The Wind Is Your Friend
May 5, 2008
Like most weekend anglers, I enjoy getting out on the water and enjoying a relaxing day of fishing, and then for variety I do an occasional tournament to satisfy my competitive cravings.
But when the wind starts blowing hard, I get aggravated. I’m on the trolling motor all the time to keep the boat in position, I often experience “professional overruns” and my favorite $30 lure lands up in a tree when the wind catches it just right. The wind can be a real pain when trying to enjoy a nice day of fishing, but it can also be on of your best friends if you can put up with it and stick it out on the water. Let me share something that happened to me recently during a tournament.
In the middle of March a friend and I entered a tournament on what I consider my home lake. I’ve fished this lake for quite a few years and thought we had a very good chance of cashing a check. The rules stated that you had to live 50 or more miles from the lake (no locals could enter), guides and pro anglers were prohibited from entering, and anyone winning more than $2,000 the previous year could not fish this event. It was perfect for the average angler such as myself.
Upon arrival at the ramp, conditions were not the best in my book with winds in the 30-40 mph range. I did not have a positive outlook on the day ahead of us. This particular lake, in my opinion, is one of the best if not the best fishery we have in my state, but it is also rated in the top three most fatal and dangerous lakes in the country, so I was not looking forward to the high winds.
We managed to plow through the four to five-foot waves to our first spot. After about three hours of fishing and multiple moves we didn’t have a single fish in the boat. Finally, at about 11:30 AM, my partner caught a very good six-pounder on a jig on a secondary point. After working the spot over for another 30 minutes without any other hits we made another move. It would be our best and also our last move of the day, we just did not know it yet. 
This particular spot was a small cove with a large chunk rock bank similar to the one we had caught the first fish on, so we thought that was what the fish were relating to. We were wrong. As we moved to the outside and the wind hit us hard my partner noticed a huge school of baitfish. It still hadn’t registered in our thick heads what was happening. On my partner’s third cast he connected with a fish, our second of the day weighing around three pounds.
Glancing at my watch it was now around 1:00 PM. With weigh in at 3:00 we knew we had to make something happen quickly. About 10 minutes passed and another fish was in the boat, then another, then another. Then something happened that made us stop and realize what exactly was happening. The wind had stopped blowing in on the bank we were fishing and consequently the fish quit biting. It was now blowing in the opposite direction and was blowing on the bank across the cove from us so we ran the boat over there and saw exactly what we were hoping for; the baitfish were there along with the bigger fish.
In the last few hours we managed a very good limit of fish that helped us cash a 4th place check as well as a 2nd big bass check in a field of 100 boats. Not too bad for not having a fish in the live well till 11:30AM!
The lesson I learned? Wind doesn’t have to be about a bad day’s fishing. It can turn out completely the opposite!
I think a lot of anglers get wrapped up in what I call “spot fishing” and I am just as guilty. We find a spot and catch a good fish or two which makes us want to go back to that same spot. It’s out “best spot” and so we go to it repeatedly, even if we aren’t catching fish on it. If our spot isn’t producing, factor in the wind on that spot it can become a dynamite area. Something about that spot, whether it be it a brush pile, laydown, stumps, a creek channel swing ,etc., caught you fish to begin with. When you add the wind factor to that area it stirs up the water, therefore stirring up baitfish or crayfish that can turn the area on very quickly.
There are a variety of lures I like to use in windy conditions. Most are baits that allow me to cover water quickly, and represent a baitfish of some type be it shad, threadfin or whatever type is present in the lake. Spinnerbaits, crankbaits and jerkbaits are my top three choices for fishing in the wind. As with most presentations let the fish tell you how fast to retrieve or what they want on that particular day. You might have to burn a spinnerbait or rip a jerkbait where as on another day they may want a slower presentation.
Let the water clarity dictate what color choice you use. One of the big things here in the Midwest is to take a large crankbait (like a Norman DD22 or Manns 30+) and fish them on main lake points that have wind on them. This is a technique that is used almost all through the summer especially when the wind is blowing in on the point you are fishing.
The wind can be a very good friend. Most of us can’t just pick and choose which days we can get out on the water so we have to make do with what we’re given. If we take a different approach and work with the wind rather than against it, it can be a great benefit to the weekend angler that can only get out a few times a month. Now, instead of being aggravated, I want the wind from time to time. Keep an open mind and look for something different. Take a chance and get out of the “spot fishing” mind set and you too can cash in on a windy day.