4 Tips For Catching Fish Before & After Storms (Best Lures, Spots & More)
- By: Tony Acevedo
- on
- Found In: Fishing Tips, Inshore Fishing, WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: 8-9-20
When a storm comes in, the barometric pressure falls.
And when the storm passes, the pressure rises again.
What does that have to do with fishing?
Well, when the pressure is changing, that’s like ringing a dinner bell for fish, so these can be great times to get out on the water.
However, if you want to really make the most out of fishing around storms, you need to keep a few things in mind because the conditions are different than on a normal day.
Check out this video to learn:
- Where the best spots are right after a storm
- My favorite lure to use when it’s raining
- Why snook and trout get fired up when it rains
- And more
Enjoy!
Catching Fish Around Storms [VIDEO]
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Here are four tips for catching fish around storms:
Tip #1: Stay safe
Yes, this isn’t a sexy tip, but storms can be dangerous and unpredictable, so keep an eye on the radar and be careful when fishing around storms.
Always be more careful than necessary because it’s just not worth risking your safety to catch fish (there will be plenty of other, safer opportunities in the future!).
Tip #2: Look for areas with runoff
When it rains, look for places where runoff is coming into the water.
Spillways, culvert pipes, residential canals, and small streams along the shoreline can bring baitfish or little bits of food that attract baitfish.
Either way, when there’s bait around, you can bet there will be predators around.
Tip #3: Use topwater lures
Topwater lures are usually best in low light conditions, which include when it’s cloudy before and after a storm.
Plus, the surface of the water will be cooler after it rains, and disturbed while it’s raining, so this is a great time to throw topwater lures.
I’ve found that snook and trout especially love to hit topwater lures in the rain.
Tip #4: Fish shallow flats
I mentioned this in the previous tip, but when it rains, the surface of the water gets cooled off.
In shallow flats from 1-2′ deep, the entire flat may be cooler, which will get fish there fired up, especially if it’s the middle of the summer and they’re looking for cooler water.
Conclusion
Changing barometric pressure can cause fish to be really aggressive, so fishing around storms can be a great time to catch fish.
Look for areas with runoff, target shallow flats, and use topwater lures to catch more fish.
But above all else, be careful because you never know what can happen during a storm.
Have any questions about fishing around storms?
Let us know in the comments below!
And if you know someone who should see this video, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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Tony I’m a pretty big fan your videos as a kayak angler….but this video was huge! I always think to fish deep water during the summer because of the higher DO but topwater fishing near runoff points and even topwater during a rainstorm hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks for the great video.
Thanks Mike glad it can help!
What about the drop in the salinity level in shallow water? Won’t that push fish out into deeper waters or closer to the coastline?
It wouldn’t really drop to the point where the fish wouldn’t be able to survive. Redfish and snook can tolerate very low salinity levels. Also, salt water is more dense than fresh water so the water at the surface will typically be less salty than underneath, and most fish will hold tight to the bottom.
Also, in the summer you should be focused closer to the inlets and passes anyway since the backwaters are more of a winter time area for fish. Those backwaters will get very warm.
This is Justin, new to Salt Strong. Really enjoying everything. Absolute wealth of information. I’m out of San Antonio Texas and will be doing most of my fishing from Port Aransas south to South Padre Island. Had a couple questions that don’t necessarily have anything to do with this post, but not sure where to ask them, so here it goes. First looking at the aerial maps like Google earth and scouting out places how can I tell if I’m looking at sea grass or oyster beds or even possibly just a darker muddy bottom. I believe that I have pretty good idea of difference between grass and just dark bottom, but I can not tell at all if I’m looking at oyster beds. How can I tell the difference or is there just not many oyster beds in my area? 2nd question is when doing my pre planning I realize that water depths will change through the year and also with tidal movements, but are there maps online that you can use or do use that will give you general water depths in a given bay system? Thanks in advance.
Hey Justin!
As an Insider Member, be sure to go through the Finding Spots Mastery Course.
https://www.saltstrong.com/spotsmastery/spots-mastery/welcome/
Also, we have many spot dissections for Texas. When you go to the community page, open the menu on the top right of the screen and select “Map”. From there, zoom into your region. The blue pins on the map are spot dissections that analyze ideal spots in the area and help you better understand what you are looking at.
As far as water depth goes, we have a tool for that as well!
In the menu again, click on “Tides & Weather”. This will bring up our smart fishing tides page.
From there, click on a tide station near you. On the next page there will be an option for “Sonar Map”
This gives an overlay of Navionics on the map to show depth.
These depths are typically the zero mark on a tide chart (low tide)