Fishing Vacation Scenario

[Jacob Phelps]

So as everyone knows, if you're on a fishing vacation, a low pressure system must go through raining out most of one day of the trip. This just happened to my dad and I. A low pressure system came through, preventing us from going out in the boat for an evening and most of the next day.

 

The scenario is this: When presented with a low pressure system, once the rain stops of course, what techniques do you go to? Where do you go to find the fish? We went out after the rain in windy, chilly weather and tried to find the fish. We ended up catching a lot of 1-2 pound bass fishing shallow weeds with 4 inch swimbaits. I felt that we would struggle to get bites and would need to fish slow, but the swimbait on a constant retrieve in shallow weeds produced numbers. 

[papajoe222]

I wish a low pressure system would move through the area when I'm on vacation. Too bad you and your dad stayed off the water.

Post frontal conditions are the most difficult because the fish tend to hold tight to cover, or go deep.  Either way, their strike zone is small and unless you can first place your offering within that strike window, you don't have much chance. Even with reaction baits, if it isn't passing close to the fish, it won't get a second look.   Most guys will switch to finesse tactics, but I concentrate on the same areas that hold fish on a regular basis and pick apart the cover with a jig.  If I'm targeting deeper structure, I'll slowly drag a football jig or crawl a deep crank along key spots.

It sounds like you did alright, both in locating fish and finding a presentation that worked.  That front may have stalled and done you a favor......you didn't have to get wet.

[Oregon Native]

Sounds like you did pretty good.....Don't know if I would have stayed in during the rain unless waves prevented me from getting out.  Love fishing in the rain....less people and pressure on the fish and the cooler influence on the lake can make a reaction bite pretty good.

[Catt]

7 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

 

Post frontal conditions are the most difficult because the fish tend to hold tight to cover, or go deep.  Either way, their strike zone is small and unless you can first place your offering within that strike window, you don't have much chance. Even with reaction baits, if it isn't passing close to the fish, it won't get a second look. 

 

 

[sully420]

Rain gear + rain+summer= big bass

I start off covering water with a spinner bait or spook or buzz bait if that dosent work i fish targets or weed hard bottom transition areas with a jig.

[the reel ess]

Depends. Around here a summer low pressure front could be ignored. If you know it's coming, you can jump on it as the barometer drops and sometimes the bite will be awesome. When confronted with bluebird skies, I usually try to fish all the cover with a T-rigged worm or craw. I'm getting into the jig thing. I'll also throw a frog along the edge. Fish will sometimes hit it when they aren't hungry because it had the unmitigated audacity to plop down into their cozy living room. Anywhere two types of cover or structure and cover converge is a pretty good target when there's full sun. When all else fails, I'll bust out the wacky rig or Finesse Worm and hit every piece of wood cover. If I go out and get skunked or very close to it, I'll pay a visit to my buddy's farm pond. It has the hungriest small bass I know of and some very large bluegill.

[fishballer06]

If I didn't fish in the rain, most of my fishing vacations would be pretty darn boring... I spent 10 days in Canada 3 years ago and it rained 9 of those days. That trip was one of the best trips of my life and I even caught my PB walleye that trip. 

 

My advice - invest $2-300 in a good rainsuit, so that your $1-2k vacations aren't cut short by a little rain.

[Jacob Phelps]

My dad and I both have rainsuits. Since there was cold weather + wind + rain making it feel even colder we decided to not go out during the rain. Plus, there were other non-fishermen on the trip that we needed to keep busy as well. I would have definitely given it a shot in the rain, and did from shore, but my dad (who owns the boat) preferred to wait until the rain stopped. 

 

I felt we did pretty well considering the conditions. Had we had the same conditions at home we probably would have been skunked or caught very few. I was just curious as to what people turn to since that situation will inevitably happen again.