Acouple of Wind questions and comments

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

Number 1- I have read on numerous occasions that the wind blows the bait up into the shallow water near the shore. Is this correct? I personally dont think so.

Number 2- I have a friend who is a great fisherman who says you should always cast into the wind. I dont think this is right, but would like some opinions.

[biteme]

I fished both these styles and knocked em dead this weekend.

[wccjanel]

Jim,
You know how much I like throwing reaction baits. You also know how many different angles I’ll use on a spot that I am confident to hold fish. You’ve seen it both work and not work. That being said, I also keep to some pretty simple rules when fishing wind.
The first rule is; if I'm throwing deep and not catching them, then I go shallow for awhile.
The other rule is; if I'm throwing into the wind and not catching them, then I throw with the wind for awhile.
I am sincerely convinced that the fish do not read the same magazines that we do. I am also more convinced that they don't over analyze it as much as we do.
BTW:
If I’ve got a long stretch of riprap with a nice wind across it, you better bet I’m tossing a jerkbait with the wind behind me. And when I’m flipping, I’d much rather be facing the wind, so my prop wash goes to water I’ve already been in.

Just me.

Peace,
James

[biteme]

For me it just makes it easier to watch my line if Im facing the wind. I can keep the boat some what stopped with the trolling motor going into the wind. BUT if the wind is pushing the boat then Im trying to catch up to my line. Then I loose feel, miss bites. I guess its just what makes sense to me.

[Dan McKenzie]

Wind cannot blow baitfish around, it does move zooplankton and the baitfish follow their food.

[Andy Giannini]

I don't think wind could possibly blow baitfish unless they were floating like corks. I am with the zooplankton theory, so even if its not technically correct, a guy could say that wind blew the baitfish over there. (Or maybe the zooplankton is a baitfish?) There are many things that anglers say that doesn't really make sense, but it gets repeated enough it keeps on going as a truth. I guess they are "urban bass fishing legends"?

The windy side is good.

I never really think about casting into the wind, except that I want heavy baits. I am going to the target, upstream, downstream, into the wind, whatever. It just takes a few casts to check it out. I have watched anglers make the wrong cast and catch a fish too many times. Especially right after you tell them, don't cast behind the boat or whatever. BANG they catch one. After that, they will proceed to open a can of whup butt on you by fishing the "wrong" way, with the wrong lure, in the wrong season etc.

A.G.

[Shad*Wizard]

Jim, the wind can have a huge affect on baitfish in a shallow water situation...I've chased threadfin shad commercially on the California Delta for years, and one thing we learned, threadfins do not like to swim into the wave action created by strong delta winds...We use to go up into Sugar Cut with 3 boats and actually push schools of shad towards the back of it to corral them into thicker masses of bait with our trolling motors...

We always had a problem if we tried to shove the bait into the wind and waves...They just wouldn't buck that wind...We would get to the far end past the ski course, past the pump, and turn around at the end of Sugar and then head North again...If the wind was blowing South, it was real easy to get em' running...They would bunch up run like cattle going with the wind...

Also, if there was a big North wind blowing, we knew the bait would be all the way to the back, the direction the wind was heading...If a strong South wind blew, and Sugar runs North and South, the bait would be more toward the mouth of the slough...Same with current...Up by Mossdale where the best shad in the world lives, it was hard to push them into the current coming from up river...We had more luck going with the current...One could assume they take the path of least resistence...

Up in the Stockton Turning Basin where the water is much deeper, the wind would have much less of an affect on where the bait might be...In deeper water, they aren't as easily to get shoved or pushed by the wind...The bait would be uptown, and as the tide went out, the bait would go out...See the pattern?...Tide out, bait out...Wind blows, the bait usually follow the wind...

Dee Thomas smoked em' at Clearlake this weekend...The wind was his friend...Use the wind to your advantage if you can...It stirs up the bait and forces it to move and the bass know it...Whether you cast into or with the wind, that one I haven't tested...I know on a windy day, I would usually say the bait is following the wave action and not going into it...

Jimmy Houston said it too, fish the windy banks...That's where the bait will usually be...I fished with Dee one year and we were spinnerbaiting a slough...Windy day and we fished the calm side first...Nothing!...Went to the windy side and we just slayed em'...Never forgot that lesson...I'll take a windy bank anyday over a calm one as my first choice...Xman and I did it in Fishermen's cut the same way with black spinnerbaits on a cloudy day...Chartruese Coloroado's for blades...

Even watch the birds, they'll usually be at the back of a marina or slough, if the wind is blowing that way...

Shad*Wizard out...

Team KacieFish

[Bill K]

That is more correct, wind blows the plankton in and predators follow. Also the wind churns up the bottom, i.e. mudline, and the predators work that also for any stirred up bait, etc. But always work all the angles, into and with the wind to see where the big old bass are holding/working. Bill K