Weatherman got me again this weekend.

Windfinder, weatherbug, and Wunderground agreed that the wind would lie down to <10mph Saturday afternoon and be "light and variable" by 10pm Saturday night.

Had a buddy in town from down South so I thought I'd show him some crappies then some salt the next day. Round the bend to the lake and all you can see is whitecaps. Oh well. We put in and go get knocked around for a couple hours and catch a bakers dozen fish, with 8 in the box.

Checked the weather again, forecast was even prettier! Tampa bay weather was supposed to be gorgeous Sunday so I planned a "Blast and Cast," early morning duck hunt followed up by some flats fishing.

We get to the boat launch at 5:15am and notice a rather stiff 12-15mph North wind. Thought maybe it was just the breeze that kicks up around daylight/break sometimes. Nope, come around the corner into an angry washing machine like Tampa bay with 2ft whitecaps and chop. I was able to make 5mph across the bay, while taking water over the bow occasionally, took me until well after daylight to get to where I wanted to be. Kicked some decoys out and settled in.

Birds started flying and we managed to whack a few mergansers while we watched the outgoing tide and north wind suck the water out of the bay. Called it about 830 when the birds had largely rafted up and weren't flying much. Wind was still honking. Eased back around the back side of a bridge to hide from the pounding we were taking and started fishing. Wind finally died off about 11am, and not long after we finished our speckled trout limit and pointed the boat back across the now calm bay to head home.

While radar is very beneficial for rain forecasts, I just haven't found a consistently reliable predictor of wind speeds. I spent 6 years working offshore in the Gulf and my experience has taught me to take NOAAs wind and wave predictions and double them, if that's too rough for your liking, then stay home or fish protected waters.