The impact of rain??

[cassidyta]

Okay guys, I am in some uncharted water with this one so any suggestions are appreciated.

We went through a rather miserable rain storm on Sunday and Monday with another one comming this weekend. This last storm greatly changed the conditions of my local pond. The water level is up about 5 foot from where it was last week. The visibility has dropped from 5 foot down to about 6 inches. I am sure that all of the added water has lowered the overall temperature of the pond.

I went out for a lunch session today and couldn't even get a nibble. I honestly have no idea where to find the fish or what to throw when I do.

I tried pitching into the weeds, throwing spinner and chatter baits against the edges. I tossed a frog and jig into the new weedlines. I also tried some D/S in locations where it normally works.

Where might they be and what do they want?

[Jigger]

Find the clearest water you can find and fish shallow.

[bamabassman]

Ok..just a thought here. How about finding the deepest part. See, i am remember what ol Zooker told me. The mud is gonna rise right? meaning that it is on top right now till it settles down. I am most likely wrong cass. Brain fart at it's best. So i am thinking that the clearer water is gonna be in the deeper area. Otherwise, i would continue the shallow area.

[BassinID]

I would think a rattling shallow crank around the new structure would be my first shot.

[keithdog]

I would get a pitchin rig setup with a 4 inch creature bait, or a large profile black/blue jig with a trailer like the Strike King Rage Tail Craw and start pitchin that bait as close to any cover as you can get to. The bass will be spookey, so longer pitches may be required, although the very muddy water with reduced visibility should help. Above all, be very quiet!

[Raul]

Fish can´t see squat, call´em ! ---> rattles, lots of shine, lots of vibration, lot´s of banging.

Fish can´t see squat, fish don´t move too far from what they can touch ---> keep your baits close to objects ( cover or structural features ), bang you baits against objects.

[carolina-rig-01]

Ok to start with is the water color paper bag brown or is it translucent like your house? Lol sorry I couldn't resist bringing up a classic like that.

Cass I would fish as shallow as I could with as many presentations as I could. Most of the time when the water comes up fast the fish come up too. Without seeing where you are fishing I really can't say for sure but their could be a lot of new cover and structure in the water that wasn't available to the fish before the water came up. When lakes around here come up really high we catch a lot of fish off of concrete picnic tables at campgrounds, swing sets in peoples back yards, stacks of fire wood in peoples yards, ect., not to mention the obvious places like flooded brush. And this for the most part is effected very little by water temp which can be suprising. We fished a club tournament a few years ago in january where the water came up really fast and the water temp was in the mid to high 40's. I spent most of my time dragging a jig and a shakey head in deep water and on the deep ends of points. My partner and I struggled to weigh in a few fish only to find out that probably 90% of the fish weighed in were caught in 5 feet of water or less, and I went back a few days later and fished these types of places and confirmed that the other guys were telling me the truth because I caught a lot of keepers in shallow water.

If the water is muddy then the fish will probably be relating to some type of cover or structure, and if the water is fairly clear then they may be more out away from cover or structure.........that much you will just have to experiment to figure out.

That's my 2 cents worth anyways.

[BeaverIslander]

I'd move to deep water thats insulated from that cold rain, downsize lures and slow down.

[carolina-rig-01]

I really doubt that the pond will be deep enough to have much of a difference between the water temp in the deeper parts of the pond vs. the shallow water. when I was younger I use to fish a lot of ponds and still do fish a few today when I'm not on the lake. And I have never seen fish in a pond go "deep" because of a cold front or cold rain. They may be caught out of the deeper part of the pond but I think this has more to do with other factors like food or light than it does temperature.

[cassidyta]

Well, the fish apparently wanted top water and a lot of it. The Spro Frog produced 5 decent fish in a 4 hour session. I missed a couple of blow ups and also landed two dinks. The frog was a "why not" bait choice since I had thrown everything else. Additionally I kept getting snagged in the trees so I wanted something that would work the surface.
Because the pond is pretty close to being a bowl, there was not a whole lot of normal shallows to fish. The edges were around 6 foot in depth. The deep point on this pond is about 35 foot deep.
The water was chocolate with an air temp in the mid 30's at night and a high of upper 50's for the past week. There is not a frog in sight, but the fish didn't appear to care.
I also landed two throwing the big sweet beavers weightless and letting them slowly fall against the structure.

[Bassboss]

Like jigger said, find clear water! And current if the pond has any!

I think that slower moving baits would do good. Try a rage craw in black and blue, and some rattles and sent. Fish it real slow, shake the rod tip a lot to get the rattles working, and the sent dispersing! Slow roll a Colorado blade spinnerbait with gold blades. Also a crank bait reeled slow my produce!

Also what have the temps been like in the past week? If it pretty hot, than the cool rain will bring the bass up, fish shallow! The new water level will expose new land, and new food! The bream, and smaller fish will be around there eating little bugs and worms that where on the ground, so that will call the bass!

Another thing you may consider is to chum! I know it's not something people really think of in bass fishing, but in muddy water, it'll help isolate the fish!

~~~

- Fish slow, with baits that have lots of vibration, and smell. Give 'em something they can find real easy!

- Fish shallow, the bait fish will be there too!

- Find clear water and current!

- Fish tight to cover, they're gonna want something they can easily relate to!

[twigass]

I would use the slowest bait possible like a wacky senko and fish med to shallow they are probable feeding on what was washed up and a slow falling bait should do it also go out just before storm and try same teq. Always works for me.

[Bassboss]

I'm gonna be in the same situation as you cass come with weekend! It's been raining all week non stop almost! I hope we both do good!