Pre-Frontal Bassing ~

[A-Jay]

Can be such a good and perhaps even bad, time to be on the water.

There's often a decant up tick in bass feeding right before a front passes.

So the allure to be out there can be pretty strong.

It is for me.

The flip side to it is, it can also be fairly dangerous.

When I'm going to be out there in this kind of stuff,

I make it a point to 'watch' the weather, especially what's 'approaching'.

Best bet is to leave before I 'need to'.

I didn't do that here.

Other than Not beating the rain to ramp, and getting soaked, it worked out.

But I can admit I should have left sooner or not gone at all.

So just a little heads up. 

A-Jay

 

 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

Definitely been caught in a few storms. The worst was when I had to emergency beach the yak anywhere I could, tied it off, and ducked under a bush to avoid getting hit with hail during a hail storm.

 

The weather can change very quickly

Good situational awareness post

[Woody B]

Rain doesn't bother me.  Some of my best days have been when it's raining.   Lightening does bother me,  as well as winds that get super high.  I have an app on my phone that alerts me of lightening in the area.   The lake I fish most of the time is near an airport.  The big jets sound similar to thunder, so I'm kinda numb to it.  That's what the app is for.   

 

I look at the forecast and plan where I'm going to fish based on this.  I have several friends who live on the lake I fish most of the time.  If bad weather if forecasted I'll either stay near the landing, or fish near some of my friends houses incase I need shelter.   

[Mobasser]

At one point I made a post about getting caught in a bad storm on Missouris Truman lake years ago. It was horrible. That was roughly 30 years ago, and Ive never stayed out longer than I should have after that.                  It's just not worth it. There's always another day.          Good post to remind folks A-Jay.

[king fisher]

An old bush pilot once told me, it is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.  Works for water too.

[thediscochef]

This is relevant to my current situation. I was on the fence about going out for some late night fishing tonight, with about three minutes to make a decision before it's too late for me to leave. Looking at the radar, there's a thunderstorm headed up from the south that would arrive less than an hour after me. We'll rest up and hit it tomorrow instead. Just hardly seems worth the drive, though if it only took half an hour to land a nice fish...maybe worth it. Too late now though

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

An old bush pilot once told me, it is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.  Works for water too.

Sage advice ~

An old sherpa once told me that sheep tell no secrets.

I never really knew what the heck that meant.

But to this day, I still do not talk to sheep. 

A-Jay

 

[Catt]

As much as I love pre-spawn I hate it equally as much!

 

I mean ain't it bad enough the urge to spawn has em constantly moving, let's throw a major front in there every 3 days!

 

Been there, done that, to many times, & is one of the reasons I quit tournament fishing.

[Zcoker]

The fronts down here in south Florida are thin lines of pure chaos! All fish go completely bonkers right before they hit and then....

 

Time to split! 

 

 

 

[WRB]

I join my 1st bass club Pisces in 1969 to learn more about Florida strain LMB, they were very hard to catch on artificial lures. The 1st thing I learned from the top sticks was be on the water pre frontal during prey spawn.  

In San Diego that started in December through January at the same time we get our highest precipitation of rain, meaning frontal conditions.

I continued this advice for over 40 years spending as much time on the as possible during pre spawn/pre frontal weather conditions and rewarded with a lot of big FLMB including all 5 listed. Some days were awful, most just miserable but I caught bass of a lifetime. Just have to tough it out unless lightning is a possibility then get off the water.

Tom

[LrgmouthShad]

8 minutes ago, WRB said:

club Pieces

Just going to leave this here…. 

[WRB]

🧐Gotta love spell correction Pisces as in fish.

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

They talk about Pisces all the time on the Big Bass Podcast.

 

It's a foundational block in the SoCal big Bass explosion story, that's cool to hear you were a member.   

[Bankbeater]

My insides tightened up a little when that flash of lightning lit up the sky.

[Swamp Girl]

@Zcoker, we don't ever have skies that look like Florida's storms. However, I was in Buffalo for Snowmageddon (five feet of snow in three days) and I saw that snowstorm's front a couple miles out over Lake Erie and I thought, "The Grim Reaper's coming." And I was right, for people died.

 

If you want to feel the Grim Reaper's breath, paddle a 32-pound Bell Rockstar (my canoe), which is 15' 6" long and slender. It's built for speed, not stability. And paddle it in late October on an up north lake where no one will hear you scream (for help). It's high-spirited and I foresee the day when I'll buy a heavy, stable aluminum boat with a motor to ward the Grim Reaper a little longer.
 

 

[Zcoker]

9 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

If you want to feel the Grim Reaper's breath, paddle a 32-pound Bell Rockstar (my canoe), which is 15' 6" long and slender. It's built for speed, not stability. And paddle it in late October on an up north lake where no one will hear you scream (for help). It's high-spirited and I foresee the day when I'll buy a heavy, stable aluminum boat with a motor to ward the Grim Reaper a little longer.
 

 

 

I've avoided the breath of the Grim Reaper many times here in south Florida just by having the means to power away from him quickly! 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Zcoker: Me too! I can power to safety too, for my canoe is the Corvette of Canoes, a real zoomer. Your boat is beautiful, the Cadillac of Kayaks.

[einscodek]

IMO prefrontal is over-rated.  I often fish pre-frontal not purposely but forecasts are erratic in that fronts are often  delayed and I end up fishing hours and sometimes an entire day waiting for the front to initiate.  I always fish fronts from shore never on boat as I see no reason why for obvious reasons and stop doing this in late fall.  Caught fish for me pre-front over the years have been size-wise and numbers no better than during normal non-frontal days yield.  When I say pre-frontal I mean conditions prior to ANY attribute of the front arriving.  Now as the front approaches and the winds kick up and the smell of the storm is in the air, fishing gets better for me even though the rain has not yet arrived.

All this said blah blah..

YEA I'm fishing pre-frontal Saturday ahead  😜

Hey its 20 degrees warmer than trend this weekend... 

 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I have seen times before and during a rain storm when the fish went absolutely bonkers. It’s also got me into trouble a time or two. I stayed out too long once a tornado came through with monster hail that was clobbering the tar out of me. After it passed I did catch some nice fish, but I don’t know if it was worth all that. 

[Zcoker]

Often, the fish go crazy right at the ragged edge of the front, which begs the question: to stay or not to stay. Sometimes folks get the wrong impression about fronts, fishing way before them expecting super duper results. Well, right at that edge, the fish light up and hit anything that moves!

 

Here in Florida the fronts are very thin, travel very fast, and fishing through them is doable. Just gotta be prepared, that's all. There's a lotta wind and rain but rarely much if any lightening. They fly by and once they pass, it gets nice and cool out, blue sky's ahead....until the next go around lol 

 

 

[WRB]

Think of a pre front as a low pressure area where the air is rotating counter wise, the most sever low pressure is a hurricane along coastal regions.

Think of a cold front or post frontal as a high pressure air rotating clock wide pushing into the vacuum left by the low pressure creating wind until both settle into normal pressure.

Low pressure doesn’t always have a lot moisture but usually will have clouds and some rain. High pressure always has some wind blowing out the clouds increasing bright sunlight.

Mountainous regions the low pressure creates up lifting of the clouds developing into thunder heads the friction causing lightning rain and hail at the high altitudes falling to the ground. 

Mild low pressure weather, light wind and rain with no lightning is ideal for fishing, severe weather stay home.

Tom 

 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

I believe that if the bite is going to pick up in a prefrontal condition, it can do so much earlier than we think

[WRB]

Visualize low pressure area being hundreds of miles in diameter carried by the jet stream. The actual storm that may be filling in the void is usually at the middle area of the pre frontal low pressure area. 

Flying Insects can easily fly in a low pressure area increasing baitfish activity until rain prevents this activity. Low pressure awakens the ecosystem creating predators like bass to be active, good for us! 

Tom

[pdxfisher]

I miss that strong pre-frontal bite. I used to love that in PA and NC. We don't get those strong fronts out here in the PNW (we don't get those huge barometric swings). We do get a lot of hail storms in the spring and fall and I have been anchored up (winter sturgeon fishing) in my kayak in the middle of some pretty serious hail storms out here but I just hunker down and say ouch until they pass.