Pre-Frontal Prime

[Deet]

Anyone in northern MN go out and slay 'em right before that storm last night?

If you asked me to design the perfect conditions in which to fish, it would have looked like last night. The only thing I would have changed was for last night to have fallen on full moon. If you weren't in tune with what was going on, let me paint the picture for you.

From Monday through Wednesday afternoon, we had steady, high pressure around 30.2 in Hg and steady S - SW winds. Then starting Wednesday night, the barometer started falling. By yesterday afternoon, pressure was down to 29.7 in Hg. Yesterday was HOT, muggy, and WINDY, blowing around 20 from the SW, until some intense storms rolled through (in my neck of the woods) around 10 pm, or right at dark. That was a recipe for a potentially insane bite right at sunset.

Did I fish? I had to. I had every intention to stay home like a good boy until I realized how freaking "fishy" it felt at work. I checked out weather data and realized I HAD to go for the evening. To my extreme surprise, I did not contact a fish other than two gigantic LM bass that smashed my bucktail. I didn't see a single musky. Unbelievable. My huge mistake was that I quit at 8:30, about an hour before the storms became a real threat and about two hours before they actually hit. Had I stayed out that last hour or two, it COULD have been insane. However, it SHOULD have been at least decent for my last 1 - 2 hours out, but it wasn't.

So that's fishing. Muskies, it seems more than anything, will break the mold just when you think you have them nailed down. I've had extremely fast action in pre-frontal conditions like that several times, then last night was the deadest trip of the year for me. Also this year I caught two and lost another on a night when I expected to find a dead sea.

I'm still bumming today about it, but really wanted to see if anyone pushed the limits and fished right through sunset and up until it got wild. Please share if you did it!

[raiserlures]

I was not able to fish but I have buddys that are being guided on mille lacs today. The guide that there with boated two last night. 55 inch and a 52 inch. I wish we had cooler temps in southern mn there 80+ so no fishing for me till Monday on mille lacs.

[Andrew Erickson]

it definitely seemed fishy. Spent the night down at the river chasing big kitties around but kept telling myself I should of been out throwin baits! Tonight should help as far as cooling the water temps down a bit, suppose to dip down around 60 from what i've heard. Definitely need some cooler weather, this bath water sucks

[TonyKay]

My vacation ended on Wednesday night and I am almost in tears that I didn't have one more day/night to fish. Moved a ton of fish Sunday thru Wednesday but I think Thursday evening would have been one of those days that u dream about all winter.

[JJJ]

I fished Friday and Saturday zero follows zero bites. Post front stunk. I wonder how others did this weekend??

[Esox_Magnum]

Went 6 for 8 for the weekend, 47,42,40, 38,35.5 and 35.....

[Deet]

I fished Friday and Saturday zero follows zero bites. Post front stunk. I wonder how others did this weekend??

First following up on the pre-front part: I had a friend that was fishing another [pretty good] lake Thursday evening right up to the storms, and it sucked for him too.

He, another person, and I teamed up to fish Saturday. We figured it would suck since it was the first cold day after a stretch of consistent, warm weather. It was 46 degrees that morning driving to the lake, and the high only reached 68. Barometer was high and rising. Realizing how totally wrong we were about Thursday, we decided that Saturday would actually be good, since our theory on what's good and bad had already been proven wrong.

We had 4 very hot follows, one of which I [barely] hooked in the figure-8 but lost after 2 seconds, and then I caught a smaller one a littler later. They were turned on. All the action was on blades and prop topwater.

So when you think it's going to be good, GO because it might be good. And if you think it's going to suck, GO because it might be good.

[cheddar 86]

Couldn't agree more with your last statement. I only have certain times I can fish so the weather more often than not never aligns just right...like the OP was anticipating would be a good bite (I always get annoyed when I see stuff setting up like that and I'm at home) I ended up hooking up with a 48" about 8am up shallow Friday right before the wind ended up switching to NW. I was certain the boomers would push them down but hey sometimes you get a straggler.

[BrianLucky13]

Fishing now is wayyy different then it was 5 years ago. You can't expect to go out almost everyday and boat 2-10 fish. Weather means jack and the moon means more and more every year. The feeding windows suck. They get shorter and shorter every year.

Fishing pressure is unreal. Lake that I used to fish could have 30 boats on it or more and its only 2,000 acres. Of course the fish will go bonkers for a week here and week there and u have a chance of boating those 5-10 fish in a short time but it won't last. The good ole days of catching 100 fish in a couple months has gone. It sucks but that's the way it is. Of course u can still pound the heck out of em but it takes way more time on the water or lakes that people don't know bout yet