How much wind is too much?

[randyj]

I'm anxious to go fishing again... today!  The weather forecast is 12 mph winds.  That may not be much to some of you but in my little tin lizzie it's gonna blow me around quite a bit.  The water here is too deep to anchor comfortably and I like to work the banks & drop offs.... so, I don't like to anchor.  In this little bit of wind it will probably overcome my trolling motor. Normally, a 4 mph wind is not significant but much over that and I get pretty frustrated handling the boat while trying to fish.

[cd1]

...much over that and I get pretty frustrated handling the boat while trying to fish.

Every boat and boater has that threshold.  Mine is about 15 MPH anything above that and I'm not fishing...I'm doing an exercise in rough water boat control.  I won't even go if it's forecast at 15. 

[Kickin Bass]

Mine depends on if it is a tx it not.   For "fun" fishing I start to think about not going at anything over 10.  Been there done that in winds way over 10 can't say I enjoyed it much but it was a tx. 

Type and style of boat I would think play a major part in the decision. 

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[Bassinkorea]

I get frustrated in strong winds over 10mph as I only have a 12 boat. However, the fishing can be great in windy conditions.

My wife and I fished a local tournament a couple of weekends ago in 23mph winds, it was tough, but the fish were biting good.

[tstone]

I used to hate it until I caught my biggest yet on a day with 12 mph (felt like even more)

Now I'm more willing to put up with it, never know what you might have caught if you don't go because of the wind!

[pawpaw]

I have a little 18ft. Ranger. I won't go if the wind is over 15mph. When I used to fish tournaments 25mph was my limit. I know places I can get out of the wind but I'm not going to sink the boat getting there.

[bluebasser86]

The way the wind blows here I'd never fish if I wasn't willing to deal with 15+mph winds. If it stays under 25 I'm usually pretty happy on the smaller lakes I usualy fish but I had a really good day this spring in 30mph with 40mph gusts.

[TheLastRodBender]

when i cast my crankbait and it comes back and hits me in the face, OUCH!!   


I've been out on the potomac where it's gusting around 15 and it's BRUTAL, so i guess i'd say about 13 - 15 is too  much.  At that point my buddy and i usually find a protected grass bed or cove to fish.

[crankenstein]

I used to do most of my fishing from an 8ft pond prowler type boat. I can remember fishing in 15-20mph winds and I did more boat controlling than fishing. In that boat now, anything more than 5-10 mph and I'm not going.

I do most of my fishing now in a 16ft 4in Nitro, anything over 15 mph is debatable. Some days it's just not worth it to fight the wind. Kind of a catch 22, I've had some really good days when it's windy but have really had to struggle with any kind of boat control. I've always heard you are supposed to fish in to the wind, but on windy days, I'll usually let the wind blow me down the bank and just use the trolling motor to stay straight.

[mrshakeyhead]

If the wind forecast is 5-10 or less, I'm going.  Anything over that and I don't bother.  I'd rather fish than keep trying to hold my spot.  Like another poster, there are lots of places to get out of the wind....but it's the getting there that's rough.

[bassindude]

Really depends on the lake, and if there are places where I can get out of the wind and still catch fish.  Jim

[DBrooke]

On my lakes 15-20 is my cut off for a day of fun fishing, but in tourney I've been in 30 with 40 mph gusts. Gusts so bad that with the TM on 80% I was sitting still!

[randyj]

Weellllll.... the little wind today was not much to worry about after all.... I ran into a school of stripes kind of late in the morning on my way to collect from a customer.  On the way back I stopped and fished a little up in a creek.  If I were a good fisherman I would have loaded the boat down!   I let more than these get away, lost a buck tail jig and a small rapala minnow... and then there was that one damn stripe that I just got in too big of a hurry and tied a spook on too small a line and as soon as it hit the water he took another $8 spook... that's two spooks donated to stripes in the past week!  I hardly felt a bump and that joker snapped the line and didn't even check up!  I stayed out there in the rain and thunder but did find an empty boat house to hold up in for an hour or so during the rain.

[marriemb]

  not bad at all I would say!