Planning Your Trip Around the Wind

Wind is probably the most important factor in whether you fish or not. I know I’m not alone in saying that when the wind is not great for a week or more, it’ll throw me in a bad mood. Too much wind and it’s not safe to fish. Wind from the wrong direction and an area you like to fish won’t be fishable. And that’s just for the Chesapeake Bay.

Some areas that have no strong tidal movement like Texas want wind. The more wind the better as long as it’s safe to get out. And some bites only happen when you have wind from the right direction. The point being, it’s super important. Watch it like a hawk and pay attention to what happens.

Windward and Leeward

One of the best ways to play the wind IMO is using the wind direction to dictate where you go. A windward shoreline might have bait pushed up against it, with more moving water and a little less clear water. If that’s what you want, that’s how you find it. A leeward shoreline will be calm but will have stronger water movement if the wind is high enough. Some bait and fish will prefer sitting out of the wind. Both are important to watch depending on what you are looking for.

How to Watch the Wind

We give the ability of a 16-day forecast as well as 6 different forecasts including: Best Match (picks the best for the location), GFS, HRRR, ECMWF, GEM and ICON — the 16-day range and model switching are part of Big Buoy Pro. In general, I just use the 16-day to see trends. It’s really hard to get an accurate forecast 16 days out but trends will show.

Where I get the most out of Big Buoy is monitoring what the wind forecast is for the next couple days. I use the “ALL” feature (a Pro tool) to compare each model to see if a few are aligned on a direction/speed. When they are, it’s usually a pretty good chance that will happen. That being said, I always check before heading out to see if it was right. And while on the water, if it’s wrong, I’ll find the model that is right.

It’s also fun to just watch the forecasts for our hurricanes and nor’easters as they come in but that’s a whole different topic. Don’t fish during those.