Upwind or downwind bank

[thorarinna]

Hi fellow fishermen and women.

So what's it gonna be, upwind or downwind!

In lakes fish go downwind, following the food that drift in the same direction the wind blows, towards the downwind bank.
In lakes trout go upwind in the calm near the upwind bank where emergers get trapped in the calm waterfilm.

I'm confused, once and for all, where do they go?

Thorarinn

[Mike Thomas]

Hi Thorarinna, hope all is well in Iceland and that Volcano no one can pronounce the name of is doing you no harm.
As for wind on Lakes, I have found here in NZ the fish always face the wind when Feeding. The only time I have ever seen fish feeding with the wiind behind them is when there is a strong current, like a River or stream flowing in to the lake. I believe mostly that the trout will feed while moving upwind for a while then swim downwind and start feeding again upwind.
Hope all your Fish are big ones!
All the best.
Mike.

[Uncle Jesse]

If I remember the articles I used to read on this subject concerning bass fishing, the answer is Yes. Down wind in the morning following the food supply; upwind in the afternoon when the food supply is against the bank.

[thorarinna]

The Volcano (Eyjafjallajokull) has hopefully stopped erupting so we are ok.
Still there has been a mist in the air for the last two days, specially yesterday when the visability was only for a mile or so.
This is because the wind is blowing the volcanic dust, laying on the ground up in the air.
We have been told that we can excpect this to happen often this summer

I've got two answers and they don't agree, this going to be interesting

Thorarinn

[joe cool]

I think you'll find fish in both places. I can't imagine all the fish in the lake migrate to one shoreline over another every time the wind changes.

[okflyfisher]

For warmwater fishing having the wind in your face will double your catch if you are fishing from the bank

[Mike Thomas]

[QUOTE=thorarinna;370957]The Volcano (Eyjafjallajokull) has hopefully stopped erupting so we are ok.
Still there has been a mist in the air for the last two days, specially yesterday when the visability was only for a mile or so.
This is because the wind is blowing the volcanic dust, laying on the ground up in the air.
We have been told that we can excpect this to happen often this summer

I've got two answers and they don't agree, this going to be interesting

Hi thorarinna, you do indeed have 2 different answers but I do not think they disagree. I am talking about cold water fishing for Trout as we do not have any pan fish here in NZ and the other answers all seem to be about Bass and other pan fish, I assume you are fishing for Trout in cold water, by the way are there any pan fish in Iceland?
The trout almost always feed facing the wind, even when they are feeding at the downwind bank they seem to cruise along the bank and mostly turn in to wind to take the food. I believe it is the same in England where almost all the reservoir fishing is done from a boat drifting downwind and casting at trout that are coming toward the boat ie feeding upwind.
If you fish from the bank then I find it best to fish a bank with a wind blowing along it, I cast out and let the wind work the fly around in an arc toward the bank, take a couple of steps downwind and recast. You can cover lots of water useing this method.
All the best.
Mike.

[thorarinna]

Yes it's cold water trout fishing from the bank.
There is not much of a tradition for boat fishing here.

We have brown trout and artic char, I think what I'm hearing is that brown trout go where the wind is blowind but the artic char go upwind in the calm against the bank!
But I've never been quite shure.

And no we dont have Pan fish or Bass.
We also have rainbow trout stocked in some lakes, but they can't breed here.
Then we have Salmon.
Both species of trout can be sea run.

Thorarinn.