I know some of you fish from your boat even when the wind is blowing as hard as it was today (15-20 with gusts to 30 mph). It seems that the days that are great for fishing (wind wise), I'm at work and when it's windy, I'm available to fish. How do you crappie fish when it's so windy?

Heavy jigs and add a split shot. Put the trolling motor down farther in the water.

Managed to scratch out 13 slabs shallow this evening.
Get an I Pilot.

Get in the creeks

I pilot is great. Hit spot lock and forget about it.

I set up spots to fish out of the wind. Extra work. You have to out here, if you don't you don't get to fish the spawn much.

Right now we are fishing in the creeks and rivers
Find the deepest sections.
Double rig each line with jigs about 18"-2' apart
1/4 oz. jig on the bottom and 1/8 oz. jig on top
Will add more weight towards the bottom if needed (split shot or clamp on weight)
Wife and I fish two poles each
Turn the boat into the wind and let the wind carry us down/up river using the trolling motor to control the speed and placement of the boat.
I can not tell you how fast we are moving but I try to keep my lines pretty straight.
Now get ready for some hand to hand combat and some CRAZY fun!!

How do I fish in the heavy wind?

I have a BIG Heavy boat with a nice Deep "V". I place a lot of my BP's and Condos in open water just to keep all the other lighter smaller boats off them in the wind. I can fish them in winds up to about 20 mph with my I-Pilot Terrova. If it gets above that especially in a tourney I will still fish them, but I have also pumped water (40-60 gal) into the lower deck to stay "In the water" on a good location. Some will say I am crazy to do so, but I have a good bilge pump AND and backup. I have won a couple of the Centex tourney by doing this.
Guess I spilled my secret.

Lake Kroeger, Lake Tom Thumb and Lake Albertsons have now wind at all.
At least that's what I heard.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/10441735/Electronics_help!_Lowrance_7_H#Post10441735

I posted this on a differnt part of the forum but I'm having trouble with my lowrance unit is rough water. Can someone shed some light

texas fishing fourm

I understand about getting into coves or areas that are protected by the wind and I have rods with heavier jigs if I'm straight line jigging but I guess I should have been a little clearer in my original question. I don't have an i-pilot. I decided to pass on the i-Pilot and instead use the difference in price to use on better electronics. I also have a deep-v "walleye" skeeter boat that is a big seller up north for use on the Great Lakes. So what I was really interested in knowing is how do you deal with the high winds. Similar to what SaltyDawg88 stated. I've been in 15+ winds and it just seems like I spend more time trying to fight the wind as opposed to fishing. I don't even try to fish bridge pilings in the high winds. I didn't know if most of y'all that fish in the high wind days just deal with the wind in order to fish or you only fish the areas that are protected from much of the wind. Trying to wait for the 5-10 mph winds won't get me on the water very often (especially during the spawn) so I was just looking for any tips for fishing in the more windy conditions. Thanks!

Fish protected areas. Spawning fish don't like banks with waves. I just deal with the wind sometimes and get frustrated. No fun at all. Mostly, I stay off the water. If I know a protected area that I think spawning fish might be in, I'll fight the waves to get there if it's safe enough. For example: Caney Creek on Fork is protected from the north wind and there's a ramp in the back portion of the creek. You can launch and stay in the creek and fish some pretty good water and not have to get on the main lake.

I am similar to salty. I fish from a pretty heavy center console boat. I make my own weights for catfishing so I usually have a lot of scrap lead around the house. My brother loads his own shotgun shells. I usually will put a couple buckets of lead under the front deck, along with a couple bags of shot. I will fish protected areas if I am able too but when I need to get out and fight the wind, the extra weight in the front of the boat really helps a lot.

Lollygagger, one of the disadvantages of deep-v boats is that they're tougher to hold in a big wind. That's a big part of why I chose an old fashioned not-too-high-sided bass boat over anything else. When I did that fishing Friday in all that wind, I was holding my boat fine with my 46 pound thrust 12 volt trolling motor. Most people here wouldn't even consider a trolling motor that small for an 18 1/2 foot boat, but with a not-too-high-sided boat like I have, it's plenty, and was holding me fine on Friday.

One cheat is to sink some brush piles in areas that will be protected from either a strong north or south wind, and fish those on the windy days. Tying up or anchoring is about the only other way to get a break from fighting a trolling motor in the wind, unless you want to buy something more sophisticated than the foot control I prefer.