Am currently reading an older fishin’ book – “reading” as in a couple pages here and there. Ran across a passage about conventional wisdom sometimes being outright wrong. Like we’ve all been told this stuff so many times that we don’t think it might not be true in all cases.
I know that’s true because I’m a big upland bird hunter, and folks who do that have been told the same stuff for 70 YEARS, some of it being outright wrong or at least not the whole story.
Anyhow, in the case of bassin’, the book was saying that on a certain lake, high-sky cold-front days are actually better than cloudy days.
Soon as I read that I wondered how many times I’ve let the “it won’t be as good today because it’s a front” assumption color my thinking. And how many things I may not have learned because I felt compelled to fish a certain way on these days.
You have any examples of this, weather-wise or other?
And do you think they’re exceptions or rules that haven’t been ‘stablished as such?
Will have a related post on Monday….
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Chad Keogh
October 7, 2011 at 1:31 pm
The only one I listen to when it comes to how the fish “should” be biting is the fish when they show me how they “are” biting. I don’t care about moon-phase, I don’t care about pressure systems, I don’t care about rain or even snow, ANY day you can fish is a good day to go fishing.
I’m not saying to ignore the coditions. Don’t go throwing spinnerbaits in 34 degree water expecting to get constant bites. But just remember that there are bass biting one something, somewhere at all times. You just have to figure it out.
I remember a club tournament I fished a few years back that was scheduled for mid-March. As the event approached, the weather wasn’t really warming up too much and many members suggested by move the event into April. I said, “Somebody in the event will figure out that bass. Maybe not me, but somebody will. If you keep an open mind it might be you.”
The event went on as planned and my partner and I caught 6 smallies that day with our biggest 5 just under 22 lbs. Not bad for water threatening to freeze up.
Ron Lindner
October 7, 2011 at 2:11 pm
In an up and coming article in North American Fisherman…the gang at Lindners ANGLING EDGE TV…tackle that very premise ..in fact explain times when cold fronts HELP fishing
Dwain
October 7, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Bass operate on a set of rules that are beyond our comprehension, they don’t “Think” about things, yet their natural reactions to stimulus are far beyond our understanding. You just have to figure them out a little better than the rest of the field for the given day, but we’ll never have them fully figured out. Read and learn everything you can about the common knowledge of bass fishing. Then take that as a starting place, but remember that the bass cannot read the books about how it should act.
Brent Brody Broderick
October 7, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I can remember a Bassmaster Event being won on a Buzzbait late in the season one year. Missouri????Lake of the Ozarks???? It was snowing like crazy and the wind was howling and the water temperatures dropped like 15 degrees overnight. He smashed the field with Largemouth on a Buzz. Same thing happened in a Billy Westmorland Smallmouth winter event that following year on Dale Hollow. Water temps were in the mid 40’s. Buzzbaits in the Snow Baby!!! That’s unconventional.
5bites
October 7, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Any time I’m targeting fish in the shade whether it be docks, willows, standing timber , etc high sky’s are what I’m begging for.
Alex Langer
October 8, 2011 at 8:33 pm
I had just such an experience on a local lake in Eastern Mass. The sun had to be out for the fish to be really active in that lake. My theory at the time was, and still is, that there was such an algae bloom, that it depleted oxygen from the water and the sun needed to be out for the weeds (milfoil) and phytoplankton to put oxygen back into the water. Crazy? Maybe, but it always worked!
Recklessbasser
October 10, 2011 at 12:10 am
I love cold fronts in the fall and spring with accompanying rain, cold, and high winds. That’s my favorite fishing weather. I also think it helps give me a leg up on the competition, mentally. I hear them talking in the morning before takeoff about the bad conditions as I try not to grin.