What in your opinion generally happens if the weather conditions suddenly change such as a westerly wind one day followed by a change to the east the very next day? Do you find the fish 'go off' the feed? Just wondering what people think.

Chris

Hi Chris
I've done a bit of a study on how wind affects fishing as my fishery is elevated and exposed. Last Friday there was a nice ripple on the water in the morning. In the afternoon the wind got up and killed the sport. Clearly wind brings a wind chill factor which lowers the surface temperature of water. This sends fish down to lower thermal levels in a lake or reservoir. Also with strong winds trout cannot spot floating flies so tend to turn their attention to feeding lower down or even off the bottom.

BK

I think that the effects on still waters are much more marked than on rivers. I know that the book isnt about trout fishing but one of the more interesting things I have read about the effects of wind on a body of water is to be found in Richard Walkers Stillwater Angling....Read what he says about the effects of wind on the thermocline layers...Its interesting and very true..

As to specific effects of change. difficult to generalise but round here its always windy I think the fish get used to it...

Andy

In my neck of the woods , an easterly wind is , in addition to being a cooler wind , a "dry" wind.
"Dry " winds are able to absorb much more moisture from surface evaporation , with a subsequent drop in surface water temp.

Any sudden change in wind direction is going to have an effect on trout behaviour. Winds from easterly directions are colder and dryer winds for sure, but once they have settled into that direction the trout will feed as usual.

Wind strength increasing and preventing fish from "seeing" surface flies is not quite right. They can see them fine - they can see a size 20 black buzzer at midnight in a coal cellar, so seeing something on the surface inb daylight is not going to be a problem. It is more to do with the surface tension breaking up and making it easier for hatching flies to emerge quickly. The fish will therefore switch to the ascending nymphs which are easier to catch. Look for the calm lanes on a stillwater on a breezy day and watch carefully what goes on. Fish will rise in them, but they are not easy to see.

The very worst weather conditions in my view - borne out by bitter experience I might add - is a gusty southerly wind and sunshine. Might as well go to the pub, or go shopping with the memsahib, as that is a lot more fun than fishing under those conditions.

This is a popular misconception.

Wind chill has no effect on inanimate objects, so has no effect on water temperature in a lake.

(It will however affect how quickly warm water (say from a flask) cools down until that water reaches the ambient temperature at which point it has no further effect).

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Cheers
Don

In the winter it makes no difference as far as I can tell. In summer it can stop the fly activity, which can bring Sport on the dry fly to an end...

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Interesting observation..............I have found the contrary though. Bouncing a nice bushy sedge through the wave tops on a good blow has given me some cracking sport over the years.................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

Interesting theories. There is no doubt that fish feed better in settled conditions, whatever they may be, and that a change in the weather can kill sport dead. As someone mentioned above, the difference is far more marked on stillwater, and IMO it affects the bigger fish more than the smaller ones. Lechlade is a prime example. if the weather's changed, don't bother. I don't think it has much if anything to do with surface temps, thermoclines etc because the modern angler has tactics to follow the fish down, and yet they still can't be caught.

By way of example, one morning at Lechlade the sky was heavy, it was warm and the browns were on. I had 3 double figure browns, and was enjoying a break and a fag while a mate was busy playing another. The sun then came out, and the temperature plummeted. neither of us could buy a take for several hours despite fishing the same fly in the same swims. finally we both took another fish each, but not until about 5 in the afternoon!

Wind chill has a only a very ltd effect on a body of water. also as cold water is denser than warm water the lower layers are actually cooler so fish wouldnt head down tp seek warmer water. in Simple terms In summer a typical Lake would have two layer of water the warmer at the top.

What walker said was that a steady wind will cause the warmer top layer of water to be pushed to one end and allow the colder bottom layer to come to the surface essentially tilting the surface layers. The fish will follow the water at the ambient temperature.

Years ago I was fishing a tench lake it was shallow at one end and a deep dam at the other with a stiffish breeze that got stronger as the day progressed. After catching fish steadily the fish stopped biting then after 15 minutes or so they started again. The pattern repeated 15 mins catching 15 mins blank it was weird. During one of the blank periods I made up some ground bait and washed my hands in the lake it was much colder than it had been when I was taking fish out of the net. After another 10 minutes the fish came on again and hey presto water was warm again... This pattern continued all day. Obviousley the two layers of water were washing backwards and forwards along the lake and the fish were following them.. It was exactly as Walker said in his book....

Andy