Possible Thunderstorms

[JapanRon]

Hi guys,

Being a pilot and weather geek I understand how lightening works (ground to sky) and all that but I would like to know from those of you who regularly fish from say Bishop to Bridgeport in the various lakes and streams .... just how localized these thunderstorms being forecast are here in the late Summer ... Early Fall ? Places like the June Loop are sort of really isolated weather pockets I'd imagine.

I plan on going this coming week and it looks like it's clearing all the time but I wonder if it's possible to hop-scotch around the various major lakes to fish and avoid the weather? Is it like ... a couple of hours then done or hanging in a local all day .... wind or no wind ?

thanks .... leaving Tuesday early am.

JapanRon

[TheAsianGuy]

Fishing during rain, well, most fishes go deep. Some larger dare devils will take the surface for some bug fests during the localized lightning strikes. Wind brings down the unfortunately bugs onto the water surface. Smaller dinks await for the bugs to sink before the battle of royale breaks out for the drowned victims.

So..hard to say. If weather can't allow you to lake hopping, stay in one water body and fish the entire lake if you can (since you are on a plane rigged for water landing?). If bites are not producing during peak hours, 4am to 9am, 1pm to 3 pm, 5pm to 9pm, move on out. Different fishes have different peak hours. Just have to know which type of fishes you're aiming for, and find those peak hours. Best time to hunt for catfishes are late in the night. Best time for basses and trouts are mentioned earlier. Panfishes, they're hunting all hours of the day.

[JapanRon]

Hi TheAsianGuy,

Thanks. I'll be grounded and truckin' around and have got some good dope on the way weather works up there for the angler. All I need to do is not get caught out on my tube in a lake far from shore !!

JapanRon

[TheAsianGuy]

Tubing in thunderstorm..hm..now that's something to truly be Man Vs Mother Nature on..hahahahahaah..you're freaking nuts! Darwin's Yearly Summary theme song sudden pops up in my head again :LOL: Good luck, and report back!

[PersonalBest]

Fishing seems better before the storms hits. The key word is before.

Word of Advice ...If there is a storm forecast in the area of the lake for that part of the day definitely cancel your plans. Tubbing during a thunderstorm will probably make you a bobbing lighting rod. You probably do not want to be near a large body of water or on anything conductive when there is any chance of a thunderstorm. Yeah nothing like having a bolt of lightning strike near you.

When an unexpected thunderstorm hit out of nowhere at a lake I was fishing I took cover under a tree. No other cover nearby. Then Kapow the tree 10 feet from me got hit by a lighting strike. The flash of the lightning and then the loud boom crackle of thunder. It sounded like an bomb explosion and a huge fireworks crackler went off near me. There was so much static electricity that my hair on the back of my neck stood up for a second. I was stunned by the event and just stared out like some three stooges movie. When I regained composure and looked back at the tree. 1/3 of it at the larger limb of a 25 inch diameter tree was severed off and burnt. Yeah that is cut and charcoaled. I took off to the car and spent the 30 minutes hoping that the tires would help insulate me from any further fireworks. Take my word for it, it was no fun.

You can imagine that I have a real appreciation of the power of a lightning and a thunderstorm now. Just do not chance it. That stuff packs a punch that you may not wake up from.


P.S. If you do go anyway, bring an extra set of underwear and a video camera you might make heirs $10,000.00 from one of those incredible video TV programs. You know the guy who took a bolt of lightning on a Float tube video is the winner of the $10,000.00 prize . ;)

[TheAsianGuy]

Tubbing during a thunderstorm will probably make you a bobbing lighting rod.

:ROFL: oh..the humor I suffer from laughing too hard in this forum. Someone wanted to tube in shark infested water. One FNNer pointed out he would have been a giant floating lure for the sharks. My friend wanted to try taking a tube and float in the aqueduct, hold his breath real long, and get pulled under, then spit out through the outlet pipe in the lake..good grief. I wonder what other crazy ideas people would do next with their tubes..ice fishing in the half frozen lake?

[redondo todd]

I have been chased out of intake 2 several times ,graphite rods are like lightning rods .Drop the rod and run like hell,that is what i do.Todd

[seal]

Fishing before the storm last night produced one of the best LMB topwater bites I have ever been in, well at least for numbers most were on the smaller size but still not fry size (1lbs and up) had one on that had to be in the 8lbs range did the headshake on me and was gone, oh well.

So I would say that pre-frontal conditions were pretty damn good!

[seal]

I have been chased out of intake 2 several times ,graphite rods are like lightning rods .Drop the rod and run like hell,that is what i do.Todd

Last year during a storm I caught a 8lbs + striper just before a massive lightning storm hit, saw lightning strikes start small fires on the hill across from me. I grabbed my rods and fish and ran hunched over with rods low and parellel to the ground. I've been in a lot of major storms but that one was the first to scare the crap out of me and holding those 7+ foot rods wasn't helping!

[1HR2BBL]

This time of year, alot of the thunderstorms in the Eastern Sierras are temporary and will pass over within a couple hours or less. I don't know if it's worth jumping lakes to escape it since the time periods are generally short.

Fishing does seem to be good just before a storm although rumor has it fishing is better when the barometer is rising, go figure?

I've had great fishing days in late fall when the light snow flurries come down, especially around the inlets to the various lakes. Really gets them in spawning mode for sure.

I don't know how conductive graphite rods are when there is lighting, another reason why I like my 7ft microlite glass rod ($19 at Bass Pro Shops).