 WIND, WAVES AND A DROP OF RAIN — Why the weather should never get in your way — by Bruce Black
“IT’S too windy,” is probably the most common excuse proffered for a dismal day in the salt. No angling discipline is more affected by the weather than saltwater flyfishing. Too much wind and we simply can’t do it, or at least we have to limit our efforts to a spot where we can get the wind at our backs.
Apart from dictating the degree of difficulty we will experience in presenting our flies, the weather and the way the wind blows also has a profound effect on fish behaviour. Winds from the wrong direction or sudden cold snaps result in different feeding patterns from various species. Wind can also determine whether the fish will eat our flies or be right off the feed with their mouths closed tighter than a duck’s nether regions, as one of my fishy friends so delicately puts it.
Although it will present challenges, a breezy day need not spell the end of a flyfishing outing. Fast-action rods and specialised casts — like the reverse cast — can help overcome the problem of casting in the wind, but by far the most common coping strategy is to keep moving until you find a spot where the wind is behind you or is at least blowing from a favourable casting angle, and fish there.
On KwaZulu-Natal’s crowded coast, many fly-rodders actually relish the prospect of a fresh southwesterly as the north-facing bays along this coast fish well for shad in these conditions. There’s the added bonus that everybody else goes home, leaving the flyfisher room to cast comfortably with the wind at his back. With half a gale blowing over your shoulder, casting becomes a pleasure. Just don’t get the angle wrong or you could wind up digging a Clouser out of your ear.
In addition to making casting difficult, strong winds create rough seas that make shore-based flyfishing virtually impossible unless sheltered water can be found. Fortunately, surf zone bays often provide a degree of shelter, and some can be fished in all but the worst conditions, but occasionally the sea is just too bad for there to be a realistic chance of a decent fish.
For this reason it is always a good idea to have an estuary handy as a Plan B. These sheltered waters are fishable in all but the very worst conditions, so rough weather need not mean a fishing day wasted mowing the lawn.
It is amazing just how sensitive saltwater fish are to the various wind directions and weather conditions. For example, kingfish and pompano feed well in the warm weather and bumpy sea conditions created by a northeasterly. And when it comes to springer in east coast estuaries, the northeaster can never blow hard enough.
On the other hand, stonebream, blacktail and most gully fish in the surf prefer the longer, more even sea and cool weather conditions associated with the southwesterly wind. Species such as shad and kob seem little affected by wind direction, provided the sea is fishable.
Undoubtedly the best time to fish the salt is after a few days of settled weather, just prior to the arrival of a cold front and southwesterly gale. When the barometer starts to rise in the hours before a front arrives, fish often go into a feeding frenzy, grabbing flies with abandon and providing excellent fishing for those in the right place. Feeding activity continues for the first few hours of the gale, but tapers off as cold conditions set in.
Read the full story in the February 2010 issue of FLYFISHING. |
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