Tactical winter and chasing majors

Every successful angler i met in my life are the ones who can adapt. Change techniques to suit the conditions. This is the reason that my winter fishing is completely different than the rest of the year.
Fly fishing is my all time first choice, but it's not always the best especially in winter when it get cold and very windy....Ireland , being on the edge of the Atlantic gets all the winter storms first before  the rest of Europe. And call it climate change or whatever rocks your boat, but every winter we have more and more of these storms. Less cold, more winds more rain is the norm.
The baitfish find the best thermoclines , usually in deep holes and if you want to find hungry fish you need to concentrate on the bigger loughs where you have a decent depth.
Like i say in this short video, big fish love to follow a long way before committing into a eat. So if you cast and retrieve at these depths (lure or fly) you spend very little time in the strike zone. If a fish gets an interest in your lure/fly , as soon as this one starts to rise up in the water column pike can easily loose interest and rather stay in the comfortable depths. This is why trolling bit rubbers can be so effective if you fish them at the right depth, big fish can be so lazy and cold, you need to put that bait right in front of their noses. Speed is important too! Too fast and the pike wont chase, too slow and the pike will have too much time to inspect your lure and smell the trap... Depth and speed can change from week to week, having a good sonar will help to see how high the baitfish is holding.
Now that you have the gear sorted you need to get out at the right time. Difficult to do if you only have weekend to get out....And storms have a nasty habit of landing on weekends...
I usually try to  pick a day where the weather and water condition  is favorable and throw in the mix a good major (preferably mid to late morning up to early afternoon when its at its warmest).
Now talking about majors...A lot of people i guide think moon phases and fishing goes only with full moon or new moon . Yes this is true but it's ( in my opinion) best to look at when the major is on at  each outing.

• What is  a major and minor?  

major periods occur when the moon is directly overhead or directly below a reference longitude. Minors occur when it's positioned at 90 degrees to either side. 

• How does this affect the fishing? 

Some theorists feel that invertebrate movements are related to solunar productivity and that these tiny creatures move and become more vulnerable depending on moon phase, leading to increased activity by species that feed on them. Their activity might, in turn, encourage feeding by  pike and other predators.

•  How do you find out about majors and minors?

Well that's the easy part!  Like everything in this world, there is an app for this: go to the Google Play store or the Apple App store , look for "HUNT & FISH" , download and that it! Now you know the perfect time to concentrate on your hotspots!
Here's a good little video by my mate Sam Scott  from Blue Ridge Musky explaining all this:



Now i really am looking to the warmer months to bring the fish up in the water and increase their activity! Very soon, the big lures and heavy rods will get back on the wall and the fly will take over for the next 8 months!!!
Hope you guys enjoy this short video i made ( i lost all my drone footage from my sd card...) but still had a few clips to stick together.