by Bruce Middleton, April 28, 2008

If fished correctly, windy days can land you major catches of bass…

How many times have you not gone fishing because the wind was too high or quit fishing because the wind came up? How many other fishermen do you know that have said to you “ I’ll fish when it’s hot or cold but I hate fishing in the wind.” For the most part I usually hate to take my boat out on a lake when the wind is blowing hard.

My boat is aluminum and light and therefore hard to control and it seems like I spend more time trying to keep the boat in position than I do casting for bass. But in actuality this is because I’m fighting the wind instead of using it to my advantage. For one thing, I have noticed that the wind actually energies the bass in the lake. Whether this is due to current created by the wind, the extra wave action and the noise it generates, whether this extra noise interferes with their sense of hearing and lateral lines making them sight hunt more or the safety the bass feel because they cannot be seen at any depth no matter how shallow they wonder, I can’t say for sure. But for whatever reason, the fishing usually gets great.

Another good reason to fish these days is because there is so much less fishing pressure. There are fewer boats on the water on these days. The wind can be your friend and it can help you catch more bass because they are more aggressive.

A breeze will make bass less spooky, especially in clear water. This is a well-documented fact. The slight ripple on the waters surface calms the bass as if they sense that predators can’t see them just under the surface. This lends itself to the bass moving out from cover and into shallow water to actively feed. Continuous wind swirling around a point will eventually cause a mud line. This change in watercolor will attract bass to it as an active ambush point. With the wind above and a mud line below the bass align themselves along the most advantageous line and wait for baitfish to be pushed by.

The bass will always get aligned head first into the current. This is a most important fact. This tells you that you must cast up wind and bring your lure back down with the wind and with the current the wind generates. While casting the other way will give you more distance it means that you will be bringing your bait up behind the bass, which will either scare the bass or the bait will likely be ignore. So remember to always cast into the wind on windy days. This often leads to throwing heavier than normal lures. Where you might normally throw a 3/8s ounces spinner bait a ¾ ounce one may be more appropriate in these days. This would be true for all baits and lures.

If the wind has been blowing for several days in a row it may have piled up a great deal of plankton at one end of the lake. This in turn draws in baitfish and finally the predators move in, the bass.

The end of the lake where the wind starts and the end of the lake where the wind rises up and off the lake will have a very interesting phenomenon associated with them as compared to the main body of the lake. The end of the lake where the wind first hits the lake, the water temperature will be cooler than the average lake temperature. The lake waters at the other end of the lake where the wind ends and rises up off the lake, will be warmer than the average lake water. While for the most part this fact will make little difference in the way we fish during the year there is one time of year that this variation makes a huge difference. The spawn. This wind fact can show you where the spawn will probably start first on a lake and which end of the lake the spawn will occur later. Mull that fact over and think about how you can use it. You can go after spawning bass by working down the lake, week after week opposite the way the wind blows. Or you can fish for the pre-spawn bass longer, the ones still actively feeding and schooled up on the flats and points. This is good solid information that is worth a lot if you use it and think about it.

Because of the extra noise caused by the crashing of wave and midlake wave noise, top water lure with props are especially good. Other top water lures include poppers like the Pop’R. Long floating minnow lures with propellers at each end are fish getters too. Buzz baits and spinner baits run so they break the surface are also good lures to try. The idea is to cause as much noise as possible so that the bass can hear it over the ambient noise. Lures with a lot of flash are also called for in this situation. Since the bass will be doing a lot of sight feeding, flash will draw them in from great distances.

It is of the utmost importance at this time and under these conditions that your equipment be in top-notch condition. Any failure with the trolling system and you could be blown on the beach in seconds. Your tackle must be in great shape too. Old line that leaves loops on the water will cut your casting distance in half. And where you are casting into the wind, you need to cast hard and fast. Finally the boat must be ready for this kind of conditions. The boat is going to be doing a lot of rocking and rolling. This is not your average calm Friday fishing trip. Everything must be stowed away that is not in use. Everything on deck must be lashed or locked or tied down so it doesn’t roll around and get under foot making noise. You will also find that you will be using the butt seat up front more often than not simply to help maintain your balance better.

Your rod choice for days like this should be a seven or a seven and ½ foot medium action rod.

It should have a fast tip and lots of backbone to withstand heavy hook sets. This rod will give the best casting distance in the wind and still be able to handle just about any bait or rig you connect to it. In my opinion, this is the universal fishing rod and the first one you need to buy if you were first starting out fishing. And don’t forget to downsize you’re line size whenever possible. Newer lines have the poundage you normally use but at diameters between ¼ to 1/5th smaller. That is smart move.

One good way of using the wind to your advantage is to fish with the tactic called “dragging”. If you haven’t heard of it before don’t fret as I just made the name up. Dragging is structure and dock fishing where you cast and retrieve to the side of the upcoming dock and to the backside. After you have just passed the dock, cast back across the front of the dock and drag the bait in front of the dock. This tactic works well near open banks and along deeper logs. It works with slow moving spinner baits and suspending crank baits just as well as jigs and plastics.

Dragging works well over and around main lake structure and cover. It is important to mark the structure/cover with a buoy so you have a minds eye of what and where the area your fishing is and where the limits of that area are. This way you can drift over the area repeatedly, knowing you are where you need to be. Good electronic come into play here along with several buoys. Windy weather is also an excellent time to consider trolling for bass. This time honored method used to be the only way to catch bass and it is still a very viable way to fish for them. It also is another way to make the wind work for you instead of against you.

A hump rising to within a few feet of the surface and islands can concentrate the effects of a wind driven current. Often this attracts both baitfish and bass to it. This stimulates the feeding response in the bass and they become very active. So be alert to this kind of sweet spot on any lake you fish and have a good lake map made up that shows any such structure. Points, humps and islands are some of the best places to fish during a windy day.

The use of a contact bait is one way to fish these types of structures. Jigs, plastics and deep diving crank baits that bounce off the bottom are all good choices. A drop shot rig is also a great choice. The whole idea is to keep a bait or lure just off the bottom by say a foot to 18 inches. Unless the bass are suspended at a different level, this is the level they are most likely to be found.

There are two main schools of thought on which way is best as to which to go, i.e. with the wind or against the wind while fishing. A lot depends on if you have a big bass boat with the trolling motor up front or a smaller boat with the trolling motor in the back. For boat control, and if the wind is not blowing too hard, going against the wind is best. It is a lot easier to steer the boat when you have to position it and then bring it back into the wind. If however, the wind is blowing too hard or you have the electric motor mounted on the back of the boat (like on my small smoker craft) going with the wind is about your only option. This has its advantages in that you can drift with the wind therefore saving the batteries. It’s easier to control the boat with a rear-mounted troller when going with the wind too. Also too, larger boats with front mounted trolling motors use a 2 or 3 battery system giving them much more power than the usual one battery that a normal rear mounted trolling motor uses. Rear mounted trolling motors are also usually not permanently attacked to the boat where the front mounted motors are. Power and leverage of a front mounted trolling motor makes it so much more easy to control a boat let alone that it’s hands free and you never have to stop reeling to control which way the boat is going. A rear mounted trolling motor is constantly being adjusted by hand to keep it where you need it. This cuts into casting and reeling time, a lot. One remedy is to make your own platform on the front of your boat and mount a foot controlled trolling motor on the front of the boat. This is an easy fix and for a small boat it gives you the best of both worlds. A small boat that loads and unloads easily and goes places a big boat won’t and has the advantage of front end steering. Another way to run with a rear mounted trolling motor is to run with the wind and run the motor in reverse to keep you running where you want to go. It is fairly easy this way to keep the boat on a straight line.

There is one other option open to you on these windy days and that is the use of an anchor. Now a lot of anglers groan at the mere mention of the word anchor. They say it’s just one more thing to keep in the boat, it’s a hassle to get to it and I almost fell overboard the last time I tried to use it and so on. But it needn’t be all that complicated. If you’re going out on a windy day, position the anchor so it’s easy to get to in the first place. Once its over the side and you’re using it, don’t pull it up all the way each time, just enough so the boat is free to drift to the next dock or next point of structure you’re going to fish. A cleat for tying it off makes for an easy and reliable rope hold and if you thread the rope through the center of the cleat it will make a lot less noise as you move the rope up and down. And don’t use too big an anchor either. This just makes the entire experience tiring and needlessly hard besides making a lot of noise when they hit bottom.

Now I have only seen one bass fisherman use an underwater current sock or a drift sock while fishing. It is a small cone shaped parachute that is dragged behind the boat some distance (say 7 to 10 feet) and counter acts the push of the wind. What did impress me though was how slow he was drifting as compared to the wind, me and the other boats near him. He was moving quite slowly and this is the key for using one. Now when I wrote the first draft of this story I didn’t own a drift sock but now I do. I bought a 24” model and boy does it work. But really the price of a drift sock is only around $23 for a big enough one to slow most boats down to a craw in very windy conditions. I was and continue to be very impressed with my sock and wish I had bought mine sooner. The only real consideration to make is how to get the sock rigged so it is exactly in the center of the boat and not attached to one side or the other. This way the boat always stays straight and not at an angle. One last thing is to add a float if you don’t buy a lanyard with the drift sock. This is used so when you are fighting a big bass or other fish you can disconnect the sock, fight the fish and then go back and pick up the sock and reattach it. I haven’t found a need to do this yet but the option is always there.

You can also make your own drift sock at home too. Go to any fabric store and buy one (1) yard of tuff but light rip-stop nylon material. Cut this material into the largest cone you can, you are looking to make a 24-inch opening by 36-inch long cone. Cut the last three inches of the cone off so water can pass through it. Also, if you like you can attach a release cord too, near this small end hole so when you pull on this cord the cone empties out making it easy to retrieve. Now take four (4) marbles and sew them into the edge of the cone keeping them equal distance from each other using the scraps left over. Now using some light nylon cord, tie one end to the marble patches and make each line 4 or so feet long after being tied. Tie all the 4 ends together and tie them to a main line, which attaches to the boat. This main line should be about 7 to 10 feet long. Now when fishing and the wind kicks up, all you have to do is toss the wind sock over board and let out enough line so it doesn’t interfere with any part of your fishing and there you go. You will be amazed at how slow this little unit will slow the boat down. Of course you can always up size or down size to get the size that is just right for your boat. But again the price of buying one this size is just $23 plus shipping from Bass Pro.

Running on the wind protected side of the lake is more my style too and finding protected inlets and small bays where the wind is no problem at all is where I usually start out the day. There is no sense fighting the wind if you don’t have to. But if you do have to get out into the wind the above information should help you a lot in deciding how you should go about fighting the wind or making the wind work for you.

Now all this is not to say that every windy day is a great day to go fishing for bass. Like anything else associated with bass, the whole picture must be looked at. Say for instance the weather has been nice for five days but the wind is bringing in a cold front with rain just a few hours away. This is a goodtime to fish for bass. Now say the wind has been blowing for a few days and the rain has been falling for a four days. Then the sun comes out but the wind is still blowing. This is not going to be a good bet when it comes to catching bass. Again, you have to look at the whole spectrum of cold fronts, sky conditions, wind, past weather patterns, time of year and everything associated with the lake, water temperature, PH, oxygen levels and so on. But when the conditions are right, windy days, like rainy days can be exciting times for bass fishermen if you only know how and when to fish them.

I hope this brief look into the wind helps you get out there and catch a few windy day bass. They are aggressive feeders and really smack a lure or bait, so hang on tight. Good luck and have fun.


Bruce Middleton
bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com