I could explain how low and high pressure works and how it relates to cold and warm fronts and what a stationary front is and the rotation of the Earth and the Coriolis force but I won’t bore you. You don’t want to be a meteorologist, you just want to fish. So I’ll explain in fishermen terms when the best time to fish and where the fish are during different weather.

Warm fronts go with low pressure. The air is warm and moist and rising producing clouds. Cold fronts go with high pressure. The air is dry and cold producing clear, sunny skies. When a warm front is passing, the pressure drops and the fish start feeding because they know a possible storm system is approaching and they want to eat up before the lightning spooks them and the impending winds which will whip up the water making it more difficult to see baitfish. So fish on the surface or right below it when you hear that a warm front is moving in.

When a cold front is passing, the pressure rises, the clouds disappear and the fish run for cover and the deep waters. They also tend not to feed as aggressively. The fishing probably won’t be that good, but if you’re going to fish, try crank baits and jigs to go down deep. It’s also best to avoid clear lakes during cold fronts and go for the murky water lakes for any chance at catching a lot of fish.

The last front is the stationary front. A stationary front is the area between two different fronts. Neither is strong enough to push the other out of the way, so an area between the two weak fronts is the stationary front. The stationary front tends to share characteristics of both a warm and a cold front. It could be cloudy or it could be sunny. The air pressure in a stationary front is constant and unchanging. While this pressure could be high or low, fish tend to acclimate to it and begin acting like normal and eating normal. They won’t go on a feeding frenzy but they also won’t go dormant.

So to rate fronts, when you see a warm front is approaching your area, it’s probably a good time to catch some crazy feeding fish on the surface or right below. During a stationary front, the fishing can be anywhere from ok to great like during a warm front. When a cold front approaches, the fish tend to stop feeding and go to darker waters either under cover and brush or down deep. This usually is not the best time to fish. But then again, it’s never really a bad time to fish, just a bad time for catching fish.