A Couple Of Tips To Help With Fishing In The Wind...
I came accross this article today and thought this would be a great article to share...The wind sure does like to kick up in the Spring time so these tips are timely!
Enjoy,
Duke
SimpleFlyFishing.com
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A couple of tips to help with fishing in the wind
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
By DAVE BUCHANAN
The Daily Sentinel
Rarely can it be said that wind is an angler’s friend.
Perhaps it is so in the occasional cases where gusts of summer wind dump grasshoppers and other terrestrials into fish-holding waters, creating an unexpected “hatch” that excites fish into feeding.
Or the same gusts driving away the ravenous mosquitoes that we’re certain to find in excess this summer on Grand Mesa.
Or the times when downriver winds (does the wind really blow downriver when you’re at the oars?) ameliorate the rowing as the day grows short, the take-out still is miles away and energy is fading fast.
In most cases, however, the wind is not the angler’s ally.
Float-tubing on open water when the wind starts to howl can be exciting to the point of danger, and even mid-sized boats have had to turn back when whitecaps start surging across Lake Powell.
Fly anglers, perhaps of all anglers, have to learn to come to terms with the wind. Attempting to get a natural drift while a wind stiff enough to blow the spots off a Dalmation whips your flyline into knots somewhere above your head can make even the most ardent fly angler into a fan of lead sinkers and metal lures.
Take fishing in the wind as the seasonal challenge it presents, and there are a few techniques and tricks that can bring success no matter how hard the wind blows. Well, almost.
After polling some veteran guides around the West, here’s a short compendium, a primer for the primavera, you might say.
Forget the overhand, looping cast and got to a low-profile sidearm cast, keeping the line down and out of the big gusts. Learn how to do a roll cast.
Punch the rod a bit more. Fly casting has been likened to tossing a tomato empaled on a fork, starting slow, smooth acceleration to a quick speed up and sudden stop at the end. Make that speed up and stop more pronounced to tighten the loop (less wind resistance) even more.
Don’t worry about being mistaken for Brad Pitt, standing on a rock and making long casts.
“As long as you can get your fly in the water and catch fish, who cares what you look like?” queried Jesse Eckley of Western Anglers Fly Shop.
Fish streamers, weighted flies or add more weight to get your offering down. The wind blows, there’s no hatches in sight, but the fish have to eat. Weighted streamers and Woolly Buggers cast easier and get down faster.
Thin out that strike indicator or completely get rid of it. Whether it’s balsa, foam or yarn, a strike indicator catches the wind and as it moves it carries your fly with it.
Shorten the length of your line on the water. High-stick nymphing made popular two decades ago by Chuck Fothergill and others seems to have fallen out of favor, but recently the Europeans have been kicking some serious fly-rod butts at the World Championships by using shorter lines. Your fly gets down faster and you have more contact (i.e., feel) with what’s happening down where you can’t see.
Take advantage whenever possible of the wind. Change the direction you are casting, change sides of the river, even change locations, said Drew Reid of Roaring Fork Anglers in Glenwood Springs.
“Try to make the wind your friend,” Reid suggested, and he laughed only a little when he said it.
Dave Buchanan can be reached via e-mail at dbuch-anan@gjds.com.
Enjoy,
Duke
SimpleFlyFishing.com
==============================
A couple of tips to help with fishing in the wind
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
By DAVE BUCHANAN
The Daily Sentinel
Rarely can it be said that wind is an angler’s friend.
Perhaps it is so in the occasional cases where gusts of summer wind dump grasshoppers and other terrestrials into fish-holding waters, creating an unexpected “hatch” that excites fish into feeding.
Or the same gusts driving away the ravenous mosquitoes that we’re certain to find in excess this summer on Grand Mesa.
Or the times when downriver winds (does the wind really blow downriver when you’re at the oars?) ameliorate the rowing as the day grows short, the take-out still is miles away and energy is fading fast.
In most cases, however, the wind is not the angler’s ally.
Float-tubing on open water when the wind starts to howl can be exciting to the point of danger, and even mid-sized boats have had to turn back when whitecaps start surging across Lake Powell.
Fly anglers, perhaps of all anglers, have to learn to come to terms with the wind. Attempting to get a natural drift while a wind stiff enough to blow the spots off a Dalmation whips your flyline into knots somewhere above your head can make even the most ardent fly angler into a fan of lead sinkers and metal lures.
Take fishing in the wind as the seasonal challenge it presents, and there are a few techniques and tricks that can bring success no matter how hard the wind blows. Well, almost.
After polling some veteran guides around the West, here’s a short compendium, a primer for the primavera, you might say.
Forget the overhand, looping cast and got to a low-profile sidearm cast, keeping the line down and out of the big gusts. Learn how to do a roll cast.
Punch the rod a bit more. Fly casting has been likened to tossing a tomato empaled on a fork, starting slow, smooth acceleration to a quick speed up and sudden stop at the end. Make that speed up and stop more pronounced to tighten the loop (less wind resistance) even more.
Don’t worry about being mistaken for Brad Pitt, standing on a rock and making long casts.
“As long as you can get your fly in the water and catch fish, who cares what you look like?” queried Jesse Eckley of Western Anglers Fly Shop.
Fish streamers, weighted flies or add more weight to get your offering down. The wind blows, there’s no hatches in sight, but the fish have to eat. Weighted streamers and Woolly Buggers cast easier and get down faster.
Thin out that strike indicator or completely get rid of it. Whether it’s balsa, foam or yarn, a strike indicator catches the wind and as it moves it carries your fly with it.
Shorten the length of your line on the water. High-stick nymphing made popular two decades ago by Chuck Fothergill and others seems to have fallen out of favor, but recently the Europeans have been kicking some serious fly-rod butts at the World Championships by using shorter lines. Your fly gets down faster and you have more contact (i.e., feel) with what’s happening down where you can’t see.
Take advantage whenever possible of the wind. Change the direction you are casting, change sides of the river, even change locations, said Drew Reid of Roaring Fork Anglers in Glenwood Springs.
“Try to make the wind your friend,” Reid suggested, and he laughed only a little when he said it.
Dave Buchanan can be reached via e-mail at dbuch-anan@gjds.com.
posted by The "Duke" at 1:08 AM
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