A little more technical?

[TrapMan13]

I know we all have our own "ideas" or "opinions" as to when the best fishing occurs or why... But I have a question. What factors do you believe TEMPERATURE(rising/falling) BAROMETER(rising/falling) and UV INDEX (clear ice) play when it comes to fish; how they bite, how often they bite, and which times they bite?

Pick your brains a little...

Thanks!

Chad

[dan z]

I've always heard baro up bobber down. I fish regardless.

[TrapMan13]

Yeah... I have heard all that too. But why?

[dan z]

I think it raises the bait which turn makes the fish more active. Dunno

[Mlaker3]

On my local lake this evening, with barometer at 29.8 and probably falling, cloudy and foggy and drizzel, and with a NNE wind, the walleyes were VERY aggreassive. One of my best evenings on this lake in years. Pre-frontal? Big storm and cold front on its way.

[Chad Holst]

I think how the B.P. Effect the fish, which it most certainly does, is dependent on the season, body of water, etc.

On a local lake we literally use the bp to decide if we even go out, but only in early season. Once the mid jan comes it doesn't effect it as much. The pressure may be right but the temp is off and the light is off.. So poor fishing, on the other hand we may get a very low bp, but all the other factors are perfect so the bite is still good. Also if the bp stays low far a long period of time...sooner or later the fish will still feed, maybe not in the normal spots, but they still eat. A slight up tick in the bp after a long low can trigger amazing bites.

[fish_eat_sleep]

I don't really believe much of that, but from experience. Spring fish shallow. First ice fish shallow. mid summer july/august the bite is tough, same goes for middle of winter. late ice and late fall fish bite better again. full moon is nice because you can see what your doing (especially on the ice) warming trends with wind and clouds seem good. i think a lot of it is local weather, oxygen, BP, and fish don't eat the same food year round or sit in the same hole so if a handful of guys conclude the fishing is no good its very possible there was an error in where they were in comparison to fish, maybe the wrong food or time of day too. i know i don't graze on food 24/7 so they probably don't either! in all i think a bunch of the factors you hear about are hype but some have relevance in a specific environment too.

[kfk]

I used to pay alot of attention to the barometric pressure when I was younger because some outdoor writers made such a big deal about it and I absorbed every word I read, but I guess I got to a point where I don't pay much attention to it anymore except to get an idea of the weather coming in the near future. Yes, barometric pressure makes a difference on how the fish are biting, but there are alot of variables that affect how fish will bite in addition to barometric pressure. The variables differ from lake to lake, time of year and just a great number of others.

My advice is to go fishing when you can and adjust to the mood of the fish once you get a feel for what they want on a particular day. Fish often enough and it will become almost second nature to you.

[Deet]

In my opinion sunrise and sunset have the most predictable influences on "the bite". This was once explained to me thus: Zooplankton rise and fall in the water column as the sun rises and falls on the horizon. That is, the plankton are relocating as the sun is coming up or going down. Once the sun is fully up (and fully down), they become relatively inactive and static in the water column (top in the daytime, bottom in nighttime?). Anyway, that "migrating" timeframe stimulates the food chain to activate. Bugs eat the plankton, baitfish eat the bugs, etc.

So that's one supposed explanation for hot bites at sunrise and sunset. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, so on some lakes that just doesn't hold true. Also, for some species, those low-light times just really aren't that good. And still, on a lake where sunset is "always" the best time for crappies (for example), some days they might just totally shut down at sunset, and you are left baffled.

I'm intrigued that a lot of you guys like the high barometer. I was always told and always thought that a falling barometer is the best. Low pressure days or falling pressure, over all, had been good to me. I don't know if that's actually due to the low pressure, or if it is because wind and clouds usually accompany low pressure systems, and of course wind and clouds are *usually good on most lakes for most high predator species on most days.

I fish muskies more than anything else in the summer months, and I always used to think the muskie bite was more susceptible to environmental factors than any other species. However, this year, I had my two most active days when the conditions "weren't good". High and rising barometer with drizzling rain and wind on one day, and high and steady barometer with NO CLOUDS and NO WIND another day.

I always love full moon, especially right at sunset - when the big bright moon is coming up in the east just as the red sun is falling in the west. EXCEPT... when you can't buy a bite and are left there wondering why, with the stars aligned, the fish still won't cooperate. Still, I can think of more insanely good bites at sunrise and sunset during full and new moons than any other timeframes/conditions. Solunar theory explains all that. I believe in solunar theory... when the fishing supports it. And when the fish don't bite "on schedule", then I curse the whole premise.

None of that was very valuable and probably not on point but I'll post anyway. Lots of good stuff can be read on this topic, but kfk has it right when he says (paraphrased) "just go fishing a lot and you'll figure out what to do in what conditions".

[fish_eat_sleep]

Right, gotta fish a lot to understand all the different scenarios and moods for yourself. nothin wrong with that!

[rockman]

You got to go fishing, when you got to go. Adapting to the conditions, that's really all that matters. That being said, I do think that oxygen levels in the body of water, and where the food sources for the fish are, make more of a difference than than the weather factors do. A guy would never be able to go fishing, if he waited for all the factors, including the weather, to line up perfectly.

[20lbSloughShark]

I personally believe barometric pressure has no direct effect on fish. What it does is affect the weather. I think the weather has the biggest effect, mostly being the sun and wind. My best luck comes in the late ice season. I don't know why, I just connect with big fish in February. Now that I think of it, there seems to be destinct hot bites of each season for me. Winter is late february, early march, spring is almost right away (after the season opens), summer is usually some time in august, and fall is a few weeks after turnover.

[TrapMan13]

I'm looking at these questions in a whole different train of thought... I'm not trying to figure out when I should or when I sholudn't fish... I fish all the time in whatever conditions prevail. However I'm more interested on how it affects bites, jigging cadences/presentations, bait and bait size, fish depth(bottom vs. suspended) etc. I plan to fish every minute I can, but co-relating all this stuff to a certain bite is something I'm more interested in learning. Last season was hot, and this season has started out with a bang, I can catch fish and find fish (thank god for the birth of "ice trolling" techniques as they have played a major role in my sucess - portability = success.), i just wanna know why they do what they do; more in depth. But so far everyone has been pretty helpful!

Thanks!

Chad