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Posts: 454
| I have been waiting months for this day to arrive. The latest forecast now has NE winds and possible am showers for Sat. and SE winds for Sunday. (obviously this can change as it has several times in the last couple days)
Assuming the forecast is correct, there is the old saying of east winds being bad for muskie fishing (or at least not as good as west). Do you think the winds will have an impact on the fish and their location or is it just a misconception?
The relatively stable weather seems to be a positive leading up to the weekend...
What are you thoughts?
Tony Steffes |
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| "stable"? ... yesterday around 85 degrees with extreme high winds and today 60 degrees. the front arrived about 3 hours ago. it's a late spring with buds in trees only starting about a week and a half ago but not much different than last year. last saturday it was 37 degrees with snow in the morning. i would not call what we are experiencing stable, but then it's not much different than it was last year. |
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Posts: 454
| Where I am fishing temps are supposed to be in the 70's the next 4 days - yes there were high winds yesterday, but Thursday, Friday, Sat, Sunday seemed to have a somewhat stable pattern for what it is worth. High and low temps each of the next four days seemed pretty stable to me..........
Anyway, I was more interested in people's thoughts and experiences with east winds?
Edited by asteffes 5/21/2009 8:24 AM
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Never bother me much muskie fishing, sure turns the salmon off. I think it's more the weather that causes an east wind (cold front) if the weather is stable and there's a breeze from the east the fish on the western shoreline seem to turn on. |
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Posts: 785
| I live in northern Iowa and am actually excited to hit the no. WI opener because the forcast up there has been way better than down here. I really don't pay a lot of attention to it but there's one lake I fish that I just beg for a north wind on whether it's N, NE, or NW. I don't think it will negatively affect the fishing too much. Plus as you said the relatively stable weather (for the time of year) should help things out... I look for it to be a good opener. |
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Posts: 529
Location: Not Where I Want To Be | I agree with Flambeauski. Believe it or not some of my bigger fish have come on East wind days.
Find the shore that's getting pounded. |
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Posts: 2089
| "Fish bite best with wind from the West and they bite least with wind from the East"-I'm convinced this phrase was originated by a couple drunk guys at the bar. Lots more factors at play than wind direction. Should be a great weekend!
Edited by Steve Jonesi 5/21/2009 9:46 AM
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | The only wind direction that I really hate is a strong NNW.
If you can't find fish in an east wind, spring in WI the last couple of years would have killed you. I agree with Tony, the stable weather pattern, the first of the spring, should offer some pretty good opportunities.
Now lets go get 'em! |
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Posts: 8781
| The only reason East winds are considered the kiss of death is that they are almost always accompanied by a cold front. Chances are the first day fishing in East winds is a bluebird sky, high pressure, post-coldfront day. It doesn't mean you can't catch fish, or won't catch fish, it just means you probably won't be fishing where or how you normally would. Sustained East winds for a few days? Well, the fish will adjust and so should you. They gotta eat some time.
I know one thing for sure: You won't catch anything if you stay home because of the weather! |
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Posts: 18
| I believe Jonesi hit the nail directly on the head. |
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Posts: 454
| So Jonesi came up the the East wind theory 
Now it all makes sense.
Good luck to everyone this weekend. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | East/Least – West/Best . . . Definitely a drunken proverb.
MuskyAddict, I agree with your BST on the fish recognizing certain winds as an indicator of a front moving in, so long as pressure changes and a couple other factors are in play.
If it does get windy, and I’m not talking about last Saturday windy (HS!!), use it to your advantage. Assuming it may have been calm for the couple days before the winds kicked it up a notch, more than likely oxygen levels are low and wind can fix that problem while it pounds the shore. With oxygen comes baitfish, where baitfish go, musky will follow. Warmer surface water from the middle of the lake will be pushed to the wind-driven shoreline. If it stays windy all day, mud lines make perfect ambush sites for muskies lying in wait. . .
There’s wind-driven lake current, so long as it’s a strong enough wind and long lasting. If that slight current circulated along a shoreline, you can almost bet the fish will be facing into the current like all fish do in rivers, etc. Get down wind or parallel to your spots and cast into the wind even though it’s asking for a backlash or two. That’s what I would do anyways, I haven’t seen a whole lot of fish chase down a bait that came from behind it.
Find slidebars, points, islands or steep humps/structure that make a current seam or an eddie. Usually baitfish use the slack water to rest. . .
One last thing, going back to warm surface water being pushed away, that colder water that rises and replaces it could potentially bring cisco’s, etc. higher in the water column, and those of us basin fisherman know what that means.
Edited by Sam Ubl 5/21/2009 11:14 AM
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Posts: 620
Location: Seymour, WI | I will qualify this by saying we were fishing an "action lake", but last wk end we fished the MI opener on Fri and it was sunny and 60 degrees with a strong S wind. We caught several muskies and moved lots more. Sat night we had strong storms and temps dropped into the 30's, winds kicked up to 35 mph from the NW with snow. I'm not sure why we fished Sat morning but we did and still caught 3 more muskies. So it can be done, fish do bite even after drastic weather changes. It seems to me like fishing can be good for several hrs after a front passes, but then as the front moves on it gets tougher.
Grass, |
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Posts: 1270
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | It's the opener and a 3 day weekend, so no, it doesn't matter!!!  |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | I agree..... with Ghoti |
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Posts: 785
| ghoti - 5/21/2009 12:42 PM
It's the opener and a 3 day weekend, so no, it doesn't matter!!! :)
Yeah I think that sums it up pretty well! |
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Posts: 256
Location: Janesville | They have to eat . I like a east wind on the lake i fish. Just great to be back up in minocqua fishing muskys agian . I did catch 2 today on the madison chain 39.5 and 37 inchers |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Just throw a Cisco or Black/ Orange colored Pounder to the wind blown structure and then CPR that big FAT green girl........ Don't worry about the wind. Work it Baby,,, Work it!!
Jerome
Edited by Top H2O 5/21/2009 5:36 PM
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Posts: 617
Location: Clintonville, WI | Tony,
I'm throwing in with ghoti on this one. The windows may be smaller due to the weather but the fish are still there and still get hungry or angry.
Also, if the lakes are tough going, there are a few rivers I know you know over by you.......my experience is that wind/weather affect rivers less, if at all. |
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| If somebody could actuallyy answer that correctly they'd be some kind of a fish Guru, and very rich. Bottom line: You get what you get for weather. So, let's just all be glad that it's only a wind of 5-10 MPH, instead of the 30MPH we had last weekend.
Get out there and fish with confidence! |
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| Interesting comment at the beginning about this year being just like last year as far as the spring progression. I really feel that we are way ahead of last year with water temps and warmer weather patterns. Anyone agree/disagree? |
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WI Opener - (NE winds - Does it matter?)