I have never found the wind direction to be a factor in the bite across the entire body of water. Like Chuck7 mentioned, I simply use it to determine where I will be fishing.

The moon phase seems to have some bearing on fish activity, pareticularly in the spawning months. New moon and full moon are generally accepted as the premium times to fish. Chuck is the guru of moon phases and he can elaborate with much more accuracy on the subject than I.

I am along the line of thought that any day is a good day to fish, but some days are definately better than others. It's rare that I ever get skunked if I truely put in the effort, even on days that the Almanac says are the worst possible days and times to fish. There will always be hungry bass in the water somwhere, and a few are gonna wanna eat no matter what the weather conditions are .

There are many variables in experimenting with fish...as fishermen we simply do stuff to put the odds in our favor..IF we totally had it together we would be making our living fishing serious tournaments..

some of the variables I consider ...on every trip//

Moon Phase

Where I beleive the fish will be at...shallow or mid depth or deep..

Feeding times...magor and minor

Lure presentaion

Wind direction....helps in drifting or knowing which side of the lake to fish on

I try to advoid lakes that get alot of pressure...with a jon boat..I can fish alot of waters that have seen very little pressure.


I have a couple more things i do..but I can't share them all..shoot we are in a serious tournament here.{ -;

I am hoping m.t. hands will chime in (hint hint) as I know he has fished this lake before and probably knows the general ins and outs (depth, etc). He already told me the general area for crappie.

hey man have been busy busy busy....if i was going to bass fish two of the best areas i have fished there are, when you leave the store at the ramp go directly to the right, you'll cross a small pocket to the right, back towards where the trout pond is, go straight across the mouth of that pocket and head towards the point that should be in front of you at this time...there is a brush pile on this point, the old maps used to show it, fairly easy to find, but best served from a boat, as bank anglers would be a pretty good cast, the bottom structure here is a firm rocky bottom, and the brush is in 8-12 foot of water.....

the second place that has alway been a good spot for us is the far back right-hand corner (SW corner) going into the canal that leads to the spillway, i have done best on that point on the right going in, the side closest to the deep water and the open lake side....i'll try to run through and pick up a map if they still have them available and scan it in with the places i have fished....


as far as baits, i'd say a med diving crank bait, c-rig lizard in the 8-10 water should yield you some fish....some years the fish have moved up to spawn a little sooner than the areas larger lakes...the people at the store will give you some ideas...

during this time i'd hit the pockets straight across from the ramp

Keith

hey Miles, is everyone in your family OK, it was terible what was going on in your homeland...hoping all is well, and had thought about you and the misses families...Madison county lake is a real little gem...between New market and Gurley....in years past it has served as my "practice lake" it is an easy and enjoyable little lake to fish 110+/- acres.....there have been some changes, the lake was drained several years ago because of an un-controlled crappie population...they do a pretty good job of keeping the balance of fish pretty good...years ago i had caught some bass to 7-8 pounds, i have heard that now it not uncommon to catch several 3-5# fish, and every now and then a good 6+ fish...

pm me you cell...mine took a swim last year, and i have added what numbers i could, we need to get together and catch a few...BTW last year on guntersville was great

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&ie=U...,0.031629&z=15

Awesome advice Keith, thanks! I am trying to re-learn freshwater fishing as I did way too much saltwater over the past 8 years. Now I am too far away to make regular saltwater trips, so I need to get a handle on bass again. It has been kind of overwhelming as I am hard headed in my fishing. I like to fish the way I want and expect the fish to bite, rather than discover what they want. I am learning though, and am looking forward to getting off the banks now that I have my kayak up here.
Matt