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• Frontal assault —Lures to put you on the fish
• Frontal assault —Hot tips for cold fronts

Weather fronts are the norm every spring. "Unsettled" is often the operative word as changing conditions typically depart as quickly as they arrive.

Because fronts are so common to springtime fishing trips, we asked several top BASS pros how they manage to find and catch bass in spite of these seasonal challenges.

Hopefully, their advice will help you cope with whatever kind of weather you encounter in the coming weeks.

Hardware's hints

Nicknamed "Hardware" by his fellow pros because of the "bling" dangling from his pierced ears, Jason Quinn has had plenty of experience dealing with spring frontal passages — he was a full-time guide on Lake Wylie near his South Carolina home before hitting the Bassmaster Tournament Trail five years ago.

"Many fishermen panic when faced with a cold front," Quinn noted.

"They figure the bass will move deep or bury into the thickest cover they can find and become totally inactive. But this isn't necessarily the case. Sure, cold fronts require some adjustments on the angler's part, but they aren't usually as bad as they're cracked up to be."

The way bass respond to a spring cold front depends largely on what part of the season it occurs in, according to Quinn.

"If it's early spring and the water is still cold, chances are the bass won't be any deeper than they already were. And if the frontal passage is accompanied by a heavy rain, warm, muddy water may enter the system via the tributaries, which can bring fish shallower. If there's no warm runoff and the fish remain deep, look for them around sloping channel banks and ledges, where they'll hold in their comfort zone until the front passes and conditions stabilize. Here, either a jig or suspending jerkbait fished slowly will work.

"If it rains hard and the lake turns muddy, they'll run into the heads of the tributaries where the warm runoff may trigger crawfish to emerge from their winter hibernation. In this case, a diving or lipless crankbait should produce strikes."

But, if the weather has been mild and a front chills the air and water temperature, bass will often remain shallow, Quinn explained. "Once they've moved up shallow, they normally won't retreat to deeper water when a front passes. This is when minor adjustments in your presentation can make a huge difference. For example, if you were combing big coves and flats before the front with a lipless crankbait or spinnerbait, you may have to pitch a jig or tube bait to cover in these same areas to catch fish.

"Or, the change can be more subtle," he continued. "In one spring tournament, I was whacking them shallow on big double willow spinnerbaits on the first day, then a front blasted through that night, sending the air temp plummeting into the 20s. Next morning, they wouldn't hit the double willow and I wasn't doing any good on jigs, either. So I tried a spinnerbait with two small Colorado blades and loaded the boat. The fish hadn't moved, they just wanted a smaller portion of what they'd been eating yesterday."

Not every cold front is a blockbuster, Quinn emphasized.

"Sometimes there's just a passing rain shower and a temperature drop of a few degrees. Here, I've had success switching to a different style of lure that's capable of working the same places where I was catching them before the front moved through. If they were hitting a spinnerbait around shallow wood cover, I might try a small crankbait — something that works the same zone but looks totally different to the bass."

Here's a news flash: A frontal passage isn't always cold.

"Warm fronts are common in spring, too," Quinn said. "Often it's been cool and sunny, then suddenly the wind direction changes, it clouds up and gets warmer and more humid. Bass will prowl actively for food under these conditions, so be sure to use a search bait like a spinnerbait or lipless crankbait to comb large expanses of water."

Shaw's strategies

"The cabin fever syndrome often makes a spring cold front seem worse than it really is," said Florida pro Shaw Grigsby.

"Most bass fishermen have been cooped up inside all winter and are itching to get back on the water. When your excitement level and expectations are running high, it's easier to be devastated by cold fronts and all the baggage they bring with them: muddy water, chilled surface temperature, cold north wind, etc."

Grigsby has seen the air temp drop from 75 to 18 degrees overnight during a spring frontal passage.

"The good news is that while a front, even one this bad, can slow the bite way down, it normally won't scatter the fish. So I tend to stay in the same areas where I was catching fish before the front but make adjustments to both my presentation and expectations."

Concerning presentation: "First, I'll slow way down, which sounds easy but is one of the hardest disciplines there is to master. Instead of moving along at a steady clip and making a cast or two to a likely looking piece of cover with a spinnerbait or crankbait, I'll make multiple pitches with a tube bait. I can't tell you how many big fish I've caught in these circumstances on the tenth or twelfth pitch into a grassbed or logjam."

And expectations: "Instead of anticipating a strike every third or fourth cast, I'll set my sights on getting six or seven quality bites a day. This helps prevent me from becoming discouraged and makes me slow down and fish more thoroughly."

One of Grigsby's favorite targets during spring fronts are shallow ditches connecting creek channels with spawning coves. "These may be only a foot or so deep (sometimes relative to the surrounding area, as well), but bass will bunch up in them during cold fronts. Try rooting a diving crankbait along the bottom."

Grigsby advises anglers to be alert for opportunities created by the passing front. "Often the wind velocity will pick up considerably following the front. Granted, this clears out the cloud cover and leaves those dreaded bluebird skies, which can send bass deeper into cover. But in a clear lake that lacks extensive shoreline cover, high winds can create mud lines along the bank, providing a great shallow ambush location for bass. Target that muddy band of water against those windblown banks with a crankbait or spinnerbait."

Keep in mind that springtime bass aren't all in the same mode, Grigsby cautioned. "Once the water temp gets into the low 60-degree range, there will be some bass spawning, others getting ready to spawn and still others that are done spawning. Usually the spawning bass are hardest hit by the front; they'll often move to the closest heavy cover, especially matted vegetation along the bank. You can catch these fish, but it usually entails flipping a jig into the thick stuff, which isn't every angler's cup of tea. So when the front blows through, you may choose to target prespawn or postspawn bass instead, either of which may not have moved much and are catchable with relatively minor presentation adjustments."

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