Drove total of 8 hours for 1 hour of fishing..

Finally made the trip up yesterday after grabbing the boat from Erie, PA. Made sure to call the bait shop Wednesday night and ask for weather forecast and he said with my 18ft boat I shouldn't have any issues, well it turns out he was WRONG! LOL. Launching the boat and seeing guys come back in saying not to waste our time really hurt the morale! We decided to safely and slowly manage to head out of Fenwick straight out to the pack. Wind was ripping and id say 3-4 easy. My Stratos 486 sf 18ft got thrown around like a doll. Caught a 23" on my second cast, purple hair jig tipped w minnow, so out of excitement we tried to battle the lake but it was just too much. Until next time, tight lines all.

Been there and done that I think everyone here has. I just don't go when the wind is not under 15. Only direction is south and even then only certain times. I have a ranger 1850. Glad you at least got a partia meal out of it.

Lesson learned is not to go in East Wind . does not matter how strong... I have lived 2 miles from lake Erie for 56 years and when the Wind is out of the East it is a no go.

Its not like he gave you bad info. By all forcast wed and thrus should had been great days with 1 ft or less both. He gave you the info forcasted, it's just the predictions were off, it took alot of ppl by surprise

I have a 18' Lowe i was out at 6:30 back at the dock 8am yes i drove 2hrs it was a Ruff ride out and in we only had 1 hook up lost it at the boat they were calling for 2' or less lol more like 3' to 5' APRIL FOOLS

We called off fishing Thursday after checking Iwindsurf.They forcast 18 mph out NE at 11am Thursday.They also had NE wind thru Friday in the middle teens mph.Had off both Thursday and Friday and did not go.Do not even look at NOAA forcast anymore.

We had the same issue! Drove 2hrs and headed out the Portage river with my 18ft four winns and was met by some guys from Wisconsin and they said not to even waste our time that it was to rough and they had taken on lots of water so without hesitation and previous bad experiences with Erie I quickly turned around and headed back in. I as well was relying on the NOAA forecast that was saying 2ft or less. WRONG... I will check out the Iwindsurf site in the future thanks "itsbob". I should of listened to Capt Juls she posted previously that it was gonna be pretty rough up there today. Lol

I windsurf had it wrong too. As of tuesday both wed and thrusday were low wind predictions, was able to get put wed to troll in my 19ft er but on thrusday took my father in laws boat and went jigging.....but did not have any 2 oz.

Wed was 2 to 3. And thrus was 3 to 4 maybe more.

I have seen Iwind be normally predicting higher than seen but sometimes mother nature makes the rules. Guess the moral is no one can predict the weather right all the time, sometimes it's just not ment to happen. And those that push at it hard enough will find the lake can bite back.

Views of wed and thrus winds predictions from I wind......they said wind thrusday......later in the day but at 5 it was 18 mph with guest to 25.
Attachment 4571Attachment 4570

We were planning to fish Thursday based on that forcast just illustrated on Iwindsurf but woke up Thur morning to get ready.First thing I checked was forcast and at 5am Iwindsurf had 18 mph out NE at 11am for today/Thur.I called my buddy and called it off.The difference between NOAA and Windsurf is That NOAA does not update forcast enough and in the spring weather often changes.Saves a long drive and my time.

I don't know about the day you went out, but i usually check the marine forecast from the NOAA. Every time i've gone it's been pretty accurate.
http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.p...2#.WPIomfnytaR

Also check WeatherUnderground- they have a pretty good forecast data map
https://www.wunderground.com/wunderm...&PrecipStart=0