Just a tip

Saturday I fished Lake Palestine. I one of the piles I fished at the mouth of a bay had a slight current into the bay. No big deal it actually helps pull my jig under the trolling motor transducer and I can more easily target specific fish. Later I hit a pile about 300 yards away on the main lake shoreline and the current was running the opposite direction pulling my jig away from me. This made it impossible to target fish with my graph unless I stood in the back of the boat lol. I was catching a few but not many. I knew there were lots of fish on this pile because I could see them on the graph. So I bumped the Ultrex about 10' back positioning myself behind the brush. BAM, fish on. Dropped back down and the current would take my jig up to the Pile and BAM another fish on. I continued this until I caught the last few fish I needed to catch my limit. Keep in mind I was double rigged with a 1/16th oz on top and an 1/8th oz on bottom so the current was strong. It was pretty windy, but the current was flowing in the opposite direction than the wind. Weird situation that I have never ran into on a Lake. I though that some others could benefit from my experience. Here’s a few pics. Tight lines ya'll.

Makes good sense to me. I have dealt with that wind/current thing quite a bit lately. Thanks for the reminder!

Very good tip. I’m sick of fishin the wind this year. One of the windiest springs I can ever remember

Good info

Solid post and fish. Good job.

Stronger wind packs the water against the shoreline and the excess runs underneath to get back out. Same as wind blowing out of a bay and the tide gets lower. In lakes, the water has no place to escape except under the surface. Top 3-4 ft will be flowing with the wind and 10-15 ft down will be flowing the opposite direction. Stronger wind, stronger current.

Great tip cowboytex. Sometimes it's the subtle things that fill a limit.

Very informative.

>E

That makes perfect sense, but not quite what seemed to be going on here. Here is a poor "map" of what was going on. What do you think? Keep in mind this is a small part of the lake and I fished all over that day and never saw current anywhere else close by or miles away.

Definitely wind aided current. Water is headed back out after rounding the curve.
The contour of the bottom (depth) has a big impact on where the water stacks up and where it goes back out.

Thank you sir for the great info,to bad I could not figger that in 60 or 70 years.

the only was that there was a current formed was if the floodgates were letting water out of the lake or there was a good flow of water leaving the lake from natural drainage pulling a slight current.
theory abt the waves breaking and rolling under then the water going the opposite direction is a myth.
in order for there to be a significant amount of water moving the opposite direction of the wind, there has to be water draining out of the lake somewhere in a constant amount.

if you look at this chart you can see that the lake level has been going down for the last few days on palestine , this could be due to several reasons, if the lake is above normal pool, water will still come past a small section of the floodgates , draining the water out, creating a current or water can outflow thru various creeks and rivers. the floodgates dont always have to be open and releasing water for there to be water draining out of the lake. even a small amount of water leaving the lake in a constant flow will create current. think of how a bathtub drains, you hasve a small drain hole, and when it starts draining, all of the water in the tub begins flowing twards that drain.
http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/lake/status.htm

Thanks Ken

If that were the case why would there be two totally different directions of current 300 yards apart with one being in the opposite direction from the dam?

The map is incomplete. Go ahead and put the waypoints in for those two piles so I can investigate further and get back to you.

Fished Sunday morning and it was a bizarre current indeed. Have fished that wind direction in that location a hundred times and never seen that before. Had caught some shad earlier that died so dropped a few in the water and they started floating straight into the wind right on the surface. But you are right, the fish were still biting

s is a great discussion of an event we may see , but not understand .I will be paying
more attention to all info and try to improve my catch.Thank you or the info.

I knew you would know exactly where I was talking about despite my map. Your responsible for 1 of those lol. It was very strange for sure. I actually experienced that current the week before as welll but didn’t fish the other pile to see the exact opposite so close by.

Sometimes there's more truth to a myth than just a theory.

If anyone is interested in how water is pushed by the wind and goes the opposite direction of the wind, read causes and occurences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_current

On Lewisville, I have often seen the current flow in the opposite direction of the wind. The south east wind will push the water up and it will "stack" and push north west under the north end of the I35 bridge.
When this happens, it will flow back to the south east under the south end of the bridge even though the water will be slack under the south end. The fish will stage on columns and bite best on a jig drifting with the current. The stacked water is finding its own level and going back out to the main lake that the wind pushed it out of.