By Steve Weisman
(photo by Steve Weisman) A team effort made putting this dock out an efficient effort.
Having lived in northwest Iowa since 1978, I’ve learned like all of us who love the outdoors to use the wind to your advantage. From golf to running to biking to walking to fishing to hunting…we know that the wind is a part of our northwest Iowa lives.
However, since late March, the term “wind” has taken on an entirely new meaning. No longer are we talking about a breeze. Nope, we’re talking about strong, gusty winds day after day! The only difference seems to be the direction that changes every few days as fronts pass through.
When that huge blow came through on Thursday, April 14, those 50-60 mph gusts out of the west northwest put pretty much everything outside at risk! Semis were overturned, some structures were demolished and most certainly our lakes were a rolling mess! I think of our dock and hoist workers, who are working frantically to get their work done, and how the wind is hampering them from working on different areas of the shorelines depending on the wind direction!
Since that time, the wind has continued to howl nearly every day. It appears to be setting down somewhat as we head into the month of May, but from what I see on the extended forecast, the lowest wind speed is 10-20 mph. Certainly, still not in the calm realm!
Picking that one special day
For the past 30 years, several of us have gotten together to help a friend put in his dock on the east side of Big Spirit (Martha Yarns). We started doing that when we were in our 40s, and now here we sit in our middle 70s! Yet, we still continue to do this. The trouble this year has been the wind. Since the first of April, we have been looking for a good day.
This area needs to have some sort of east wind to make things work. It’s a wood section dock, and waves rolling in from the south, north and west don’t work very well. Finally, on Tuesday, April 19, we found a small window of opportunity – the only one that we could see where we would have a southeast wind. So, five of us met at 8:30 a.m., to try to get it done that morning. Two of our team donned waders and handled the T to hold the last section at the appropriate height, one handled the sledge hammer to set the poles, one of us rolled out the sections on a small two wheel cart and I brought out the poles and braces.
This worked until the last three sections, when it got too deep. At that point, the two guys in waders jumped into a pontoon (we had beached on shore) to help set the T for each of the final sections and the L. It took us three hours, and we had the 21-section dock out and the L put on.
After that, we jacked up the hoist one side at a time to put wheels under it and rolled it down to the sand beach. Then we hooked a chain to each corner of the back side of the hoist and used the pontoon to pull it right to the edge of the water. On a positive note, the hoist installer came by in the early afternoon to set the hoist. Yes, the dock and hoist are out and ready for opener! Talk about a lucky day! Oh, and we old codgers all survived-LOL!
Fishing the wind
Diehard anglers will give it a shot…you know we will. Maybe not during 50-60 mph gusts, but we’ll give it our best shot even if it’s 15-20 mph. In years past, we could often avoid those days of 15-20 mph winds, because we could often find days of 10 mph or less. We could go anywhere and do whatever we wanted. We could use the wind to our advantage.
However, if winds continue, “fishing the wind” will take on a new meaning. If calm now means 15 to 20 mph, then we’ll have to adjust. Even using the boat ramps will be different if we all must use the same two or so ramps on the calm side of the lake.
Once on the water, if the wind is up, we’ll find more anglers using the same general areas if you want to fish bass or panfish in calm water. Personally, I fish a lot of dock areas for panfish, and I know how difficult it is to fish docks on the windy side of the lake. It’s just plain a pain! Later in the summer, I like to anchor out in 20+ feet of water off points and deep rock piles. That might become a challenge.
For those who like to cast or slip bobber over rock piles, the SpotLock on the trolling motor is used to anchor over those spots. However, the higher the wind/waves, the more difficult that becomes.
Drifting for walleyes is easier to do, but speed control becomes more difficult, and drift socks will become the norm.
I do know this about fishermen! We’ll figure something out. It just might look a little bit different than it normally would.
I’m also an optimist, and I’m hoping that Mother Nature gets this wind stuff out of her system. I’m praying that by May and June we can look for much calmer winds!
