Anybody do any good last night?

[JRedig]

I thought for sure fish would be going last night with that weather moving in, I didn't have any luck. (i'm not saying i was doing anything right!!! )

Anyone else find anything going on?

-Jeff

[Rebel9921]

Hit WBL with Muskiedream at 4am... fished til 7:00... NOTHING AT ALL... was the WORST case of fog I ever experienced... lost my sense of direction but thank god for the Lowrance unit on the boat... cldnt even see where my lure landed... fog started to lift as the sun came up... but when we hit the east part of the lake... we had to go through a severe blanket of fog... visibility was basically zero beyond the front of the boat...

It was so quiet on WBL once the sun came up and the fog lifted... water was mirror-calm... threw a Weagle for about 30 minutes with no taker... was hyponizing to watch it swish back n forth...

[JRedig]

That was my experience on WBL last night. I was out pre-frontal, got off of the water during, and went back out till midnight after it all passed. It was a REALLY quiet calm evening with 1 other boat. Not even a pike, usually can't keep them off baits!

Talked to some guys at the landing that were bass fishing and they didn't catch anything either.

[goblueM]

So what you're saying is that I made a good decision to eat chocolate ice cream and watch the Olympics instead of hitting up what looked to be prime conditions? Whew, I feel way better now, I was kicking myself last night

[Rebel9921]

Goblue... you made a good decision if you were thinking about WBL... I have no idea about other lakes...

Just remembered 2 details... Dream caught a nice 2-3lb bass while trolling... it didnt even set off the clicker... and caught a hammerhandle after the fog lifted... it hit hard enough to fool him in thinking it was a muskie... There I was... trying to get the net ready and I turn around... hes standing there grinning with this hammerhandle hanging from his lure... LOL

[copterjohn]

Our weather scheme for catching active fish is based partially on watching the 2 hour pressure trend. Yesterday evening there was little if any pressure fall across WBL area...in fact a slow rise all evening. You could probably tell that by the almost total lack of wind and glassy water. 6pm pressure was 29.82 and at midnight it has risen to 29.84. Here is an example of an internet product that shows this. You can see the winds coverging into central MN, but not much pressure change so it is not moving.

That said, you can have very small scale perturbations directly ahead of a storm(s) when they are surface based. (low cloud base vs. very high cloud base). For instance, last week we could see the visible gust front (miniature cold front depicted as thin blue line/arc ahead of storm) on radar approaching our lake, so we got in position and caught several fish as the boundary approached and wind picked up. Once it blew by and the pressure rose rapidly, the bite was done. Here is an example taken this afternoon. I have marked these boundaries.

On the larger scale, watch for approaching fronts or trofs. Looks like at least a weak trof late tomorrow eve.

Good lucky Muskie hunting. Copter John

[cjac]

Awesome info John, thanks!!!

Looks like tomorrow might on Mille Lacs may be a decent window with the approaching trof.

[Tippman]

Looks like I just need a meteorologist as a friend and I'll catch more fish! Great info.

What is the best HSOforum to access via cell phone to see these approaching fronts?

[JRedig]

Your comment about all the wind converging on MN is spot on. We thought for sure the front building out there would blow over. It just hung around forever and was hardly moving at all. It took well over an from when the lightening was scary till it was fishable again and in that time frame, it went from the north/northeast shore of WBL to about the end of Manitou.

I should've checked the pressure, no surprise there was little activity considering the rise in pressure and all the lightening and thunder!

[Lare Pie]

Was on Forest w/ a buddy and he had 3 blowups. 2 prefrontal and 1 post. Nothing stuck. There was a 40" and a 33" caught that I now of, prefrontal.