Cold Fronts Are The Worst

Fishing for Florida bass can be very challenging after a cold front, especially a severe cold front that drops water temperatures down quickly.  Florida bass can really shut down after some of the more severe cold fronts pass through during the winter months.  After a cold front, Florida bass may shift to deeper water or areas with heavy cover.  While some bass may still feed, they may not be willing to move as far to eat a bait, so your casting window to catch them can be quite small after a cold front.

Live Shiners Can Still Be Effective

Florida bass have it bad for lively shiners.  While anglers may really struggle with artificial lures, you will still see plenty of people catching lots of bass with live shiners.  A severe cold front can still slow the bite down with live shiners, but you still may be able to have a great day on the water by switching to live shiners.

The fish caught in the video below was the 1st day after a cold front.  Lows were in the 40s and water temperatures were in the low 60s.  The bite with artificial lures was very slow on the day, but with live shiners, the bass were still eating.

Flip Heavy Cover

Many anglers that manage to put some bass in the boat after a cold front will usually be flipping heavy cover.  If you can present your bait exactly where a big bass is hiding, your chances of getting bit go up tremendously.  Flipping slowly from one productive spot to the next can be quite tedious, but there are many anglers who do it and find it to be the only way to fish after a severe cold front.

Slow Down Your Presentation

Slowing down makes it hard to cover water, but if you can find productive areas to fish, you will usually get more bites by slowing down and presenting your bait through that specific area multiple times before moving it to a different spot.  This can be quite difficult for anglers that are used to fishing up north, but once you find success by slowing down, it becomes a little easier to repeat this technique in the future.

Stay Home & Cut the Lawn

This might be the best time to just stay home and cut the lawn.  Knock some things off your to do list or you can always go with a different strategy.  Spend a hundred bucks or more and fish with some lively shiners!