Help with understanding wind direction

[momay4000]

Hello everyone,

I've read quite a few posts regarding wind direction, Keating's books, and a few other articles on wind direction and I thought I understood how on onshore wind vs. an offshore wind affects water temp. and fishing. However, many of the posts here seem to have conflicting opinions.

Could anyone help me understand how wind direction affects fishing on Lake Ontario? I fish out of I-Bay and I'm specifically confused about the effects of a N/E wind vs. a N/W wind. Since they're both basically an "onshore" wind, I don't understand how they can have such a different effect.

Thanks for any help or advice on this!!! Great site!!!!

Chris

[Erbyjoe]

In the spring when you get a north wind it pushes the warm water in a wind coming off the shore will push the warm water out and suck cold water into shore.In the summer when the thermalcline sets up a north wind will push warm water to shore and push the thermal out deeper in the lake.If the wind comes off of the shore it will push all of the warm water out to the middle of the lake and push the colder water in close to shore. I'm by far not an expert.But I should be pretty close to answering your questions. If not someone will chime in As far as what the weather is going to be on any given day I would say when you get to the ramp then you will know what your up against. I have been fishing lake O for 25 years and the wave forecast has been right maybe 35% of the time :mrgreen: as far as NW to NE I would think that would depend on where you fish out of.I'm not sure.Just my opinion

[momay4000]

That's how I understand it as well - i.e. the onshore vs. off shore wind concept.

What confuses me is the differences in opinion regarding the N/E vs. N/W wind direction. I'm thinking that the water clarity can change N/W vs. N/E wind depending on where in the lake you're fishing (west end vs. east end) but maybe I'm "over thinking" this.

Thanks very much for your advice!

Chris

[ray koziatek]

the lake usually rotates in a counter clockwasy direction so a gentle north ,northwest .or west wind kinda keeps the lake spinning in the right direction, when this happens the food chain starting from the photoplankton which floats and is pushed and or acculamited by the natural current and temp breaks , that is why temp. breaks are usually the most productive waters as the food from the tiny stuff to the bigboys feed these breaks and are more concertrated ,thus more fish caught when you get a strong or sustained east wind it sorta spinns the waters near shore backwards spreading out the thermale and the food and fish with it . thats why the saying when the wind is from the east the fishing is least and west the fishing is the best.....the north and south winds pretty much happen as mentioned above ive had 70 deg topwater drop to 40 degrees ouvernite in the summer also im shure youve heard some one say there waiting for the lake to "setup" thats what there waiting to happen.

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/ ... 3.250m.jpg

[Erbyjoe]

Thanks Ray

[momay4000]

Thanks Ray - that makes a lot more sense now

You are a great source of information....thanks for sharing

Chris

[Gill-T]

Think of light warm water sliding over dense cold water. Think about what happens when a wave hits a shore line. For example, a strong north wind in the summer will push all the warm surface water in towards the south shore. When those waves tumble and mix at the shore the temps get warm from top to bottom. You may have initially the same temps from surface down 90'. Then as those warm surface waters are all pushed off the middle of the lake, the cold deeper layers of the lake further north are now at the surface and begin to push to the south. The result can be 40 degree water right off the shore in the middle of summer. So, when you are fishing the begining of a north blow, you may be fishing on the bottom in 65 degree water, and by the end of the day you could be fishing planer boards with surface baits.

[ray koziatek]

huh! ok gill-t guess im way back on the learn ing curve ya almost got it close sorry just couldnt let ya misslead all the new guys here......

[Gill-T]

You can keep track of how wind and waves effect the water temps, by following N.O.A.A.'s site on the internet. You can pull surface temps and more importantly, look at the temp transects for the lake, which will give you a "slice" view of the water column. Follow it all season and watch what happens to the water at different wind blows. If you don't have a speed and temp monitor, the N.O.A.A. site is a must before heading out. Was that slow enough for you Ray?

[ray koziatek]

ok i deserve a little kick, but to keep this from becoming a glangler type post i suggest you so a little homework ,as i have been doing for over 5 years,i just dont want to give out missleading information as many new guys use this site for accurate information,the cold water in the summer near shore is caused by a strong south wind maybe i misread your post i thought you said a north wind causes the shore to warm which it does, then i thought you said a north wind will cause the shore temps to drop,when its the south wind that blows the warm topwaters offshore and causes a upwelling of cold water to be drawn in under it that lowers the near shore temps , hope this helps....RayK. ps thanks for slowing down for me that really helped,eberjoy tried to explain the same thing i said oh wait he did ........except he said spring which actually should be summer conditions :roll:but a nasty north,south,east or west wind will mess the whole thing up no matter what

[Gill-T]

I agree with everything everyone posted, just wanted to try to simplify the process by thinking in terms of strong winds move the upper layers. The take on the east winds working against the normal current mixing all the water strata, screwing up the fishing is dead on. I do not go fishing on Ontario with a east or northeast wind unless it is a tournament or derby and you have no choice.

[momay4000]

To add a little more confusion to the mix - on Saturday we fished east out of I-Bay where there was an East/Southeast wind for approx. 24 hrs. prior.

I guess I would have expected before going out that the inside water would have been ice cold, but there was 45-46 degree surface water out to 60 feet (and that water was absolutely loaded with marks on the FF by the way - we actually thought there was something wrong with our sonar).

My only explanation is the inside warm water was runoff from the heavy rains on Friday.

Thanks for the help,

Chris

[ray koziatek]

momays boy , some of the above post are more summer temp referenceswhen you got 70 on top and 40 down deep , as a general rule the west north west winds "set up" the lake (food chain) but this spring is throwing a learning curve to some of the most experenced captians seems like twice a week the wind changes total direction like around the clock in 24 hr perioudw,sw,s,se,e,ne,n.nw,and back to west but piecing togeather reports ,it kinda sounds like the fish are a little disorented too and on the hunt for food ,which might just be to our benifit seems like the fish coming from the west are leaving a concentrated food area and swimming into a scattered bait situation,and from yankees report of pack fishing maybe the pack of boats are attracting the fish.not that im recominding everyone to pack up but it is a different way of trying to figure out a pattern with these winds .im thinking there will be many dime size pods of fish during this wind transition spring so when you get some marks and hits set a waypoint and hit it hard before the fish move on.but i always say....................................

[momay4000]

Thanks again Ray for the advice....

Take care,

Chris