Fishing After Rain

[Avid Angler FL]

I live in Northwest Florida and yesterday it rained HARD. And then it coninued to rain almost all throughout the night, and all morning today as well. We haven't had any rain in weeks, so what should I do? Just stay home? Or is there something I should be trying out there? It's a small lake around 7 or 8 acres or so, and I don't have a boat. So what should I do or try? Thanks!

[DeBassin619]

If it has rained, for that long, I would use lures with some noise and flash.

The water will probably be darker, especially if it's still over cast. So, I'd use: spinnerbaits, in-line spinners, lipless cranks, cranks, jerkbaits, flukes(other soft-jerkbaits) etc. Most of it is going to be dependant on what the conditions(clarity, color) are like, for the type of water you fish.

[tmier]

Its raining hard now. Supposed to stop around 6 am and im gonna try it. We are gonna troll cranks along a ridge if no luck, go to an outflow creek and pitch plastics under cover. It was 95 earlier and tmw it will be 75. Plus the water temps dropped from 85 to 75 in just two weeks.

[Avid Angler FL]

Yeah I'm gonna probably try lipless cranks and soft plastic jerkbaits (Super Fluke of course ). Would a Texas rig be useful at all or would it be more hit and miss?

[tmier]

I hooked one on a t rigged Mann's jelly worm. This was yesterday after about 12 hours of storms.

[Avid Angler FL]

So they can effectively locate a plastic bait after harsh storms? Nice!

[shadowchaser]

It has been raining all week in Northeast Pa and saturday is our club championship. I'm expecting the water to be super high and probably dirty. Will fishing senko's and jigs still be a viable option or should my partner and I be using cranks/spinnerbaits? Also should we focus mainly on pads/grass/stumps or hit the flooded banks?

Sorry for the "dumb" questions. We just haven't done too good lately and would like to atleast make a good showing. This is our first year and we find most folks don't like to give away their secrets or strats.

[boystcroix]

Yeah we got about 8 inches in the last day and a half with more coming overnight. Fishing the Susquehanna river is out of the question for a while. I guess I'll chose a lake this weekend!

[Grey Wolf]

It has been raining all week in Northeast Pa and saturday is our club championship. I'm expecting the water to be super high and probably dirty. Will fishing senko's and jigs still be a viable option or should my partner and I be using cranks/spinnerbaits? Also should we focus mainly on pads/grass/stumps or hit the flooded banks?

Sorry for the "dumb" questions. We just haven't done too good lately and would like to atleast make a good showing. This is our first year and we find most folks don't like to give away their secrets or strats.

Follow the water.

[B-Dozer]

I hooked one on a t rigged Mann's jelly worm. This was yesterday after about 12 hours of storms.

My favorite worm, not too easy to come by.

[tmier]

Since it had rained and more fronts were moving thru later that day, I wasn't sure what I should have been fishing so I went back to worms. I used the Mann's because of its size and I fished it pretty slow with hard pops.

I need to go back to my Bps and pick up some more of these.

[Goose52]

We had 5.5 inches of rain over two days - it rained for 34 hours non-stop. I was fishing IN the rain each day. I figured the fish would either be hunkered down deep or some might be up and active. So, I fished plastic worms on the bottom - got a few bass including one at 22 feet deep. I also fished shallow with a lipless crank and buzzbait - got a few there. In general though, I really had to work to get some fish the past few days.

[WRB]

I live in Northwest Florida and yesterday it rained HARD. And then it coninued to rain almost all throughout the night, and all morning today as well. We haven't had any rain in weeks, so what should I do? Just stay home? Or is there something I should be trying out there? It's a small lake around 7 or 8 acres or so, and I don't have a boat. So what should I do or try? Thanks!

There is rain then there are major storms, it sounds like a major storm event.

Natural small lakes and ponds tend to flood around the edges due to water levels higher than normal max pool. When water floods the bass tend to move into and out of the newly flooded areas for short time periods, they don't want to get trapped by falling water levels. The best spots are where raising or moving water enters into and exits out of the newly flood areas, we call these funnel zones. The bass should be active and facing into any current and your lure should be moving towards them, if possible. Surface lures work very well like a buzz bait, near surface like a spinner bait or accurately placed jig or worm.

Tom