ive got some large lakes from the state parks and wildlife area lakes around me in ohio and we are going to have a 70 degree weekend here but we got rain Wednesday/Thursday and a winter storm Thursday night into today. more wet snow than anything.

 

so will I be wasting time and gas going to a few of these places to fish? wanted to try a reservoir too.

Nope not a waist of time.

 

If it was me I would start with soft plastics Texas rigged.

if you can tough the weather ,they will bite . fish slow, agree with the plastics maybe even a smaller size.

Cranks a waste of time? It's going to be 70s and sunny all weekend. Last 3 days was rain and snow.

I'd put on my rain gear and throw worms in the rain.

Cranks will most likely work too, just remember just because the air temp is in the 70 degree range doesn't mean the water temp is.

 

If y'all got a good amount of rain and snow fall that melted off and went in the lake the water temp will be down some.

 

So that to me would mean to slow down my bait' s movement and possible go to a smaller bait.

 

I would start with soft plastics and also would try cranks, spinnerbaits and jigs.

I like to fish the incoming front whIle the pressure is dropping.  Raising pressure clear skies and cold are the toughest conditions.  The good thing is you should still be prespawn where there hungry.

Can't catch them sitting at home. 

Fishing is never a waste of time. How many of us have thought, oh today looks like a terrible day to go fishing I won't catch anything and then have a great day on the water.

I actually target days with inclement weather in the forecast, especially in the summer when the recreational traffic hordes start showing up.  You'd be surprised how many people won't tough out even something as minimal as light rain.  And the fishing if often better than it would normally be on a bright, warm, sunny day too.

The worser the weather the better the fishing up to a certain point..

well fished a large reservoir today and water was very muddy so threw a green, orange and black lipless bait and got a couple hits probably from crappie as everyone was doing very good boober fishing for them as the hits were very light. Ended up losing the bait on a down tree. threw a texas rigged green curly tail power worm and lost it too got some light hits but nothing on the hook. threw a gulp stick work/sinking minnow and nothing on that. shad were jumping around a bit.

If I had seen shad jumping around I would changed out to a shallow running crank in a shad color or a caffine swim shad in ghost shad color with a under spinner hook.

4 minutes ago, A5BLASTER said:

If I had seen shad jumping around I would changed out to a shallow running crank in a shad color or a caffine swim shad in ghost shad color with a under spinner hook.

first time at this lake and didn't want to lose my expensive cranks. the lipless came in one of those ready to fish deals. a lot of snags today.  I was told the reservoir is like 45ft deep so went with the deeper diving stuff. went out more to try the new baitcaster and get used to it.

7 hours ago, sully420 said:

Fishing is never a waste of time. How many of us have thought, oh today looks like a terrible day to go fishing I won't catch anything and then have a great day on the water.

 

YUP

Then there are those days with perfect conditions, when you can't buy a bite  

On days like that I'll always remind my partner that today we have NO excuses

 

Roger

 

 

I have worked every single day for the past 70days, I would fish in a lightning storm to get a day on the water!

If it has been warm for awhile a brief cold spell usually won't matter too much, but the hours the fish will be productive might. 

 

An evening trip might get you some more mileage. Sometimes it doesn't matter at all. The best two fish I have caught this year were in 30 degree weather and I wasn't fishing slow at all.