Q: Recognizing bad weather and reacting

[cajunduck man]

Originally Posted by ahlangle

After spending several days fishing Big Lake last week, a few of my fishing weaknesses became evident to me, particularly in the question of weather.
How do you recognize a storm (vs just some rain) and its path, size, and distance?
Some of these are obvious and some take a closer understanding, but if my fancy electronics were to go out, I'd like to know when to haul arse and in what direction.
Thanks.

Now days it's easy...weather apps and all the good advice that has been given on this thread. In the "old days"...we had to rely on wind speed and change of direction, observation of cloud formations, and believe it or not, smell. You could smell a thunderstorm coming at you. One day in Lacassine Refuge (1978, my senior year in high school) everything was coming into place...wind was changing direction, temp. dropping, and there was an iron smell in the air...but it didn't matter because we were 18, 10 feet tall, full of 8 oz. Bud's and bullet proof. About the time the tip on my new "Lew's Speed Stick" started buzzing I told my buddy, "It's time to go!" He said ....man they are biting like crazy...then lightening hit too close to us...he still wanted to fish...lightening hit again...I physically removed him from the back of the boat, started the motor, ran to the levy at the south rollers, (Bell City Ditch) only to have lightening strike the levy. After a couple of minutes we pulled over the rollers, hauled arse and made it to Humble landing. My buddy and I did not fish together again for almost 15 years, but by then he had a healthy respect for the weather. Today, I constantly check the weather conditions on several different apps while hunting or fishing. At 55 years old...I know I can always come back another day...that duck or fish is not worth dying over. Thank God for technology and the weather apps we have at our disposal today.