Last Saturday morning a friend and I went fishing in a pay pond. I fished from 8 AM to 12:30 and caught 15 bass. The big 5 being 6 1/4, 5, 3 1/2, 3 1/4, and 2 1/2 pounds. The air temp was 45 degrees and warmed to 50 with a 10 to 15 mph wind. The water temp was 62-66 degrees. It was so cold and nasty I could barely feel my hands but we caught a decent number and great quality. The weather the four days prior to saturday ranged from 71-77 as highs and 41-43 as the lows.

I also went this Wednesday afternoon from 4:45 - 7:45 PM in an awesome farm pond that is known for its big fish and only caught 2 bass both about a pound. The air temp. was about 70 and the water temp was also 70 to 71 degrees. The weather for the two days prior to Wed. ranged from 71 to 73 as the high and 51 to 56 as the low.

The weather was nice and consistent for 2 solid days before Wednesday and yet we couldn't buy a bite! Any idea on why the fish wouldn't bite during the nice consistent weather but bit great while a front was passing through (I thought they bit right before a front went through not during)?

My brother in law also went that same cold Saturday morning and killed the big bass also.  He entered a "fish where you want to and weigh in at 3 PM" tournament and came in second with 27 pounds.  Funny thing is that I would have come in third with 20 pounds out of a pay pond!  Ha!

The same guy I fished with Saturday went to another pond on Wednesday and said they couldn't get anything to bite either.  So the bite was consistently great in other ponds on Saturday in terrible weather and consistently bad in beautiful weather on Wednesday.

I am heading back to the pay ponds tomorrow morning during beautiful weather so we will see what happens.

I know this is off topic, but what's a "pay pond"? A private facility where you pay a fee to fish?

Just so I understand your conditions, Saturday was pre-frontal to frontal while Wednesday was post frontal?

Just so I understand your conditions, Saturday was pre-frontal to frontal while Wednesday was post frontal?

Yes.  The front came in Friday night and was still pushing through Saturday untill about 1 PM.  Wednesday was post-frontal but there was two solid days of consistent weather prior to fishing.

I know this is off topic, but what's a "pay pond"? A private facility where you pay a fee to fish?

Yep.

I went back to the same pond this morning and only caught 5 bass with the biggest being 2 pounds. They hit weightless trickworms today. They wouldn't touch the lipless crankbait and weighted worms that were catching them Saturday. It was a beautiful morning and the water temp. of 66 to 68 degrees but they were not biting very good at all. I wish it woudl have been overcast, that would have helped some but they should have bit better than they did with the nice consistent weather we have been having. The highs were in the low 70's Monday - Wednesday, and yesterday the high was 85. The high today was 87 so I don't understand the slow bite.

Here is a pic. of the 6 1/4 and 5 pounder from Saturday morning.

Anybody got any thoughts on the scenario?

Sounds like classic responses to frontal conditions.

The one thing you didn't mention were the sky conditions, which makes me think you might not be aware of them. In short: Clouds help a lot, for several reasons.

Warming temps can increase activity too, esp in early season, but this often comes with bright sun, which can make presentation more challenging.

Non-warming conditions tend to knock the smile off of fisherman, but more rarely bother the fish. It takes severe temps to affect water much, after has collected some heat.

The wild card is often prey activity and/or availability. Hunting/feeding opportunities for bass can vary greatly across weather patterns, daily, and hourly, and certainly across different water bodies.

For a longer explanation of some of what I think goes on with bass and weather patterns see my thread:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1250965728/8

And my post in this thread:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1269001818/8

If you search there's a lot of discussion and articles on this site about such things.

i will take a stab at this one...

on your saturday, there were two things going for you.... well three actually.

1. you were fishing during or before a cold front. this always better than after. it has much more to do with barometric pressure than temperature.

2. the water temp had all the bass schooled up in one spot or had them patterned on one type of thing that you were fishing. cold water like that keeps them lethargic and tight to cover.  because it was so nice the week before, then the water temp dropped...these bass were probably pulling off spawning flats waiting for the front to pass through. thats why there were some bigger fish...spawners.

3. you were throwing a lipless crank which is the exact right bait for that situation. it was all about your reaction bite.

the next time was different because...

1. post front. barometric pressure rising and probably clearer skies.

2. water temp rose dramaticaly in a short period of time... which not only threw them for a loop but then sent them back to "spawn" mode which-

3. the bass were more scattered and spread out/ harder to pattern. the ones you caught doing roughly the same thing the sat. before were probably males moving up for the NEXT wave of spawn, hence the smaller size.

thats my take.

p.s.  nice fish!!!!