OUTDOORS

Those aggravating winds keep you from fishing, but are actually good for fish

MARK SAMPSON

DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT

So there I was, early one morning last week sitting in my truck, watching the marina flags trying to rip themselves off their poles as sand blew across the parking lot. Sea gulls (who also should have been out fishing) huddled behind the lee of some tall buildings for any kind of relief from the breeze they could get.

Since I couldn’t fish I was about to head home to initiate my own “plan B,” which involved me shoving a lawnmower around the weed patch I call a yard, when a couple walked past my truck.

Along their way I overheard the man comment. “This lousy wind! What’s it good for besides messing up everyone’s plans”?

As they hustled away, I wanted to jump out of the truck and tell them what I thought the wind was good for, but about that time the lady’s hat blew off, sending the man running across the parking lot trying to catch it before it bounced into the water behind a couple of charter boats.

Noting that, I didn’t figure my comments would be very well received, so I left the couple to their own thoughts on the matter.

If things hadn’t gone so awry I would have mentioned to the couple that hey — thanks to the wind they now have the chance to slip over to one of the diners and have a leisurely breakfast without fear of yacking it up 30-miles offshore. That’s gotta be a plus!

Then it occurred to me that if frustrated anglers would just slow down and think about it, they’d probably be able to take these blow-days with a lot less aggravation by realizing that there’s even more good that comes from windy days than just a chance to fill up on flapjacks and scrapple.

MORE OUTDOORS:Sure, it's early, but you can start preparing for goose season

Maybe the biggest plus is the troublemaking waves that the wind produces in the first place.

Besides keeping us off the water, those big, rolling, white-capping, rumbling, pound-your-boat-and-splash-you-in-the-face waves are actually good for the marine environment by aerating the upper water column, helping to produce upwellings that bring nutrients to the surface, and getting water moving in areas that might otherwise tend to become stagnant.

And just as this is healthy for the water, it’s obviously healthy for the critters that live in it, including the very fish we all wish we could be fishing for on the blustery days when we can’t.

Windy days also give anglers the opportunity to get a lot of work done on their boats and tackle that might otherwise be left undone until there is a major malfunction at a critical time.

Hey, with some big tournaments coming up, you can’t be too prepared for the competition! And of course, a windy day in the middle of the season leaves a great opportunity for anglers to give it a break for once and spend a little quality time at home with the family.

Getting back to what’s good for the fish.

Ever think about how nice it would be if they could stock the ocean with farm-raised fish in the same way they do with freshwater ponds, streams, lakes and rivers? Imagine if a couple times a year a BIG truck pulled up on the beach and released thousands of tuna, dolphin, sharks, bluefish, sea bass, flounder, and every other popular gamefish right out into the ocean.

If you think about it, minus the big truck, isn’t that kinda-sorta what happens when nobody can get out and fish?

I mean, on a given good-weather weekend if X amount of fish would normally meet their fate in the bottom of anglers' coolers, couldn’t one say that if no one gets out to fish for two to three days, that it’s the same as if the ocean was suddenly restocked with that same amount of fish?

Therefore, when the weather moderates and folks finally get back out on the water there’s going to be that many more fish out there that wouldn’t have been if the wind never blew.