With a little forward thinking, anglers can use the wind to catch more fish.
Story and Photography By Robert Sloan

It’s a fact that wind is a thorn in the side of most anglers along the coast. That’s especially true if you’ve got a penchant for fishing offshore. But, if you’re more in tune to fishing bays and the jetties you can actually deal with the wind on most days. The trick is finding out how to escape the blustery conditions of a windy day on the water.
A classic example of what I’m talking about can be found on East Galveston Bay. Almost directly across the bay from Rollover Pass is Frozen Point on the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. This is a drive to spot with access to the north shoreline of East Galveston Bay. There is a boat ramp on the point, but most anglers prefer to drive up, get out and wade into this stretch of shoreline that is well known for holding big trout in late winter and through the spring. The best time to fish this water is on a north wind. It’s the go-to spot for anglers looking to wade fish when a norther is howling through. On a north wind this water is calm and offers a chance to wade for some pretty nice trout.
A few years ago I was with guide Jim West when an early spring cool front was moving through. We put in at Stingaree Marina, boated across the bay, and waded along Frozen Point until it was too dark to see. The north wind was pumping pretty good, but at the end of the day we had some impressive stringers of trout. All were caught on 52M series Mirrolures. That slow sinking twitch bait has caught more trout than you can shake a stick at. Best colors that afternoon were green back with a white belly and a chartreuse back and pearl belly.
Most of the time you can look at a good chart of the water you’ll be fishing and get an idea of where you can hide from the wind. On East Galveston Bay, along the south shoreline, you’ll have two really good areas to fish regardless of what the wind is doing. One that I’ve used for years is Big Pasture Bayou. The narrow channel that leads into the backwater flats will protect you from wind out of any direction. That’s an area where you want to fish the points with soft plastics. As you move into open water you’ll want to fish topwater lures, gold spoons and slow sinking mullet imitation plugs.

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