Sudden temperature drops

BrookTroutLover

BrookTroutLover

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Mar 23, 2007
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Heading to the Poconos Sunday-Monday, just in time for a sunny warm week to turn cold and rainy. What has been your experience with hatching insects and feeding fish when there are such noticeable swings in the spring? Tactic suggestions?
 
jifigz said:
Cold fronts will sometimes shut fish down, but I find trout less affected by to. Go fish. It will probably be fine. In my opinion, cool, rainy weather is better than hot and sunny weather for trout.
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This.

I'll add that in my experiece, 'cold and sunny' is usually the worst, like this: rapidly rising barometer immediately after a strong cold frontal passage, clear blue skies, breezy; usually a beautiful day for a human-but tend to be my worst days fishing. River/stream fish do seem less affected than lake/pond fish. But hey? It is 100% true in my book that the worst day fishing is better than my best day @ work!

Joe
 
How deep of a dive are you taking into the weather report? My weather app shows a 45% to 75% chance of rain Sunday morning into early afternoon. When I dive deeper it’s showing at its peak a rainfall amount of .03” an hour but it is largely less then this during the entire time period. Weather services classify a light rain as having a rate of .10” an hour so .03” is pretty far off a light rain. AI says .03” an hour is enough to keep surfaces damp but not enough to cause puddling or accumulation of water.

My tactic would be what it always starts out as for trout. A hares ear nymph or one of its many variations.
 
jifigz said:
Cold fronts will sometimes shut fish down, but I find trout less affected by to. Go fish. It will probably be fine. In my opinion, cool, rainy weather is better than hot and sunny weather for trout.
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100 pct. I avoid sunny clear bluebird sky fishing...ya want big browns. You want ugly dark skies overcast. Not sunny warm still breeze if gour game is getting that big ole brown to move out from whatever structure holds him he aint movin during sunny days. You can keep that weather lol !!!
 
Give me a cool day with a light rain any day. Personally most of my best days for trout have been cool and light rain. Don't get me wrong., if it is warm and sunny and I am still going fishing , and occasionally have had some success on the days , mostly I just like spending my time outdoors.
 
REDNECK_FLYFISHER said:
Give me a cool day with a light rain any day.
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To each their own. My very best days, and I'm talking mountain freestone streams, were when it was sunny and stream temps were 58F-61F. Every time! I have found that when these same conditions persist for a prolonged period, the fishing stays good. IMO It's the ups and downs with cold fronts that throw things off.

I also have better results when stream levels are lower rather than higher, for whatever reason.
 
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I much prefer pea soup days with a light mist to light rain over a blue bird day. If fishing had an entrance song like wrestling mine would be Fool in the Rain. Lol.

I’d think the fish will reset after the front moves in and Monday will be fine.
 
Just an example of what I said above. I fished yesterday, and I caught a few. I fished today, and the fishing was much better. The high temp today was over 25° colder than yesterday. That's a cold front, and the trout were more active. I didn't set the world on fire either day, but it was definitely better today.

Here's a wild brown with an interesting spot pattern from today.
1000001463.jpg
 
I'd go too
I've seen some tremendous hatches during crazy cold and windy weather.
You just never know what's gonna happen
 
I only fished for a couple of hours each morning this weekend. The cold front seemed to shut the hatches down, at least in the morning, but not the fish. I caught fewer fish today than yesterday but that is because I decided to take advantage of the stained water to try for some bigger fish with streamers.

This morning, I caught two fish in the first five minutes of swinging wets before switching to streamers. I had half a dozen eats on streamers but only landed one. Two of the fish will haunt me until I get a decent day of streamer fishing in.
 
Like others have stated… I fish when I can. I told my wife based on the weather forecast, my preferred fishing day this weekend was Sunday. For other reasons, she liked Saturday. Saturday it was.
I had a great hike & decent fishing day highlighted by this beautiful brown in the afternoon sun. I wanted the cool clouds, but it all worked out.
1776651822974.jpeg
 
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Was up in Western NY for my annual "opening day" birthday fishing with my dad. Friday evening was overcast, 70s, with higher stained water. Had a decent number of takes and some hendrickson's.

Saturday was bluebird skies, but windy with the big cold front coming across. While the water was better had absolutely no takes. Definitely seem like the high pressure cold front shut things down.
 
Not making any fishing predictions but this is one of the wildest water temp drops I have ever seen. About 20 degrees
 

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In my experience over the weekend, Penns water temp for example was 58F on Saturday at 2PM~, and 55F at 11AM Sunday after a 30 degree air temp drop. Sunday for the most part when I was there until 2PM was subsurface action only. There were some risers in one pool I fished but not enough consistency to actually fish it effectively. Saturday being bluebird skies until like 3PM and warm did not help the top water action either. As much as I wanted topwater conditions to be good both days, gotta work with the cards that were dealt.
 
Amen. Fish with cards you are dealt. We live in air but fish live in water.

See my post in the Lehigh River thread. It snowed lightly in NEPA yesterday morning, and I dealt with sleet and a wind chill below freezing until mid-morning. Fish ate regardless. I just had to fish deep seams.
 
Nymph-wristed said:
Amen. Fish with cards you are dealt. We live in air but fish live in water.

See my post in the Lehigh River thread. It snowed lightly in NEPA yesterday morning, and I dealt with sleet and a wind chill below freezing until mid-morning. Fish ate regardless. I just had to fish deep seams.
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wait a minute. Suckers eat. Our majestic trout feed 🤣
 
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