frustrating yes, a bust? not exactly

First and foremost, i should start off with the forecast that i checked twice before heading out today. Clouds early, giving way to sun later, high 64, EAST WIND 5 - 10 MPH. That is the important part. Instead, after the clouds cleared out around 9am and i picked up my order from Bass Pro Shop in Council Bluffs, the winds were out of the Northeast 15 - 20 mph.

The result of this miscalculation by the weather guys was, in my opinion the difference maker from catching the little guys and catching the big ones. I headed to my favorite location, on the west bank, expecting that east wind to blow lightly towards me, instead the northeast wind constantly threw my lure farther to the west than i would have liked to been, not to mention the decent waves and current made it difficult to keep the spinner blade rotating while retrieve with the wind and many time the lure would run at an odd angle once again because of the waves and current. I did land two small lm bass on a white curly tail jig. I switched spots to make up for the northeast breeze by moving to my second favorite spot on the south bank, i caught a few bluegills and green sunfish, but still no biggies. Finally i moved to this peninsula on the east side of the lake where trees cutoff the northeast and east breeze so i could fish some steadier water, the result was a more aggressive bite than in the choppier waters but the size of the fish didn't improve much.

I took a break to eat lunch, restroom, and rethink my strategy with this pesky northeast breeze and hope it would die down and maybe switch to more of an east wind. Went back out again to the first spot on west bank and this time since the sun was no longer hiding behind the high clouds, i made my switch from just using jigs to the inline-spinners. The result was no better than it was before, picked up a few little wipers but nothing else, i later changed to jigs again, didn't make a difference.

I dunno, maybe the 20 degree temp drop difference from the past few weeks have turned the larger fish off or forced them deeper. I got snagged about a dozen times because the current or wind took the lure in areas that were heavy with structure or somewhere i didn't know what was underneath the water. Thankfully i didn't lose any lures.

So yes, it was a very frustrating day hoping that wind would come down or change direction, but it just never did. I would call it my first bust of the year, but i did pull in fish today, just not big enough to fill up a frying pan, maybe a few fishsticks.

It's not looking like a very good next 7 - 10 days for fishing either. Friday, wind will be a problem, Saturday storms, Sunday is Easter, and from Monday until Thursday temps probably won't reach 60 until more rain comes in late next week. Guess it would be a good time to get more crappie attractant and let some of my new spinners and plastics soak in it.

This past week our largest crappies came in the same waters, just as shallow, but late in the day at and after dusk. Our crappies are heavily pressured during the daytime and we have generally only seen the true slabs late in the day or just after dark. It has taken very soft jigging and dead slow retrieves both at or along the bottom for us to score. They are still there but for us they are not coming up or chasing much. Crossing and head-on winds have played havoc with our line control; so we have also been moving to locations where that is less of a problem. We have to have line control to see most of what is a very soft bite, often too soft to feel.

We have had to do a lot of changing out of tails to pick up scattered fish, but between the two of us we are still releasing at or close to limits of mixed sized fish, in our shorter afternoon and evening jaunts. (MN limit is 10)

Hey Chris, when the wind starts moving your jig around you need to go to a heavier jig. If it sinks to fast then add a bobber to it. When all else fails use a minnow or tip with one or even a piece of night crawler.
I am getting the boat home tomorrow. Then I will be able to get after um. :fish EB

I hear brotha, put stake beds in today at Sherman. 30mph+ winds all day. I could hardly finish my habitat project let alone wet a line. Is it too early to complain about the wind...

Never to early or late to complain about the wind. At least it isn't Kansas. :highfive EB

Problem adding the bobber to it with a light bite and the wind over 15 mph, its really hard to detect that light bite with the bobber moving up and down with the waves. That's why i have been using the very slow retrieve or the stop and go so i can detect whether or not i have something.

That 10" crappie that i landed on the first in the shallow water, didn't realize i had a fish at first, i thought i was stuck on rock or tangled in with someone's line that they lost in the water.

I haven't tried my bigger 1/4oz jigs, i've mostly stayed with the 1/8oz or 3/16oz. I've been using a 1/64oz jig for the gills and sunfish.

That is why they made the wiggler bobber by thill for windy conditions. Most of it is under the water and doesn't catch the wind. EB

What is nice about fishing in Minneapolis is that if the wind is too strong to fish my 32nd oz jig heads in one place, there is another that is protected from the wind out of that direction. I just move. This time of the year, if there is a good sun, then fishing in waters protected from the wind, is also generally in the warmer waters available. It pays to have more than one "favorite" crappie fishing spot.

For fishing in the teeth of a stiff breeze cast directly into the wind but not over hand. Side arm it or dock shoot it just over the top of the waves and retrieve directly down the direction of the wind. That produces less line to be caught and distorted by the wind resulting in straighter casts and straighter, better controlled retrieves. You hit those point on the point spots a whole lot better. That works pretty well a lot times from an open shoreline anyway. IMO a lot of the time heavy waves result in too much bobber action when the wind is stiff; so I seldom use them above a certain wind level. I generally want only a soft jigging influence from a bobber, for more and easier to identify bite.