Wind Wind Go Away A Little Anyway.

I know in a couple months we are going to be praying for a breath of wind to blow but can we just get a break from the 20 to 30 every single day?! I like a good 5 to 10 mph day out of the south, good cloud cover, is that too much to ask? This stuff of slamming into waves and bouncing all the fillings out of my teeth is getting old. Just a good wind to drift on with a sock out. It seems to me this spring has been unusually windy. The winds of March have been extended into April. They need to go home! Saturday forecast is for 20 mph out of the North gusting to 25. I'll be out there. My wing man Wyatt will be with me. I hope we get some of the rain they're talking about. If we do, that might help offset the North wind if we have fresh water coming into the coves. I hope everybody gets a toad or two this weekend. Tight lines y'all...

Sure makes it hard to fish shallow but the wind is your friend when drifting Tim. Most of my best trips have involved some stiff wind and a little rain. Catch rate usually sky rockets as the wind speed increases. We fish in sustained winds of 25 mph no problem but anything over that is difficult to hit your lines and you end up fighting the boat more than the fish. Getting bait also becomes increasingly difficult as well. I’m often the only boat on the lake on windy or stormy days so I realize I’m in the minority on this but over time I’ve come to love that big wind and rollers. It’s more work but the reward is often high. I think all those waves crashing super oxygenates the water and every fish in the lake seems to turn on.

Here are a few things I do when I’m fishing high wind and rollers. You probably already do some of these things but if you don’t then it will be at your advantage to start.
#1 thing about drifting in high wind is you gotta run everything out the back of the boat. This will decrease your silhouette and lessen your wind drag helping to slow you down. It’s also a much more stable platform to fish out of since the boat won’t be pitching side to side with every wave that rolls by. That pitching will wear you out. If you’ll fish out the back, at the end of the day you won’t be so beat to death from all the rocking and pitching. Also helps to have a fully loaded boat and a full fuel tank. Last but not least it helps to know all the simi-protected areas of your lake that hold fish for all wind directions and try and plan your attack so that you don’t have to make long runs across open water. Hope this helps amigo!

My weather app says 10-15 mph wind Saturday and Sunday so that’s about as pleasant a drifting wind as a man could ask for...the cooling effect and the north wind is definitely going to change things from last week though. Gonna have to get on that graph and hound dog em cuz I imagine they will be a long ways from where I found em last.

Chris I checked my NWS forecast against Weather Underground. NWS says winds around 15 gusting to 25. WU says 10 to 20. I guess they are about the same. the wind is one element of the forecast that I see change a lot. I don't think they can forecast that out too far. Let me say this, I think you are right about the oxygenation of the water going up the more the wind blows. The worse the weather the better because as you say, it keeps the knuckleheads off the water. The jet skiers are already wreaking havoc on Lavon. I also think you are spot on about fishing out of the back of the boat. I normally do that anyway sort of... I run six rods with the rod holders on the versatrack rail on each side on the aft 3 or 4 feet of the boat. I haven't considered the load on the boat. I will fill the live well and see what that does to help slow me down. I do have spots I fish for different wind directions, not necessarily wind conditions. This gives me a lot to think about though as far as where I want to start working Saturday. My last few times out have been short and fast. I am hoping Saturday I can spend a little more time on the water.

As always thanks for the advice brother. I really appreciate it!

My boat is a billboard sign, I need a Redneck Boat Brake to fish in anything over 15 mph

What else can you say. It's

Windfinder -

Get you 2 or 3 of these 78” socks Z. They will slow down your billboard I guarantee.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cabelas-Advanced-Anglers-Pro-Series-Drift-Sock-/202998019044

That Windfinder looks like a useful site. Thanks for sharing...

I got 2 54's. It works for summer, but to get down below .5 mph, I'd need a third or fourth one. Maybe I can get a big one in the center, and the two 54's on the outside.

The 54s are undersized for your boat Z. The 78s will help you out considerably I guarantee. I fished out of a pontoon back in the 2000s and the blue Lindy 54s couldn’t slow me down enough once the wind got over 10 mph. Another thing that might help you out is lengthening the harness on your socks. pontoon boats can produce a kind of dead zone draft wash behind the boat making drift socks less effective. The longer harness gets the sock out of that dead zone and will slow you down a lot better.