Wind and fishing

Wind is one of the things you notice most on the water, and it affects the fishing in several ways at once.

Moderate is best

A light to moderate wind, roughly 2–6 metres per second, ripples the surface. The light is broken up, fish feel safer and less shy, and the lure looks more alive. Glassy water often makes fish cautious, while strong wind makes fishing hard, both casting and keeping in touch with the lure.

The windward shore

Wind drives surface water, plankton and small fish towards the shore it blows onto. Baitfish often gather there, and predators follow. After a few days of the same wind direction, that side of the lake can be worth trying first, even if it is awkward to fish.

Wind and water temperature

Wind moves heat too. In spring an onshore wind drives the warmest surface water in towards the shore, where fish like to go. In midsummer a steady offshore wind can push the warm surface water away instead, so that colder water wells up by the shore. That can explain why a spot suddenly stops fishing, or starts.

Fishing with the wind

• Cast with the wind when you want distance, and into it when you want the lure to land softly and naturally.
• Drift fishing from a boat lets the wind do the work. You cover a lot of water, and the lure moves calmly along the bottom.
• Look for shelter on a really windy day. Bays and the lee side of islands give calm water where fish often wait.

Wind direction

There are old sayings that an east wind is bad and a west wind good. Behind them is probably that the wind direction follows the weather: cold northerly and easterly winds often come with high pressure and cold, westerly ones with mild, unsettled weather. It is the weather, not the direction itself, that matters.

Safety first

• Above about 10–12 metres per second it gets dangerous in small boats, especially on large lakes and at sea.
• Gusts can be much stronger than the mean wind. Check the gusts in the fishing weather.
• Always wear a life jacket, and tell someone where you are going.