I was cooped up this afternoon waiting for this stinkin’ wind to calm down… Decided I was gonna go out anyways. Wind was 20-25mph out of the south, gusting to 35 or 40 I’d guess. So the gameplan was to find some protected shoreline and see if I could pick up a bluegill or two.
Ended up with about 20 bluegills up to 8", a small crappie, a nice 12" white bass, a few small largemouths, and my first channel catfish of the year! All the female gills were FAT with eggs, and the channel was a good 1.5 to 2 lb fish. Almost brought him home for dinner, but decided I didn’t want to clean it! Lazy me, I guess. Oh, I caught a couple bluegill/green sunfish hybrids too. Kinda neat-looking fish.
Most fish were caught on a black mohair leech with rabbit tail and an orange bead head, size 12. Lesson learned today: channel cats are MUCH easier to unhook with barbless flies!
Now I just need to get more hooks and orange beads for those darn leeches! I tied myself clean out of em the other night.
Had that same wind up here, too, but I also didn’t let it stop me. Went back out to the lake we took Betty out to. I was curious to see if the suddenly warm weather and the ton of rain we got had stained the water any. Surprisingly clear still, but starting to green up around the edges quite a bit. Not that that’s a bad thing for the fishing, it just means another challenge for the fisherman. All the best spots had the wind blowing directly into them so I chose as my weapons a 6wt. and a pine squirrel Scrat (a lead eyed version of the slumpbuster that always reminds me of the squirrel/rat critter from the Ice Age movies) in order to get out and down quickly. Turned out to be just the ticket for gills, redears, and small, okay, baby bass.
Zac…Wind just won’t let you cast as far. My carp fishing was all very short cast saturday due to wind. On my last trip out for gills I also fished a 6wt in the wind…but some of the gills out there need it.
But I love the fishing so I just make myself deal with it. You have to fish right into the teeth of it to get the best fishing. The wind pounding onto the shoreline turns the fish on, and if you hit it right, the fishing can be outstanding.
You can do a lot to ‘help’ with this. I like light rods for gills and small bass, but the wind requires a heavier line and outfit. A wf 9 wt. line on 6 wt. rod will give you few extra feet in strong winds. You can do pretty well if it’s under 30 mph with a 6 wt. line on a 3 wt.
I also find, and I’m not enough of a physicist to know why, that I can get more control and thus more distance with a shorter rod in the wind. Doing some side or underhand casts can be effective under some circumstances, keeping the line low and ‘under’ the worst of the wind.
Understand I’m talking about extreme conditions, 20-30 mph steady with stronger gusts, where a 20 foot cast is what you are hoping to get.
I’d prefer a calm surface, cloud cover, and active fish with nobody else in sight…we can all dream, but I seldom get it.
… out dealing with the conditions and catching some fishies. Neat pix of a pretty place and fish.
Not so much around here, at least not so far to my limited experience in this neck of the woods, but down in SE Idaho if you don’t figure out how to deal with breezes like that you miss out fishing a lot of good water in a lot of places. The trick is to make the wind a friend and let it work for you.
Yeah, I have just learned to try and find the most protected place I can and I generally find fish. Sometimes that means spots I wouldn’t normally fish. Last night, I fished a new area and found a couple spots I’m going to go back to. Riprap/stumps/gravel in a shady area = bluegills!
Tim, I love the pics! Steve said that the weeds have grown up pretty bad! I got prints made from my trip yesterday. They turned out really well! I’m going to try that red/black rabbit on some leeches this week. Pictures and results will be posted.
Surprisingly ive done better this year fly fishing with a ferce head wind. The few calm days ive been out have been bummers. The past couple days LSC has been as calm as I have seen it in a long time. Good time to get some topwater flys out…nice over coming the wind
I’ve found that the wind is easier to handle with a sidearm or roll cast. For me at least. upwind is better than down since the wind stifles my backcast. Also learn to cast with both sides it really helps.
