For bass anglers, nothing is worse than an ill-timed cold front during the first month or two of the year. Bass want to get shallow to spawn and weekend anglers want to get out to find those big bass — and then a cold front blows in on Friday to mess everything up. The bass don’t move far; they just become that much tougher to catch.

After fishing tournaments (and simply going fishing with the family) for many
years in Florida, a cold front is the one thing I’ve come to fear when I plan a weekend on the lake. Everyone knows what happens after a cold front, right? The winds dominantly swing to the north, clouds pass through followed by those lovely bluebird skies, the air pressure goes up and the temperature drops anywhere from 5 to 40 degrees. All these things have an adverse effect on the bass and put them in a lockjaw mood. They don’t really move off anywhere — they just sit and do nothing.