TOPIC:

Really want to get out for the first trip of the year but coming from Indianapolis still not sure what the lake is going to look like in the morning with this Wind blowing out of the north today. Any guidance from someone with some more experience or local knowledge would be appreciated.

I came up once last year after a bit of a blow out of the north to see the waves coming over the breaker walls and dont care to repeat the experience.

I would expect tomorrow to be a beautiful day on the water. The winds are supose to die early this evening.

Should be a great day. I'll be out there!

A couple places to see what's going on:

NWS Marine Forcast : Not always reliable, but it's a good start

Michigan City Bouy : I verify things are going as expected here.

Weather Underground Forecast : Best forecast of wind directions that I've encountered.

Basically, watch what's going on with the wind. After even a moderate Northerly blow, the lake will be a wild ride. Southerly winds generally mean kinder seas. Not always, though.

I almost never look at the NWS info anymore. Bunch of bureaucrats in Kansas make those forecasts. They are good for comic relief, at times.

My go to site is fishweather.com. I mainly monitor the wind speed and direction and it's pretty spot on. Open lake, be wary of anything over 15 mph in small boats.

First I've heard of fishweather.com. I'm a certified weather geek, so that will be a fun tool to add to my arsenal.

NWS has let me down more often than been right, but I generally go there as a starting point and then verify with three or four other sites. It's often a coin flip to decide if it's worth going out, especially in a little boat.

Another vote for fishweather.
The "forecast map" tab is great, and like brother nature says, usually pretty darn accurate.
www.fishweather.com/en-us/Search/ViewRes...#41.708,-86.895,10,5
To a lesser extent, windguru is another decent site geared more towards chicago, but good for that side of the lake
www.windguru.cz/66

Did you get out? Today didn't turn out to be the beautiful day I was expecting, but fish in the cooler and happy fishermen/boys were made.

Personally I dont think anything compares to "Windy". Being able to graphically see whats going on, and what is forecasted across the entire lake is powerful. Just because winds are 8mph in burns harbor dont mean they arent 30mph a few miles north, especially this time of year. I would advise using Windy, Fishweather, Windfinder, NOAA. Use them all and you will make good decisions. 3 of the 4 are on this site. Fishweather may be the same as Windfinder, just presented differently. Not sure.