How To Fish in the Rain

A Few basic tips to help you catch more fish in the rain

Well, it looks like this whole week is going to be a wash. The weather is reporting rain and possible thunderstorms every single day until Saturday, and that leaves me feeling pretty bummed.

For lots of anglers around the country and the world, rain is just another factor one deals with when they go fishing. Just like heatwaves, winds or any other pattern, rain comes and goes, and affects the fishing in different ways as it does so. Unlike some folks, who might call it a day during a rain storm, I actually love being out in nasty weather, so long as there isn’t any lightening to be seen. I’ve had good luck on many rainy days with a few simple techniques, and I figure I’ll give you all my take on this particular fishing environment, from what you’ll find me throwing to how I fish it.

Plasma Tail Worms:

One of my go-to baits regardless of season, but particularly in summer, is a plasma tail worm. On quiet, calm days, it’s pretty easy to get a bite fishing a plasma tail, and the same goes for getting caught out in the rain. My favorite color to throw regardless of extenuating circumstances is a green pumpkin or green pumpkin watermelon-flake with a chartreuse plasma tail, but if the rain has blown the water out after several days of steady flow or during one big shot, black/blue with a blue plasma tail or the same variant of a junebug color will stand out more clearly in the water, and you may get more bites.

Fishing a worm in the rain works about the same as fishing a worm in any other condition. I like to focus on weedlines, pockets close to shore, overhangs, shade pockets and laydowns, just as you might do in bright sunshine. My favorite way to fish worms has always been weightless on an EWG hook, and the same applies to the rain. While you can get away with a Texas-rig or practically any other rigging, I love to soak the worm in any strike zone I may find for a long time, and I often extend the time in the zone during stormy weather. I’ve found that the longer you keep the worm in a place where a fish is likely to strike, the more often you’ll see that line swim away. If your rainstorm is accompanied by wind, it may be harder to keep that worm soaking in one hot spot, but don’t dismay; in rain and wind, I do the same thing, simply casting to where I want to be, and letting it sit. If the wind takes my line and drifts the worm a bit, that’s just natural action imparted on my bait without my doing, which will keep the line tight and possibly improve sensitivity if I get bumped.

Moving Baits:

Rain, wind, and any surface chop lends itself to a productive bite on moving baits. It’s standard procedure to find a wind-blown bank or point, and fan-cast the whole area with crankbaits or swimbaits until the cows come home; same goes for the rain. Crankbaits, paddle-tail swimbaits and soft plastic flukes are all excellent choices to throw on rain-laden, wind-swept lake features at any time of year. If you want to go to deeper water, just make the adjustments in run depth to your crankbaits and let your swimbaits fall deeper.

I tip that I’ve used in my fishing pertains to paddle-tails, and particularly fat-bodied models. My all-time favorite paddle-tail is a 4.3in. Keitech Swing Impact Fat, which has a few uses that are unique to its body style. Because of the volume of water displacement and vibration this thing is capable of kicking off, I’ve found that fishing the poles of speed and depth is a good way to find out how the fish want to bite. If you’ve established a moving bait bite, try mixing up your retrieve between burning and pausing in the top of the water column, and mix in sinking to the bottom and popping up intermittently. Even when fishing the latter technique, which is slow and more finesse-ish, I’ve found that if you can get a bottom bite to come about, this is a fun and effective way to coax bigger fish to bite. Furthermore, if you’re fishing in the rain, dropping a swimbait all the way to bottom negates the surface effects caused by the raindrops, and that’s one less factor that you have to deal with.

Topwater:

Topwater can be a bit of a glass cannon in the rain, but if the bite pops off, it usually does so dramatically. Now, I can’t honestly say I have a lot of frog fishing experience in the rain, but I can say that I’ve absolutely destroyed on buzzbaits and small poppers when the bite has been on, and I’ve learned a few variations that I like to toy with when the drops are falling.

I typically like all my baits to be silent, the only exception being springtime lipless crankbaits, which I prefer to be rattling, or on days when I feel it absolutely necessary to switch it up. On normal topwater days, I’ll be fishing buzzbaits without knockers or poppers with no rattles, but in the rain, I like to mix that up. A buzzbait with a clacker can be a devastating bait in the rain for reasons that I can’t begin to understand, and poppers follow suit. It seems that perhaps the louder the noise, the more you get bit; I’m guessing that fish find it easier to hone in on a loud bait when the rain is coming down. Another tip with the buzzbait – try throwing it without a skirt, with a trailer threaded on. A standard Keitech Swing Impact will do the trick in my experience, and the trailer gives the fish a clear profile to strike, lessening the chance of shortstrikes and eliminating the need for a trailer hook.

If you have read some of my other articles before, you’ll likely notice that most of my fishing is variations on some well-established themes. My standard summer baits follow a close parallel with the techniques listed above, which you can read about in one of my On The Water articles, “Establishing a Summer Bass Pattern.” Small switches in color and profile will often lead to stellar results, and the name of the game in fishing for any species is adapting to the situation. If you don’t have the luxury of fishing from a boat or kayak, or don’t feel like spending the money for new baits to fish new techniques, I’d recommend sticking to the stick baits. You can get many different sizes, profiles and colors on the cheap, and with the styled of worm fishing like Texas-rigged or Wacky-rigged, your options are open.

I hope you found this short guide helpful, and I wish you the best of luck out there next time. Don’t forget to bring your rain gear!