My past experience up north, says to stick to smaller lakes when a front comes thru. Big lakes seem to puzzle me as the fish have more room to roam.

Small lake patterns may slow down a day, but for the most part, cycle back quickly.
What's everyone's opinion on this?

Am I right, or has it been just dumb luck?

Greg

Great question. I hope you get several opinions from those more experienced than me.

I have honestly not noticed that particular situation. I have fished large and small lakes in many situations, but did not detect any difference.

My opinion is you may know the small lakes better than the larger lakes, thus adjusting the fishing quicker. At least I feel like I know the smaller lakes I fish better than large lakes. A few places are known "hot spots" and it takes limited time to know what is/is not biting.

That said, the small lakes are also more protected from high wind, so they are more accessible than big water during windy periods. That may impact your fishing success - as I love to fish "windy shore lines" as long as they are not dangerous and you can manage a canoe.

Hope to see other replies.

Old Hoosier

This is a great thread for anyone going up late next week as the weather looks..... difficult.

My experience in getting hit with a cold front is to scrap our original plan and head for the deep basin area. I agree with Old Hoosier that small lakes are easier to navigate in unpredictable weather.

Also interested in what others have to say.

My game plan is this...Rule out numbers of smaller fish and go big. I might get skunked anyway so I might as well go for broke! I like fishing very tight to outside weedlines and especially inside turns with deep water egress...bigger fish seem to really hunker tight in these areas after a front. I will also concentrate on the sharpest break on a structure at these times. Current areas might turn back on sooner too.

As far as big lake vs. small, I would go with the big lake. I have seen a fall northwest wind turn on fish in a big way on wind pounded shorelines, even right after a front.

I'll find out in a week.

I can't wait!

The fishing does not get difficult after a cold front until the feeding conditions change. If it stays cloudy and windy, this will continue the "low light conditions", and feeding conditions will continue as optimum for the predators. It is when the sky clears, the wind slows , and the barometric pressure really drives in that feeding conditions become difficult(prey can see better) for the predators.

Several years ago, we barely got camp set on the eastern side of Fourtown, when we could see the thunderstorm line headed across the lake. It smacked us with 20-35mph wind gusts, torrents of rain, and a dandy light show. Fortunately it lasted only 15-20 min., but left us with NW wind gusts above 30, and a low ceiling. Obviously we were not getting on the water, so we just dod a lttle casting from the shore. We had 2ft. rollers breaking on the shore. Sometimes I could see my white spinnerbait in one of those waves...I was making parallel casts kinda close to the shore(haha). I saw the lure through one of those waves when my biggest SMB of the BW, a tad over 5lb., just smoked it!! Feeding conditions were still prime.

+1 what Bassnet said. We killed the walleye right from our camp for three days straight in early June on Basswood with persistant rain and wind blowing in.

Some more thoughts on big vs smaller lakes after a front.

Arlo's comment triggered some more thoughts about patterns after a front. I tend to find that dropping temperature and cold winds not only pushes fish deeper, but also into the weeds. My hypothesis is the weeds hold heat due to restricted currents as well as weed mass. The fish are not near the weeds - they are IN them. Deep into large beds and also near the bottom. Smaller lakes and shallow water tends to have more weeds which hold (easy) fish. Deeper water on larger lakes are much harder to find fish as weeds are seldom visible.

Windy shores are always excellent.

Large lakes tend to be deeper - or at least have deeper basins. Most people never fish more than 5-10 feet below the surface, and if they do, it is "blind" fishing. No fish finder and little understanding of bottom contour. Smaller lakes are generally more shallow and hence people tend to have better production in the shallow water.

But bigger waters most likely hold (much) bigger fish.

Old Hoosier

Wow, what great insight!

Kinda changes my thought process some.

I raised the question due to the cooling temps that'll be happening later this coming week.

We're putting in as early as possible on Monday morning at Mudro...planning on being at the entry point well before sun up...and we'll let the day play out, but would like to have camp set before noon, so we can start fishing as soon as possible

Our options are Horse, Bear Trap, or if we really motivated and are making good time, busting thru to Crooked.

We'll have a depth/fish finder and have maps showing depths of all the lakes we' ll be in

We have 12 hours of driving tomorrow to mull over options!

Thanks for the input

Greg

If I had a choice between fishing a large lake or a small lake...I would always go with the large lake no matter what the circumstances are.

Large lakes = more variety, deep, shallow, current, small bays with incoming warmer water, weeds, rocks, islands, fallen timber, gradual drops, steep drop-offs, funnel areas, rock piles and reefs, etc etc, sure every large lake won't have them all but should offer several choices...fish will be biting some where. Locate active fish on one of these areas and look for similar locations on the lake if the bite slows after taking several fish. A small lake may not have alternative locations.

I'll probably be going into Fall Lake or White Iron in the Ely area on Saturday morning...a couple questions...

I see you guys suggest to fish the wind-pounded shorelines after a front. After today it seems like the weather stays pretty consistent with cool temps and not much wind. Do you think fishing below the damn will be a better bet for walleye? Same thing at White Iron where it has water going in and out.

Secondly, is the Fall Lake access IN the BWCA? I didn't plan on getting a permit so just wanna be safe.

Thanks