Windy days and bright sun aren't my cup a tea anytime of year, but you can't judge a day by that alone - especially in fall. The forecast, as usual, didn't mention wind gusts up to 25 mph! At the house there was only a mild breeze before setting out. But as many of us know, winds that strong mean a front is moving through and fish get mighty irritable biting like crazy.

The water in the different lakes I fish now averages 48-49 degrees and you might expect a bit of a slow down. But as I've found in the last three days and 100 fish caught, you find them you catch them. Yesterday I figured I may as well go to the sheltered south end of the lake seeing as how I left the dang 15lb anchor at home and only brought the 10lb! Small rowboats have a habit of drifting, dragging light anchors when the wind is over 15mph.

At first yellow perch and bass were caught right up against the shore. Before calling it a day, I figured why not cast near this long rock ridge far from shore? Casting parallel to it, a crappie hit. Casting to deeper water, more hits. Making long casts with the wind, many more struck. I sat anchored in one spot for 4 hours and caught over 40 nice size crappie - a few less than 10", most 11-12"; I lost over 20. Better yet was testing different lures I made. Here are a few examples:


The gills and perch weren't too bad either:


Different lure shapes did well:






I tried the float but only a few nips.

A day of firsts to say the least!