By Sandris Rutmanis                                                                                                           

It sure is nice to be able to anchor your boat in a calm, quite bay on a windy day.  No problems lighting your smokes, your boat doesn’t get wet when you take a leak, the empty beer cans don’t swirl around your feet. Ah, seems perfect, except that you aint catchin’ dick!!

 

  Personally I hate the wind, but I know how to use it to my advantage when fishing.  The fact is, the wind, is a fisherman’s friend, here are a few reasons why.

 

Visibility.  Fish that feed from below, are often looking towards the surface.  On a clear, calm day, they look right up and see that 16’ hunk of aluminum sitting over them, and get too spooked to do anything.  The waves created by the wind, are a natural breakup of the surface, reflecting light in all directions, which makes boats less obvious.  Now if you fish in southeastern Nebraska, the light only penetrates about a ¼ of an inch into that shitty stained water.  But I like to pretend I’m in a crystal clear northern Minnesota lake when fishing that area.

 

Bait Fish.  Here is a technical explanation of why one should fish the wind beaten shores of a lake.  The waves hitting the shore stir up all kinds of crap in the rocks, weeds, sand or whatever the shores are lined with. The smaller bait fish, come in to eat this crap, the smaller crap eating fish are then eaten by the larger fish.  This type of feeding produces more action than can be found anywhere else on the lake.

 

Drifting a boat across a body of water, while dragging a Little Joe tipped with a chub, is one of my favorite types of fishing.  By matching the speed of the waves, your rig has a more natural presentation.  Start by fishing deeper, and gradually move up to find where the action is. If your boat sits high, and drifts too fast, get yourself a drift sock. I start faster and adjust from there. The right depth and speed is dependent on seasons, temperature, pressure, blah, blah, blah.

 

Buy a windproof lighter for your smokes, don’t piss into the wind, and drink bottled beer. Whatever you do, don’t let wind keep you from getting out and enjoying some of the best fishing action around.  Keep these ideas in mind, when determining how to fish, and where to find fish on a windy day.