cold front

[bassgirl21]

Yesterday I went to Patoka Lake which is in southern Indiana. We fished for 4 straight hours and didnt get a single fish a few hit but that about it. A cold front came through the night before & it was very overcast the next day. I tried crankbaits with various depths. But that didnt work. What works best with cold fronts?

[bassman31783]

The very first thing I tie on after a cold front is a suspending jerkbait. I work it with long pauses. This has been my most consistent cold front producer.

My other rods would have these tied on.

-Colorado blade spinnerbait (skirt color dictated by water clarity & blade color dictated by cloud cover or lack thereof)

-1/4oz - 1/2oz jig

-Shakey head with some sort of straight / finesse worm

[Paul Roberts]

Sounds like you were in the front. It's the bright skies following a front that tend to make for tougher fishing. I would have to venture that it wasn't the weather. Re-group and get back at 'em.

[TommyBass]

I know what you mean.  I fished a tourney sat in Indiana just a few miles north of where you were.  It was good until about 830 then the fish had the worst case of lockjaw I have seen all year.  I've heard Patoka has been tough on occaision this year anyways, but there are good fish there.  That clear water makes it even tougher on days like that.  We did good fishing tops of trees, real tight to the cover.  I couldn't get any crankbait bites either... jig and worms worked slow were the ticket.  

[bassgirl21]

we tried jigs but i think we only had one good bite. The fishing really seems to be in a slump right now. I fished for 5 hours yesterday at a lake & only caught one fish

[DINK WHISPERER]

After a major cold front a bass will usually go into any available cover and get sluggish. I prefer slow moving lures like T-rigged plastics. Another way to get them is by burning a Rat-L-Trap around available cover. A lot of times this will draw a reaction strike. Always make repeated casts to the same spot/area, BEST OF LUCK!!!!

[Catt]

Some days they just don't bite  

[bassinri]

I have fished from upstate New York to my house in Rhode Island 250 miles away and have been having TERRIBLE outings. At this point I don't know what to use. Usually I will have a Zoom finesse worm rigged to an Ikey head or other shakey type jig and work it really slow but to be honest that's not even producing. I just can't believe how slow it is. The weather hasn't even been really hot like it usually is when it gets slow like this. I wonder if even though the weather isn't hot the Bass are still in that deep water sluggish mode because their brains are just programmed to it this time of year.

[Bass_Akwards]

Downsize your baits.  Go Slower.   It's that simple.  Try a little black and blue jig and crawl it slowly.  I bet you get a fishy.  Try Texas rigging (weightless) a 3 or 4 inch Senko as well.  You might not catch the numbers you want, but you should get a couple/few.

[Crestliner2008]

You didn't say how deep the water is that you are fishing. And what the water clarity is. What is the temperature of the water? And are you targeting standing timber or a point? How are you are fishing....boat or from the shore. Lots of weeds? No weeds? Are you fishing a channel or drop off? What is the main forage base?

Sorry for all the questions, but without knowing more about the body of water, it's difficult to offer logical suggestions. I don't think you were in a post cold front, yet. As has been previously said, high pressure, blue bird skies, stiff breeze; indications of post cold front conditions.

When you do experience these conditions, the fish will hunker down tight to cover and/or go deeper and be very negative. At which point you need to bring out the finesse gear. Small worms, drop shot, Senkos.

[Busy]

I'm hearing a lot of different things here.

This is what I have gathered before reading this thread:

-the edge of a cold front will bring wind gusts

-cold fronts are associated with low pressure, especially along the isothermic gradient along the front

-cold fronts can last 1 day to a couple weeks

-rain and showers can occur at any time throughout a cold front, and can stay for most of it

-after the cold front passes pressure rises sharply

Cold fronts should be good for fishing, but every situation is different.  You want to fish the times closest to the precipitation the front brings, if any.  Else, fish when the wind rises.  These are when the pressure drops should be most abrupt.

You don't have to do a whole lot different than normal except to try and catch the best times to be in the water.  Yesterday a cold front came through here and dropped the temperature by about 15 degrees throughout the day and it started raining around 3pm and didn't stop until 10pm.  We fished from 5:30-8:00 and hammered them.  Worms on the bottom were a no go.  We caught them ALL using a 1" long rainbow trout patterned crankbait going very slow, about 2.5 feet below water surface.  Hope this helps a bit, but as always, every situation is unique in some way.

[RhodyBass]

Downsize your baits. Go Slower. It's that simple. Try a little black and blue jig and crawl it slowly. I bet you get a fishy. Try Texas rigging (weightless) a 3 or 4 inch Senko as well. You might not catch the numbers you want, but you should get a couple/few.

X2 sloooooooowwwww

[Tin]

Unless it is early spring, the spawn period, or it effects water temps drastically (15 degrees or more), it doesn't really screw up fish as much as people say. (In my opinion anyway). I think way to much emphasis is put on cold fronts. It seems as though fish in the north become accustomed to them because we can get four to six a week sometimes. Even in summer you can have one or two move through a week.

If anything you just were not on the right deal. But it was a good one as you were fishing overcast conditions with a search bait.

If it were me, I would have been throwing a jig at anything that offers cover in the shallows. And I would have been throwing the same size and fishing it just as fast as I always do. By moving around more and covering more water you will find more fish that will eat out of a reaction strike than trying to force feed them small baits.

There are just some places you can put a jig that you can't put a crankbait.

[Paul Roberts]

Tin wrote:

Unless it is early spring, the spawn period, or it effects water temps drastically (15 degrees or more), it doesn't really screw up fish as much as people say. (In my opinion anyway). I think way to much emphasis is put on cold fronts.

X2

It's possible to have a front that drops temps, but it would be a rare front. After a front, you gotta deal with the bright conditions -toughest in the shallows. But it's not game over by any means; Unless you think that's so.

[Tin]

I find shallow water fishing is easiest after a front because of how it positions the fish. Any piece of cover (dock, brush, bush, tree, garbage, scum, rock) that casts a shadow or a dark spot will usually hold a fish. It doesn't if it is in 6 feet or 6" (yes 6" and the fish has part of it's back out of the water). As long as the fish can get in it or under it so it is in shade and is able to ambush.

[7mm-08]

I've been fishing two or three times since the cold front hit and have definitely been catching a lot less fish but the ones my friend and I have caught have been quite a bit larger on average than normal.  We've been using popping frogs and getting hits on the outside edge of the weedlines and moss and some were open water about 15 feet out from the bank.  Before the front hit they were holding much closer to the bank and deeper in the cover/slop.  This is on a relatively shallow, vegetation infested lake in central KY (Lexington).

[bigtimfish]

The very first thing I tie on after a cold front is a suspending jerkbait. I work it with long pauses. This has been my most consistent cold front producer.

My other rods would have these tied on.

-Colorado blade spinnerbait (skirt color dictated by water clarity & blade color dictated by cloud cover or lack thereof)

-1/4oz - 1/2oz jig

-Shakey head with some sort of straight / finesse worm

Dude, IMO you nailed it. With  one exception. I can't enjoy shakey head fishing. Way to much grass in the lakes I fish.

[bassman31783]

The very first thing I tie on after a cold front is a suspending jerkbait. I work it with long pauses. This has been my most consistent cold front producer.

My other rods would have these tied on.

-Colorado blade spinnerbait (skirt color dictated by water clarity & blade color dictated by cloud cover or lack thereof)

-1/4oz - 1/2oz jig

-Shakey head with some sort of straight / finesse worm

Dude, IMO you nailed it. With one exception. I can't enjoy shakey head fishing. Way to much grass in the lakes I fish.

Yeah that's why I put it last. If there's thick grass I won't be throwing the shakey head. But if I can find a section where there is a distinct contrast from grass to gravel, & I can work the edge effectively, then I'll throw it if nothing else is working. But that's about it. I hate picking off the grass after every cast on those goofy things.