Okay, you've planned for a couple of weeks for a big trip on an Eastern Washington lake. Unfortunately when you get there the wind is howling, the surfs up and the likelihood of realizing your fantasies of knocking them dead are fading fast. What do you do to salvage the trip and catch a few in spite of the wind? Next time I'm faced with the prospect of fishing in the wind I'd like to be better prepared to have some success. Anybody got any wind strategies they can share? What are the fish doing when the wind is blowing like crazy?

ACE

Ace, good question.I'm planning on going to Nunally this weekend. I first plan on bringing a anchor. The next item is a book to read for when I'm waiting for the to die down.

Ace: I have run into this problem on three trips to eastern WA. Fortunately, two of the trips were 2 - 3 days and we only got blown off one day. Last trip to Lenice, saw a tuber swimming back to shore. On the latest trip, we were able to look down into the lake while waiting for the wind to die down. The fish tended to be in the shallows, feeding surface and sub-surface on the windy side of the lake. I'm sure they tend to get the bugs that are blown into the lake and are stacking up on the far shore. If you can get in a semi protected area, casting to this area can be productive. On some lakes, you can stand in the shallows and cast, but the old cast & duck gets frustrating after a short time. I found chronies to worked well early in the year on windy days, the problem was not using a large enough "visual depth adjuster". Not really much you can do if it gets too windy.

Ace,

I used to use the "duck and chuck" method in windy conditions. The seep lakes tend to be windy in March and I used to use an 8wt rod with a 9wt line and double haul to get my flies out in the wind. I'd use a sinking line or one with a 30 foot sinking section and zing a red bodied muddler out and get it close to the bottom. Back then a red bodied muddler was my fly of choice. it would float up off the bottom a little.. just enough to keep out of the moss. I didn't think it was more than 6 inches off the bottom.

What I do now is go to a lake that's a little sheltered.. or try to get the wind at my back or a little quartering. I don't like it where i have it pushing the fly line over my head as I've stuck myself before and being barbless was the only way I got it out.

Troutmaster - You can read???? When are you heading over to Nunnally? I understand that there are some fairly well protected lakes in the Seep group that are fishable on windy days. ZF - I also like barbless for the easy of hook removal from my hand and clothes.

mIcRO bREW No I cant read ,type, fish,drive
or wipe my a_ _ . But I'm going over sunday morning, I told you that this moring when we talked, Dont you remember??????? Oh I see its' the old timmer thing!

Guys,

When I saw who the respondents to my post were I thought it might get real windy on the forum, but hey, you guys did good. Thanks for sharing your experiences and ideas. Fortunately, my trip was for two days and Sunday was okay.

I'm starting to get some fairly consistent results with the choronomids. If I would have started my day on Sunday, where I fished in the wind on Saturday, I may have had a great Sunday. As it was, I was late getting to the party and only pick up 4 nice ones in about an hour. Before I arrived the fishing was goooooood for a couple hours!! Heard that one before???? Anyway, when I did get there, I got immediate results as did a guy I set up with leader, flies and a quick lesson on chronie fishing. He picked up a nice 17" after a fishless day to that point. So thanks for the "windy" advice and your earlier help with the chronies. You've made a difference. What more can you ask for?

ACE

Ace,

In the category of "windiness" Trout Master is in a class by himself. Neither Micro Brew nor myself even hold a candle to him.

And... he talks a lot too.

yawdy yawdy yawdy yawdy