Fishing Frontal Conditions

When out and about as well aas on the water I believe I hear one qustion more often than any other. That qustion is "how do you deal with weather fronts?" Well to be honest I could get into the scince of it but would rather discuss the tactics and how to approach them. I have however found that fronts tend to effect shallow water, grass type, lakes more than deeper clear lakes. Now don't get me wrong I think it effects all bodies of water but just from my experiance the grass lakes more.
One way I feel I or other guides have a slight advantage on the water over anglers that just fish once or twice a month is we deal with fronts all the time and have to fish during them under extream presure to produce fish day in and day out. If you look at alot of the tour pros you will find before they were full time on tour most were either fulltime or parttime guides. This prepared them to fish under nasty conditions and weather fronts.
There is really 2 ways to produce bites under bad weather fronts and conditions. The first way, and my favorite, is fishing a reaction strike. The best way to do this picking out a couple of baits, getting them ready on the deck, getting in areas the fish should be according to patterns, and fishing hard. I like to tie on baits like the Jackall Muscle 7+, 10+, 15+ or MC series depending on the depth I'm fishing, a bait like a spinnerbait or swim jig, and a topwater bait(only if the water temps are above 50 or so degrees). Now sometimes I will put several "go-to" colors on the deck of each bait so I can switch them fast.
I then get in the areas I have fished in better conditions and have boated fish and fish them fast, makeing several cast to each target before moving to another target area. I then re-fish the area with a couple of other baits to see if I can get the fish to react to the baits or colors. One thing that is very important while doing this is watch everything around you for clues of where fish might have moved and know what your bait is doing every second. If you get a strike or catch a fish remember where the bait was and what it was doing when the fish hit. This is very important to remember so you can duplicate this in the area as well as other areas. SO if you were ripping a crankbait out of grass at a fast pace and the fish hit just as you stopped the bait in the grass you can re-create that action on your other cast and catch a few more fish. I have also found if you are fishing a lake that is deeper or fishing structure type things like lay downs or stumps, the fish tend to be real close to cover during fronts. I always try to hit things when fishing during fronts. If your fishing stumps and the fish hit just as your bait slammed into it then remember what side of the stump it was on and you can pin point areas that will be non-productive and pass them by while saving some time.
The second way I fish during fronts is very productive and if you have found fish in an area while reaction fishing you can re-work the same areas with this tactic and sometimes get a few more bites. This way of fishing is very SLOWWWWW! I choose baits like Lake Fork 10" worms, the Hyperfreak series of plastics, big jigs, or spinnerbaits fished on the bottom. Now I also do one thing that takes some time and practice to get the hang of but I will fish a deeper crankbait when fishing grass lakes and finesse it like a worm. The biggest key to this slow tactic is tossing the bait out and let it soak. I might move it an inch or two at a time and let is sit as long as 3-5 mins between moving it. This is very hard for alot of anglers to do when they dont have confidence in it or the area they are in but very effective.
If you get on the water and conditions change try one of these tactics and see if they don't work for you. I can almost assure you anyone can turn a bad day on the water to a day to remember. There is nothing better than going back to the ramp on a day that was tough on other anglers knowing you put some fish in the boat when others couldn't. If you want to see these tactics used in person besure to give us a call and we can set up a trip to show you how well they work.