When is it too windy for you?

[tool]

So had planned to fishing this weekend with a fishing partner who happens to be female, she is definitely a "fair weather fisherperson". We've had experiences in the past on some of the bigger waters here in SW SK like Lake Diefenbaker where it can get rough quick and to the point where it is definitely not enjoyable and dangerous too. The forecast said the other day gusts to 53 km/h, steady winds at 30 km/h. I know that would be way too rough for my 14' tinner on Diefenbaker but I do have a secret local river spot that won't produce the waves Dief does but it still blows you off course continuously and at -6C this morning would have been unenjoyable however the afternoon grew into a beautiful day that would have been pleasant on the water as the wind died down, the sun came out and warmed up to a nice +15C or so.

So I'm curious what your cut off is for winds and how you read the forecast where you fish? A guy hates to miss a day when he could have been fishing but yet there are enough other jobs to do that you hate to waste the day in a futile trip and be blown all over the lake.

[jungleboy]

My boat is a 14 ft tinney with a pretty flat bottom . If I see whitecaps on the lake I don’t go. I hate wind to begin with and slamming the bottom of the boat constantly is not enjoyable. Plus keeping the boat on course at slow speed in wind sucks.

[Zip-in-Z]

https://i.imgur.com/XzGxwNh.jpg

[Off in the Bushes]

https://i.imgur.com/XzGxwNh.jpg

That guys is in full send it mode. 😂 Jerry of the high seas. 😝

[Outbound]

If there's whitecaps, I generally don't bother going out. It's just not as enjoyable. I too, hate wind and constantly fighting to keep a boat on course or get a nice cast out sucks.

[Walleyedude]

Depends a lot on who, where, and when. These numbers are for bigger lakes in Sask, but I think they hold pretty true everywhere. I’m running a 20’ Warrior glass boat, so that’s also a big factor.

Tournament days - Bring it on, been out on a lot of days with 50-80K winds. It’s not fun, but it separates the men from the boys lol, and makes my boat a huge advantage.

Hardcore fishing with experienced fisherman - 30 gusting to 50 is about the limit where I’d call it fun, and even then, there has to be a decent bite if I’m gonna stay out in that.

Fun fishing - 15-30K. Just about perfect, a nice walleye chop. I’d take that over flat calm for anything but the laziest days of summer fishing. The breeze keeps things cool, keeps the bugs away, and generally the bite is a lot better.

Flat calm - only for a lazy summer day, unless it’s that first light or sunset bite. Then it’s magical.

[Smoky buck]

All depends who I am going fishing with and how the bite is. I have been out in some crazy swells on the ocean and some huge lakes where I probably should not have been out there. Best day I ever had for Lakers was stupid rough where someone had to stay on the wheel at all times and you didn’t dare put it in neutral to land a fish. Double headers were a nightmare and we just let the rod holder fight a fish till the first guy landed his to swap out for the wheel. It was fun to say the least :sHa_shakeshout:

I can be a little crazy but if I have the wife and kids in the big boat say around 4ft chop we head in. If the fishing sucks we head in earlier

[Who Da Fisherman]

https://i.imgur.com/XzGxwNh.jpg

Reminds me of the 18' Boston whaler rental out in the middle of Rivers Inlet, when we hit my knees are still bruised lol.
WDF

[58thecat]

depends on the lake intended to fish...leeward sides of islands can make for a enjoyable days.
depends on the boat but even they have limits too...

[honker_clonker]

2' waves are work to fish in and anything over 3' is not fun for me as the captain. As others have mentioned it becomes an exercise in boat control vs actually fishing. And launching/loading is usually an adventure in 3'.

[AlbertanGP]

Depends on my level of ambition and my ability to fish effectively. While I used to go out in the roughest water I could find to "practice" when I used to tournament fish years ago, as I get older the ambition to head out in rough water wanes fast. It's one of the reasons I don't tourney fish anymore. Fishing should be 100% enjoyable. And if the lake's boiling, there's always lots to do back on shore that I've been putting off. :)

[oilngas]

Age, grandkids, who wants to come in the boat, the body of water, 65 years of boating adventures, vs. a nap and a book in the warm shade have all tempered what and when I go out. I generally I now fish our southern reservoirs, and all are susceptible to wind. There days I'll fish early until wind gets up and Late when wind goes down. A few days a year I don't bother to fight the wind and we do other stuff. Wind and Wave forecaster is my friend.

As others have said wind equates to fishing work, and I have too much fun watching gkids catch Mr. Wally or bigish pike to push it at all. Kids , dogs and "El Capitain" are a lot happier when the wally chop is just right, and slip bobber and still rods in holders bob at a wally tempo. Keep the minnows away from the dogs and pass em over! Love the two tub mornings!

[fisher69]

i only have an inflatable fishing boat, so a lot of times its too windy to use it without constantly having to paddle. ive done shore fishing in some pretty windy conditions though, but once its so windy that you can hardly cast very far, or when its so windy you can't even tell where your cast is landing, thats a little to much for me. sometimes you can try to move around the lake and find a spot with some cover if you are lucky though

[Freedom55]

Is it not correct that wind speeds in excess of 30 mph are considered 'gale force.' It's been a while since I wrote the exam but for a pleasurable day of boating, no white caps.

My wife once got out of the boat due to the wind and walked to the launch at Upper Kananaskis. The people on the path thought I was killing her; she was making quite a racket. Her idea was better than mine but I needed to get my tinner to the right place (and I did).

Free

[Bushleague]

Depends on the lake, but really, once I'm not having fun its too windy, regardless of whether conditions are life threatening.

I actually enjoy playing around on Lesser Slave in my canoe when there are massive rollers, and on occasion I've wet a line and even caught some fish while the fine people of Widewater drink beer on their decks and wait for me to drown, mostly its just to get some exercise and show fate a raised middle finger. Having my walleye boat out in those kind of conditions and actually trying to catch fish generally tends to be frustrating and stressful.

[EZM]

On any mid sized lake, after 15km the waves build. At 20km it's choppy and you get some white caps toward the middle of the lake. At 30km it whitecaps and boat control becomes a chore, even in bigger boats.

Beyond that, it can be a circus.

Having said that, even on big lakes like Cold Lake, if the wind is up there, if you figure out which way she is blowing in, you can find some areas close to shore that are not to crazy.

[Coiloil37]

Here on the big pond it depends on wind chop, swell interval and swell size in that order. 10+ second interval swell at 3m is ok with minimal wind chop. Tight swell interval (5-7 second) or wind chop over 1.5m is usually enough to keep me on land. Most days I fish will be 1.5-2m swell and around of 1m wind chop. Given the choice I’ll take a dead flat day but they’re as rare as rocking horse chit. Once the seas get to big it takes to long to run 50-70km out and we come home feeling like we got hit by a bus.

[pikeman06]

Yes diefenbacher is a bad one for the wind but well worth the drive for me. It gets hard on the body riding big rollers all day or weekend long. I still go out but the old lady hates it as we are getting older. Definitely not as enjoyable but if you know how to fish the wind the big ones are out in that rough crap filling their bellies. I just take my time, my boat can take the big waves but my body can't. Drag a 2 ounce bottom bouncer at a fast troll on the way back with a shallow running longbodied crankbait and you get trout walleye perch pike hammering that thing in diefenbacher.

[Penner]

I find windy conditions during the open water season usually brings on the bite particularly for Walleye and Pike. You don’t necessarily need to be in the boat on windy days to catch fish. Shore fishing can be absolutely stellar if you know what to look for.

Windy conditions during the winter i find to be quite unpleasant however and doesn’t impact the bite much I find.

[OL_JR]

All depends I guess, the majority of the time I'm fishing with the wife and kids and generally play it pretty safe. With that said I don't always find whitecaps to mean it's to rough, seems to me to depend a lot on the size of the lake. I've seen some pretty small wave height produce whitecaps on smaller lakes if the wind is howling.

Trying to give a solid opinion on how rough is to rough is a tough one as there are so many factors involved. I would say (loosely) if I anchor off the bow and the boat won't hold with all my rope out and the bow is dipping to a level that is below the swell height it is to rough. Don't go out in those conditions and try to be off well before then.

Will echo some of the previous thoughts on how good the fishing can be in the wind. Some of the best mid day fishing I've ever had has been off an area of a lake that's been pounded by the wind but I won't be taking to many chances for a fish. Still have to get off the lake and if something happens to your motor/motors and can't get the boat pointed in the right direction it could get dangerous pretty quick.

[Buckhead]

Good information can be had by looking up the marine forecast for that particular lake. This gives an hour by hour breakdown of wind speed and direction, temperature and a Beaufort scale rating. It's very handy information.

I also take a good look at the lake before I leave the dock. What does the sky look like and which direction are the clouds moving. If whitecaps are just cresting, no worries, I can get up on top of those and still find a place to fish. Wind over 30 kph - I still might go, but I will run into the wind on the way out and with it on the way back.

Boat handling is critical, but you can run most conditions if not in a hurry and you know the lake. New water I am far more careful. I have only been really scared once on a freshwater lake. Northern Saskatchewan - fished all morning in a channel between some islands the a storm started blowing in. I thought well I will head for the dock which was about 15 kms away. Got the boat up on plane and headed out of the channel. I estimate the wind at about 70 kph coming down the lake straight into the channel. The waves started to get larger and large as I went into the main lake so I slowed down to check things out. The waves got larger and larger until the last couple I had to stand up in the boat and still could not see over them from the bottom of the trough. The wave height was about 8 feet. That's my limit.

Heck no. I made a power turn and stayed in the channel until it calmed down. The storm didn't last long. A couple hours and the lake was nice again.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Well I have definitely sailed the sloppy seas a time or two lol. It all depends on the size of your boat and your ability to fish in whatever wind is present. Typically anything above 30 kms for me is too windy as I find the biggest issue is the wind creates dead slack in your line and you are unable to fish properly with most techniques anyway. When that happens what is the point? In the alternative, on windy days one can always brave the waves to get behind a wind protected shore bank and fish there, however you are basically stuck there until the wind changes or lets up and can make for a long day if the bite isn't on in that spot.

[tool]

I think some of you are describing conditions that are definitely not suitable for my 14' Naden and 7.5 hp Evinrude. lol

[stubblejumper01]

We were out on Slave with a new to me pontoon boat. The wind was coming up and we were on the east shore and decided to head over to Dog Island. The wind increased and we had well over a foot of water washing right through the boat from front to back. A little pucker power there but it felt very safe. I realized I would not have been out in those conditions in my Lund Sendero so we were pretty impressed with the pontoon boat.

[roper1]

I've been on the lakes when it was way too windy to enjoy. My boat can take most of what southern Ab can hand out, but a guy always needs to be mindful
how bad stuff could be if you lost power. Gets very bad, we head for shore.

[Buckhead]

Let's say I wanted to fish Lake Diefenbaker.
I would go here first:

https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/elbow_lake_diefenbaker

Or Cold Lake - I would go here:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/marine/alberta/cold-lake