Current and how to read it???

[2kidsfishing]

Went fishing with some friends awhile back and something happened that I really do not quite understand. We were king fishing one day, smooth water, downriggers running perfectly straight down, baits running true. Finished the day fishing and was at the local restuarant and this older gentleman, salty dog as some would call, turned up his beer and said "yall don't need to go tomorrow, cause you won't keep a bait near the boat in all that current." Of course we did not belive he knew what he was talking about, but WE WERE WRONG!!!! The next day, the seas were still nice but the current was so bad the downrigger ball was 30 feet to the side of the boat, under, way back, the baits were way to one side and the currrent was tremendous. The old dog was right and that is the question I have,

How do you read the currents or even know that they will change from one day to the other?
How does the tide, moon, etc. effect these changes?

Trying to figure out how this old dog knew and how I can prepare in the future.

Thanks,

Ricky

[Glenn W]

Ricky,
Figuring out the current while on the water is fairly easy---- predicting what it will be tomorrow is a different story (usually).
If you run your boat alot you will know what your speed over ground (sog) is at various RPMs in slack water and can get a decent idea by simply comparing this to what your GPS says your sog is. A more accurate way is to check your sog (at a constant rpm) heading in various directions. now wind will definatly affect things ut for example, suppose your a running 800 rpm heading North and your sog is 7.0 kts. Turn South and your sog declines to 5.0 kts. In this case the current is running south to North at a speed of 1.0 kts. On a rough day it can be difficult as the wind and waves will push you along as well, so factor this into your calculations.
In forecasting currents and where they will be in NC is a guess at best as the gulf stream changes very rapidly. However, there are often large eddies and pices of water that move up the beachand you can see them coming on the Sat shots a few days in advance. The best way I know of to learn to read what will happen in the next day or so is to subscibe to Roffers for a while. Then study very carefully the Roffers analyses (that shows current) and compare to the simple temp sat shots provided by Rutgers,etc. You will soon learn to see back current developing as well as when there is a hard current break and where it starts and ends (relative to the beach or some fathom curve).
Studying Roffers for a while is money well spent if you are going to spend much time at all fishing offshore NC.