Catching The Wind

The wind can be a real issue in a small boat and the winds near shore seem to have a mind of it's own. In general the weather service predicts the over all wind patterns for a large area. But the near shore can be effected localized variable, the temperature differences between the land and water. With the basic concept of the how the wind is created you can predict if the winds along the coastline will be worse or no as strong as the surrounding area.

We all know that hotter air will rise and colder air will sink. In the spring and fall the water mass will have a much different temperature then the land mass. In the spring the water mass is colder than the land mass and in the fall the land mass is colder than the water mass.

For today the water temp is 74 and the inland temp is 89 and the wind forecast was calling for 11mph WSW. But around 3pm we had gust up to 20 mph WSW. From these number we can make a simple observation. There is a 15 degree delta (a fancy word for difference in values) between the land and water and a 9 mph delta in the the forecast wind and the actual wind speed. Just from this one day I can derive that for every 2 degree delta in temperature there will be roughly 1 mph additional westerly component of the forecast winds. If the wind forecast was calling for 10 mph E winds I would expect a day like today would have almost no wind from about noon to 3pm. Since we would add 9 mph W to 10 mph E would give us a net 1 mph E wind. This is one reason why I keep track of the data at the top of each entry. I have several theories I would like to study over the next few years that involve the tide, wind, moon and temperatures.
That was your physics lesson for the day, who would have thought 12 years of college would be so useful.

Now to the important issues!
I left a little late today and the wind picked up before I have a change to get bait. I did not want to fight the wind and run to Bayport for whitebait. So I went with the ol standby mud minnows. In hindsight I should have looked harder for bait. I made one cast and caught 7 mud minnows. I went through all 7 in about 15 minutes. The second line was out about 30 sec before it was hit hard. An over sized red fish and a self release (aka the fish spit the hook). The fish left a torpedo wake through the grass and hit like a kingfish, that's when I knew I needed more bait! The second fish hit a few minutes later and was edger to come to dinner. Then a couple more misses and I was out of bait. I lure fished for about 30 minute in the howling wind and picked up a couple of rat reds. The places I fish, I normally do not catch small reds, but today I flushed out about 50 as the wind blow me in to the grass.


Showing off the "proper handling technique"...


Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide : Top 3.0ft @ 11:56pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 88% Full: Waxing Gibbous
Temp: 89 F
Water Temp : 74 F
Wind: WSW 5 - 10 mph morning - WSW 10 - 20 mph afternoon
Results: 23 in Redfish 2 releases 1 ladyfish
Bait: Mud Minnows.