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Posts: 1185
Location: Iowa | So I am leaving for Vermilion here tonight and was curious on what some of your thoughts are on fishing cold fronts that drop like a bomb in the middle of the summer. Acording to weather.com it was 64 on tuesday, 63 yesterday and now 52, suppose to be a high of 58 and rain friday, 71 and sunny saturday and 77 and sunny sunday. I have a feeling fishing will be tough friday and a little better saturday and sunday. Any thing special you guys would try and do to turn not the greatest weather into percentage opportunity.
Thanks
Matt Percival |
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| Bring lots of beer and a deck of cards. |
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Posts: 311
Location: Ontario | Gonna be 42F overnight tonight where I live. This is getting ridiculous. |
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Posts: 20212
Location: oswego, il | If I am not mistaken, did it not get near or below freezing one night late july last year?
Cold fronts are tough but maybe it will make for a great august.
Edited by ToddM 7/16/2009 10:13 PM
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Posts: 131
Location: Southwest Ohio | We had the same thing happen to us two weeks ago at Eagle River. Water temps dropped 12 or 13 degrees. We managed five fish. Three were on dawgs over deep water, one one a 14" tiger tube, and on Friday we had 72 degree air temps and boated a 43 on a Manta.
Good luck
Don |
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Posts: 256
Location: Janesville | The muskys still have to eat . we do not stop eating when there is a cold front. There are always some muskys feeding . I would fish deeper. I have also caught some fish that move real shallow during cold fronts. Muskys are like women when you think you know what they want .they do some thing different and you have to start all over again. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I'd say it would be more dramatic if it was a 'normal' year(whatever that might be). It has been relatively cool this summer, with little to no stability with regards to weather patterns, so another cool/cold night or two in a string of several, cannot make things any worse than they already are, really. What we need to hope for, are these gale force winds to subside, which will tonight as we are headed up too....(yeah right). Looks like a mini warm up slated for at least early in the week so get out and do it to it.
Edited by Reef Hawg 7/16/2009 9:34 PM
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Posts: 20
Location: N.E. Ohio | Use Jerkbaits and fish slowwww... have a throwback ready for a follow. |
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Posts: 38
Location: Twin Cities Metro | magnum - 7/16/2009 9:17 PM
The muskys still have to eat . we do not stop eating when there is a cold front. There are always some muskys feeding . I would fish deeper. I have also caught some fish that move real shallow during cold fronts. Muskys are like women when you think you know what they want .they do some thing different and you have to start all over again.
I have to agree!! Try to fish slower then normal with a shadzilla or a tube/jig off the deeper edges. I have seen fish up in the shallows but your best bet is to move a little deeper. Good luck and get ready to fish hard. |
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Posts: 136
Location: Chicago | It would always be nice to have ideal conditions, but ideal conditions don't always match up with many of us who set aside that special trip north. Realize that you can get a bite in a cold front, in blue birds, and with 10 boats stacked up on top of each other! Don't get defeated before you even hit the water. Go deep. shallow and in between most important keep your line wet. Last year we woke up to post frontal bluebirds with 25 mph winds had the whole lake to ourselves I guess everyone else was playing cards and sleeping in. We knew things would'nt be easy, so as were getting knocked around struggling to keep our balence. I'm joking around reciting Lt. Dan lines from Forrest Gump "Is that the best you can do?" BAM! fish on a decent 42" out the weeds. So sleep in or wait till next year when the weathers better, but don't squander your chances because of weather you can't control. You can brazen the conditions and fish hard!
Edited by jaycbs74 7/16/2009 11:37 PM
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Posts: 133
Location: Wausau, WI | Does the new moon on Tuesday trump the cold front? |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | IMO, weather trumps moon. But muskies don't know they're not supposed to be eating. We just had some cold air move in, and I'm getting ready to head out right now as soon as I finish posting this.... |
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Posts: 2361
| Everybody worries about cold fronts.
Either you fish or stay home.
The condition I dislike most is newly acquired, dry clear air, regardless of the temperature. That's usually tough fishing. Water temp changes get adjusted to rapidly imo, and the fish are still in the water.
Light means shade
cold means warm
current means calm
no cover means cover
flat means irregular
that should always get it, right?
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Location: Twin Cities | Ideal conditions = anytime you can get out to fish... |
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Posts: 11
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | day of a cold front on eagle = big fish
I think getting out real early in the morning works really well on cold front days and weeks, I've seen a pattern on pewaukee with this as well. Haven't boated many but i sure do get a lot of follows. They are ever super shallow buried in the weeds or out deep, good luck! |
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| I figure I won't catch fish on the couch for 100% sure.But if you are there and fish are there,who knows????? |
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Posts: 944
| My best cold front bait is a big Joe. In the weeds and weed edges. Lost 7 degrees in water temp. the last two days and still caught 2 on Joe's 43 and 36.5 today. Two weeks ago we lost 13 degrees and same thing caught 2-3 fish every night on Joe's till the weather straightened back out.
Good Luck
Jeff Hanson
Madisonmuskyguide.com |
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Posts: 416
Location: Madtown, WI | I strongly believe, especially in this situation, you should have fairly consistent action until the skies start to clear. I'm located in Madison, here the "cold front" actually moved through on Wednesday and yet we are still under the influence of this low on Saturday into Sunday. The barometer has been slowly moving since Tuesday and yet winds have been so consistent from the west/northwest that by this time you can consider the weather pattern as "stable" despite the fact we are experiencing weather. So it's a situation that you have stable weather, but unlike a normal stable weather condition of partly cloudy and 80's you have overcast in your favor. In the situation you described, I would predict the best fishing window just (up to a day) before the front moves through followed by relatively consistent fishing (good, not great) until the clouds break even through the coldest day. The worst days of fishing I would predict to be late Saturday/Sunday, the days where the temperature begins to rebound and high pressure sets back in. Like other have said, fish can't go a week without eating and I would imagine they would try and take advantage of the low light conditions. I'd be interested in hearing your results, if you wouldn't mind, to see just how wrong I am. Predicting weather is tough enough as it is, predicting fish activity is even tougher.
Edited by stdevos 7/18/2009 5:47 PM
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| stdevos... your making this way to complicated.... in madison, just throw big joes and make light contact with the weeds. end of story. |
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Posts: 580
| On extended trips, stdevos (my brother) and I have seen this unfold as he's described many times. Even though it's a cold front, the front actually hasn't pushed through until the clouds break and the skies clear...as long as the clouds associated with the front are still on top of you, the fishing remains fairly consistent...this time frame usually isn't "action-packed" with suicidal fish on every key spot (like it can be during the hours that precede an incoming front) but we've still managed to have many multiple-fish-days despite dropping temps associated with a heavy overcast with a slow-moving front.
Perhaps our best trip for numbers and size on LOTW had a nasty cold front move through on the first day we were there, dropping water temps like a rock. The next 3-4 days were much cooler than average, with overcast skies and moderately strong winds...we didn't move a ton of fish, but overall did really well as far as putting fish in the net. Same thing happened to us up in Vilas earlier this season with a nasty cold front moving in on day 1, that kept it windy and overcast and off-on rain for 3 straight days, water temps were plummeting but we still put fish in the net and had chances at several very nice ones...
The worst fishing days are typically when sunny, dry air and high pressure returns...
Not too complicated if you think about it. Stable weather (in this case, even if "stable" means relatively nasty and cold) usually brings decent fishing...the fish adjust and still have to eat, and under overcast skies they are typically less wary... |
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Posts: 59
| Fish slow, usually soft plastics work best in cold fronts. |
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Posts: 256
Location: Janesville | I fished last friday night when i got up north and boated two 32,34 i s hours of fishing it was cool out and caught fish water temp was 64 degrees and I was moving my baits pretty fastand them caught a 37on saturday mornig I only fished mybe 6 hour all weekend. Daughters b-day she had 5 friends up there. They have to eat. |
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| When water temps are cooler in the summer I have had good luck fishing west and northwest shore lines in the mid to late morning. They are the first spots to get sunlight and even though you may have bluebird skys if those areas are not getting cold water blown onto them the big fish will follow the little fish into that slightly warmer water. I have had the last 3 consecutive weekends with fish over 40-43,48 and 41 tiger in vilas county with cold water. |
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Posts: 341
| I had some good success in Vilas last week despite lake temps dropping by 10 degrees throwing dawgs and Grandma's worked slow. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | I've created a new club and I am looking for other charter members. It is called "JQYW".
"Just Quit Your Whining"!
Certainly there are times when the fishery as a whole is more responsive than other times, but I have come to accept that you can't catch them when you aren't out there!
It is kind of like the Nike slogan, " Just Do It!"
East winds are supposed to be terrible fishing. I've caught fish in east winds.
I hate sunny days, I've caught fish on sunny days with a million boats, water skiers, and jet skies around me.
Just do it because we are part of the soon to be worldwide, "JQYW" Club! |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | cool video ... nice teamwork tad and francis!! |
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Cold Fronts