Fishing w/ barometric pressure

[RedsOnRiot]

So this is something I have tried to learn more about in the past year or so. Last spring I had one of my best fishing days as well as catching my biggest trout ever right before a front moved in. Granted this was a little further into spring, but with our warm winter, spring is pretty much here.


https://weather.com/sports-recreation/f ... r-20120328

This is a great article on fishing barometric pressure and I believe it does affect the fishing.

I have always been told that a dropping pressure is good to fish(low pressure moving in) or really any change in pressure(rising or dropping).

But this article is saying that dropping pressure makes the fish uncomfortable, bite will turn off and fish will move to deeper water.

According to Woodward, a fish senses pressure changes through its air bladder, and well in advance of humans. "Fish that have small air bladders, such as kings, Spanish mackerel, wahoo and dolphin, aren't as affected by barometric changes as those with large bladders, such as trout, redfish, tarpon, grouper and snapper," he says.

"That's because fish with small bladders have a body density that's closer to that of the surrounding water. They don't sense the pressure changes as dramatically, so their comfort levels aren't drastically altered. However, many things they eat have air bladders, and that alone could have a big impact on where you might find them and how they'll behave.

"Fish with large bladders quickly sense when the air pressure is dropping, because there's less pressure on their bladder. And when there's less pressure squeezing their bladders, the bladders expand a bit. When their bladders expand, fish become uncomfortable. They relieve their discomfort by moving lower in the water column or by absorbing extra gas in their bladders.

Because of the anatomical and physiological stresses exerted on them, they're not worried about eating. They're more concerned with trying to find a depth where they can stabilize their bladder pressure and feel good. Some species will settle to the bottom and ride out the change near structure. Fortunately for the fish - and fishermen - low pressure doesn't usually last long."

So I guess my question for you guys that have been around a little longer than me or know more on the subject, when a low pressure system is moving in,(dropping pressure) will this hurt the bite OR do the fish sense the low pressure coming, so they feed like crazy right before and until it has passed through THEN the bite will turn off?

[Yaklash]

That's some good info to add to the memory banks.

For the early part of my fishing life, I would play hooky from work the day before or in the last 8 hours before a cold front was scheduled to hit. It was a simplistic, but effective means of planning successful trips. Unfortunately, responsibilities and professional advancement made this harder and harder to do over the years. Either way, over the years, I noticed that pre-front, especially with trout and reds, the bite was good and aggressive, but after the front hit (high pressure moves in), the bite would shut down for anywhere from 1-4 days, depending on the severity of the front & how long the high pressure remained in the area.

When I first got the Troutsupport DVDs was the first time I began to understand any of the particulars of it. And some correspondence with Tobin since then has really opened my eyes to how one can better anticipate hungry, feeding fish based on how one analyzes and plans trips around the weather - wind, temps, tide and, last but not least, pressure. Unfortunately for me, I just can't drop everything and go fishing any more like I used to.

[TroutSupport.com]

Thank you YackLash and spot on. Really appreciate the props.

Pre frontal bite is the best and most aggressive and it's usually due to a dropping barometer and some other factors combined. We believe the fish have learned to sense the signs (barometer, wind speed and direction, tide heights etc.) of the prefrontal condition and feed ahead of the 'turn in weather' so to speak. Stable average pressure can also be very good like what we find after the high pressure weakens and there isn't a front for a week or something like that or another example is the summer time.. that's typically a stable weather pattern with average level of barometric pressure.

However... a prefrontal drop in pressure is different than a Low Pressure system. A strong low pressure system will reduce the bite almost the same way that a high pressure system will. Dropping from high to lower is good.. a huge low pressures system with high winds, clouds, and rain has other effects that the fish don't like similar to high pressure but sort of opposite. So yes.. a Low pressure system over or near our area will mean a reduced bite.. it's not as bad as a high pressure post frontal but it's not optimal. I've fished some and I've caught some fish during them, but it's not 'lights out' or 'epic' and for a kayaker that may also mean having to watch out for high winds as well. There is a decent bite before it, but not like a 'prefront' bite.. they definitely turn off as the 'low' is deepening, definitely don't eat much through it.. they'll wait until it passes. I fished one last spring around april.. it was 25+ mph winds with gust to 35.. cloudy and some rain. Some of these systems can have heavy rain all day.. some have rain more inland. It varies. I caught a near limit 2 days prior but during the low It was a grind and only caught 3 or 4.

[richg99]

"Pre-frontal bite is the best and most aggressive and it's usually due to a dropping barometer and some other factors combined."

That certainly has been my experience. Just wish I lived closer to the coast so I could take advantage of it more often.

richg99

[Salty Bum]

thanks for posting - it was a very interesting read

[txspeck]

Tobin said it best! Pre frontal bite is the best and most aggressive and it's usually due to a dropping barometer and some other factors combined.

[Bradleto]

Well, at least some of it, that is, changes in barometric pressure, relates to weather effects that accompany these changes. Readings rarely get above 31 or lower than 29, so the range is a bit limited.

So, with barometric pressure changes, in come the rain/dry events, clouds versus sun, wind versus static air . . . and we know these to be influences on fish and fishing. But, for other reasons . . . not really the pressure per se.

For the fish in the water, one question to ask is, since they can simply change their depths rather readily to "adjust" to the actual pressure the atmosphere exerts on the water, would 12" of change, up or down, offset an uncomfortable (for the fish) pressure . . . and make them happy and hungry again?

33.8 feet of depth in water more or less doubles the pressure, one from the air, one from then the water.

My guess is a VERY large part of it has to do with, what, the first derivatives of barometric pressure, not so much the pressure itself.

Good topic! Brad

[The Roach]

This was a very educational thread fellas - and in an area I've studied for some time in order to maximize my "hooky" time as Yaklash described! Dammmm you Day Job!!

In my quest, I crossed this good article - hope one of you find it useful:

https://weather.com/sports-recreation/f ... r-20120328



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[Bradleto]

Nonsense, I think.

Here is the math from a post I made on the subject on another fishing forum.

Brad

Here:

Does barometric pressure really affect fish, the bite?

It is a common question with many varied opinions, no doubt. Some swear by it, that knowing the readings, the changes can predict fishing results; others are skeptical. For most of us, it is almost always based on our own anecdotal experiences. But, there are elements of math and science at work here, the inviolable rules, that might influence what and how you think about it as it regards fishing.

First, at sea level, “normal” barometric pressure is 29.92 inches of mercury (this reflects the squeezing of this pressure on a tube of mercury). Who thinks this way? Not me, so what does it mean in more common English? It means that as we walk along the beach the weight of the atmosphere (the air above us and all around us) is weighing us down or otherwise pushing into us from all directions at 14.7 pounds per square inch. We don’t collapse under this pressure because our body tissues and fluids are “pushing back.” So, we feel nothing and we think of air as being weightless with the occasional realization that it has mass and weight: when we fly a kite . . . or as the wind pushes our vessels across the water. In this last example, it reminds us we often hate it.

And, barometric pressure readings really don’t vary all that much: a point higher and a point lower is pretty much the normal range except in extreme weather conditions. At a barometric pressure reading of 30.92 (one point higher), pressure increases to 15.19 lbs. per sq. in. So, an increase of a little over 3% from normal to a high reading. Keep this statistic in mind for later and also note that the pressure is linear.

So, that’s what is going on above the water line we fish; we need to move below and into the water. The pressure that builds under water the deeper we go is called hydrostatic pressure. This is the world fish occupy. And, everyone knows that as we dive deeper and deeper into a lake, it becomes increasingly uncomfortable, especially in our inner ears. By a depth of approximately 33 feet, pressures have doubled. Pressure(s)? Plural? Yes, one atmosphere of pressure from all of the thousands of feet of air above the water; and, to this another equal amount of pressure, a second atmospheric pressure, from the 33 feet of column of water above us. Water is much denser, of course. So, the 14.7 pounds per square inch is now 14.7 X 2 = 29.4 pounds per square inch. Two atmospheres.

It makes us uncomfortable, for sure, but how about fish? And, if it does affect them, say gives them the equivalent of a human headache, what of the bite?

Well, here is the “catch” that at least informs my own conclusion . . . that barometric pressure is likely NOT a direct factor: if pressure rises from, say, 14.7 to 15.19 pounds per square inch in the air above the water, and the additional high pressure pushes down on the water (it does), all a fish has to do to offset the effects of the added pressure (if, in fact, they don’t like it . . . not at all certain about this) is rise approximately one foot in the water column: 33 * .03 = .99 ft. So, floating up one foot higher in the water column would completely negate the added atmospheric pressure as expressed in the higher barometric pressure reading.

Big deal. Fish do this all day long. (*** What they DON'T like is being ripped out of 33 ft. depth (2 atmospheres) and released back at 1 atmosphere.)

But, we do know that changes in barometric pressure often signal changes in weather. So, these stats with high pressure readings and low pressure readings result in: dead air versus windy days, cloudy versus blue bird skies, temperature changes, rain events versus drought conditions and more.

These weather “derivatives” of barometric pressure definitely affect fish and fishing. So, the measurement we sometimes talk about, barometric pressure? It is just that, a convenient measure. It is likely that the weather patterns that accompany or follow these readings are what the fish are responding to, not how the extra tad bit of pressure “feels” to them down in the water column.

[TroutSupport.com]

So, with barometric pressure changes, in come the rain/dry events, clouds versus sun, wind versus static air . . . and we know these to be influences on fish and fishing. But, for other reasons . . . not really the pressure per se.

I agree with this, still the easiest way to correlate it to actual fishing and distill it down to where it makes sense is to just read the barometer, otherwise you might end up with a seriously lengthy flow chart. The wind blows all the time, sometimes it rains in the summer, ...clouds... I like clouds over no clouds... all those occurrences can happen all the time... it's the combination of factors that happen on either end that make it tough to catch fish. I said tough... not impossible. One could actually learn to read the sky and not even look at the barometer and be able to catch fish 90% of the time.

[Bradleto]

Agreed. There is nothing at all wrong with watching a barometer, its readings, as a tool to determine current and upcoming weather conditions. It will be these things that determine fish attitudes, how we then adjust to catch them.

In general, a low barometer reading "pulls in" weather events; a high barometer reading "holds them out." Weather follows a path of least resistance.

The mistake in logic happens when we jump from this to the notion that the tiniest of pressure changes down in the water, ranges of pressures well below what almost all fish experience all day long just being fish, make the fish feel good or bad, hungry or satiated.

Even a bottom dweller, say a catfish or a flounder, as it works the bottom in different depths of water all day long . . . feels different pressures as much from this movement as the tiny additional pressure from air pushing down on water.

Fun topic, one that will always have those for and against it.

Brad

[TroutSupport.com]

Yep... I agree. I don't think it has to do with what the fish feel. It's about the conditions that happen as a result of the weather.

[The Roach]

Thanks for the wisdom guys

Tobin - just got notification that my
4-Pack DVD Set shipped!

Looking forward to the education


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[TroutSupport.com]

Yes sir, there's a special section in the Big Trout DVD on weather and trout, there's graphics in the first part explaining what the trout trout do when a front comes in as well. Holla if you have any questions at all, there are several of weather related fishing strategies in it for sure.