Sudden weather change.. what do you do?

[bshaner]

So you are practice fishing, things are going great, you have your pattern down.  You wake up the day of the tournament get set to launch and a storm front has moved in, maybe it's your fault for not checking the weather or let's blame it on the weather man for not seeing it coming.

What do you do?  How do you alter your game plan on the fly? What's your go to presentation in this situation?

Probably an obvsious question but I'm building my knowledge base and you guys are a great wealth of knowledge.

Brian

[Duke]

I've found that the fish don't generally move a long distance. However, they will move tighter to cover, move out to the nearest break, or suspend if you had fish on the break. You have to figure out where else they might have gone. Either way, the tactic will probably change, but not always. I always try first what was working for me, then adjust by throwing the next logical thing. Usually something similar to what was working yesterday. Weather changes is normally more mental than anything else. However, its a big  mental challenge.

Duke

[Bulletproof]

Depending on how far the storm front has moved in, i.e. low pressure, there is a window of opportunity that can be fantastic for putting fish in the boat.  Most tournies or days on the water for that matter that I've had a storm come in the fishing was gangbusters for an hour or two.  The fish since the front, and typically feed with reckless abandon.  Once the front has established itself, I usually give up.

[Grandbass]

This happened to me last year at a tournament. Partner ditched me so I was on my own. Partner had fished the lake before I? had not.? I decided not to prefish because the lake was about 100 miles away.? I get to the lake and it is raining so hard that I had to drain my boat before launching the wind was 20-30 mph. My game game of finesse fishing scattered weeds was shot. I? tied on a buzzbait and turned the trolling motor on 100 and decided to cover water. First 5 casts 3lber in the boat. I was like yeah I am starting to like this lake. Over the next couple of hours I had a limit of 2-3lbers. Ended up with 5 fish 13.05 and won the tournament. The buzzbait bite never died that day. The wind was cranking the whole day. My game plan was shot, no idea were to fish, and covering water and looking for a reaction strike was the best decision I could of made....

[canvsbk]

My first move is to down size and slow down. And pout alot.

When summer finally arived last year I almost exclusively drop shotted finesse worms, that seems to be a pretty steady pattern when it finally starts no matter the weather.

When fishing a river I think the cold front effect is almost non existent.