77-meter evening high at 18:06. Pressure is steady near 1017 hectopascals. A rain window is marked from 08:00 to 19:00 even though representative precipitation is zero. Atmospheric visibility is 15.7 kilometers; that is air, not what you will see below the surface. NOAA tides give a 0.68-meter high at 05:15, just after the 05:57 sunrise, a 0.14-meter low at 11:28, then that larger evening high. Solunar majors run 07:24–09:24 on the falling tide and 19:24–21:24 after dusk; fishing’s 7.1 draws on those windows plus tide state, the quiet pressure, wind, and available clarity, while wildlife’s 7.8 leans on the same solunar timing, proximity to the midday low, and the light breeze. The marine forecast holds waves at 0.2 meters and 4.9 seconds all day, with a 0.18-meter swell from 135 degrees; the calmest reading is 0.18 meters near 21:00. The real number is the ocean current: 1.8 meters per second toward 11 degrees. Boating and kayaking both price wind, waves, current, and precipitation (boating also uses the 34 percent cloud cover), which is why kayaking sits lower at 6.6. Sailing slipped to 5.9 from yesterday’s 6.6 because the breeze is thinner and less consistent. NOAA CoastWatch has marine SST at 30.9 degrees Celsius, 0.6 above average, and chlorophyll at 0.09 milligrams per cubic meter in oligotrophic blue water; do not invent life from that pigment. Tomorrow through midweek stays warm with tiny seas that only slowly build, peak winds climbing into the 11-to-13-knot range, and rain chances rising from 5 percent on the 24th into the high 20s and 30s later. Best bet: work the morning solunar on the falling tide, be done or well secured before the 18:00 gust, and treat that 1.8-meter-per-second current as the day’s real authority.