Cold fronts and trout/salmon

[BP Swing]

Are trout/Salmon affected by cold fronts as much as Bass/walleye/musky, and other warm water species? Its well documented how bass, etc are negatively affected. Im wondering what affect it has on trout/salmon that are down 70 feet deep or deeper. ??????? Thanks BP

[King Davy]

BP...you should get a lot of feed back here from folks who've spent a lot of time on the water. I did some exhaustive studies on this subject over the last 35 years on LO.....Cold fronts essentially means Barometric changes...and in the case of an approaching cold front a steep drop depending how fast it's moving.

My experience is easily put this way. T&S are affrected by an approaching front....and in the case of T&S...I can say as many times as they've negatively been affected...I've had them turn on. I have documented days...when the front gets in over us...and I've litterly had five rods bounce free all at once...

If they are on the bite and the front comes in....I've had them shut down... Fish will move on the front as well...so they are "Active'...but the activity might be simply they are repositioning in the water column....and many times I've had them move a little further off shore...so if you can fish through the front...and you've lost the bite...i start to work north and run North and South ovals...to locate them again.

So my answer...is they are affected...can be a positive or Neg affect...but they will be doing something for sure...not just siting there so to speak...but running for cover or repositioning...from the affect of the pressure drop.

As you know bass...go deeper....but they can be caught on the cold front...just follow them out...many times the same thing for me on the T7S.

[TOP SECRET]

My view on cold fronts is that it becomes very difficult to catch anything...

The simple reason being, normally that brings north/west winds, which cause the lake to get very rough... hence I don't get out

Then after the lake stops churning and settles down, I tend to find the fish offshore more, especially if the lake has flipped.

Nick

[fosterm22]

This has been a topic I have been following for a few years. I think everyone's experiences are different, however I really feel like a change in weather conditions has a very positive impact on fishing. Some of the best days I have had on the water- have been "difficult" to fish due to poor weather.

During the fall derby and so far this summer- a change in weather has been GREAT fishing for trout and salmon. The trick is to find the active fish. We went 4 for 5 on big kings last night ranging 16-24 Lbs- all were caught 55-70 degree water due to warm water being pushed against the shore in less the 200 FOW. Our fish were down 75-105 feet.

As I said- the trick is to FIND them!!

[UpGrady]

T&S are beyond a shadow of a doubt affected by barometric pressure as well as moon phases.

High pressure in town, crystal clear night with a bright moon... they won't turn on until late morning with a good bite, any bites you pull will be sluggish and lazy. (aka. Steelhead won't even jump...)

As far as frontal passages, ahead of a cold front, T-Storm or band of showers, they will go on a heavy bite preceding, then the system will generally put them down for hours afterward, not to say you won't catch fish, but you will need to work harder for them after the passage of a front and subsequent wind shift. If it's a hard WNW blow the temps will be driven deeper as well.

Another case in point to watch... the morning SW breeze in the summer usually dies out by 10am, the bite might be sluggish and then picks up drastically for an hour right before the wind dies, then the bite will slow down and pickup again right before the wind shifts to the NE around lunchtime. All results of pressure changes.