Effects Of Rain/overcast For A Week+

[BigmouthForever23]

Hello all my fellow anglers, new member here. Glad I found these forums.

 

I have a question for you guys. I live in the northwest suberbs near Chicago and fishing really hit a wall this past week (I'm a 99% bass fisherman). The weather, although consistent, has consisted of overcast and rain almost every single day. The water level at the lakes in my area are high and the water is very muddy. I fish from shore and I usually throw topwater (Zara Spook).

 

I also had a three-day weekend last week and I was super excited knowing the weather was going to be cloudy almost all day so I would have a chance to walk the shore and fish the entire lake. But the bites were hard to come by. My thoughts were perhaps since it's been cloudy for so long that the bass have fed plenty and are not very hungry.

 

I know some rain can be good and when we first started to get a little rain a week or so ago it seemed like it helped the fishing. But now after so many days of rain it's been really tough. My dad said I need about 3 good days in a row of some nice sunshine and no rain and the fishing should pick up.

 

What are your guys' thoughts on rain and how it affects fishing?

[Raul]

Overcast is good, dirty waters are even better, overcasts makes the fish to be shallower and muddy allows you to make "slopier" presentations, how the bait looks is a lot less important. I´ve fished even when it´s raining, the fish don´t care cuz they are already wet, I care more ( not to catch pneumonia of be struck by a lightning ).

 

Make it fat, make it noisy, make it shiny, make it wide wobbling, that´s what you got to choose in your baits.

[papajoe222]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have you.

I live just outside Chicago and I can relate to your frustration.  The situation we've been dealing with is very unstable weather. More importantly, fluctuating barometric pressure.  Normally, falling  or rising pressure activates the fish. Rising pressure has the least effect of the two especially if it's rising from over 30.0. However, when these two situations occur within hours of each other and are followed by a steady higher pressure, the fish tend to remain in a neutral to negative state.  In simple terms, they don't feed.

They are still catchable, I've caught some hawgs this past week. Just don't expect them to chase down your presentation. Smaller baits and slower presentations will get you some fish, but nowhere near as many as if it were an overcast day preceeded by steady conditions.  If the water remains muddy, I suggest going with darker colors too.  Most of my catches this past week have come on a black Culprit worm behind a 1/8oz. bullet weight.

[BigmouthForever23]

Thanks for the replies guys. You know what I think I'm just using the wrong presentation. I mean, with this weather that we've had this past week, I don't think throwing a quick moving Zara Spook that requires the bass to chase is the ideal lure to throw.

 

Papajoe, I think you have it right throwing a SLOW moving worm. I used to worm fish all the time when my dad was still in the area. He had a boat and so it was much easier to throw a worm as you can get anywhere on the lake. But now that I'm going off shore it's a little more difficult. Add to the fact that I just switched to baitcasters this year, it's rather difficult to cast light lures and get any kind of distance. Heavy ones like the spook I have no problem with. I'm going to rig up a 10" Culprit black worm texas style, hit my sweet spots on the lake and see what happens.

 

Papajoe, is there a website online where you can get the barometric pressure for a certain location?

[Mccallister25]

Papajoe, is there a website online where you can get the barometric pressure for a certain location?

Weather.com

[jhoffman]

Post front in my mind is the worst time to fish. Almost need to treat it like cold water. It seems to shut movement of everything down even animals. I keep a journal of both whitetail movement and bass fishing, theres a direct correlation between pre front and feeding, no doubt about it. Go drive around some evening that its gonna rain and look for deer, theyre out earlier. Bass are very much the same. Ill take stable or pre front every time over post front.