barometric presure question

[793bob]

does anyone know of any articles on barometric presure and how it affects walleyes for icefishing.

[CrappieJohn]

This is a really interesting topic. In journaling over the years I can see clearly how a very small change of barometer can either screw up crappie fishing for as much as several days or heat it up so much that it's almost insane.

You don't indicate what species you are fishing for, but I would urge you to take notes of what you read if what you read pertains to your specific fish. In open water I know that the barometer is second only to water temperature as far as importance goes. And water temp is another study that gets very interesting.

[Bob Horn]

Tom, you have crappie on the brain. Walleyes is what he`s looking for. Last year I had a post going in the saltwater forum in Florida. A doctor of some sort that studies fish said it didn`t bother the fish but when we said after a front goes through the fishing shuts down he didn`t have an answer for that. I don`t have an answer for you but there is a big difference in catching fish or just going fishing and I think the barometer has alot to do with it.

[bklimek]

I was just researching this topic the other day. Here is a good rule of thumb I found simple and that can be applied to all types of fish.

High Pressure - Clear skies - Fish slow down, find cover or go to deeper waters. Slow down lures and use baits more attractive to fish. Fish in cover and in deeper waters.

Rising - Clearing or improving - Fish tend to become slightly more active Fish with brighter lures and near cover. Also fish at intermediate and deeper depths.

Normal and stable - Fair - Normal fishing, Experiment with your favorite baits and lures.

Falling Degrading - Most active fishing - Speed up lures. Surface and shallow running lures may work well.

Slightly lower - Usually cloudy - Many fish will head away from cover and seek shallower waters. Some fish will become more aggressive. Use shallow running lures at a moderate speed.

Low - Rainy and stormy - Fish will tend to become less active the longer this period remains. As the action subsides, try fishing at deeper depths.

[CrappieJohn]

Hey Bob....good to hear from you! Behavin?

I just used crappies as a "for instance" fish. The barometer will affect fish in rivers different from those found in closed systems such as lakes. Larger , deeper bodies of water will be affected different than small shallow lakes. Big expansive rivers vs. meandering streams react differently as well.

It is complex. We can come to some conclusions , but at best they are basic. Generic if you will. There are no "givens" in this arena. How the barometer affects fish is as different as the fish varieties, the water varieties, and the amount of change itself. Now toss in water temperature, time of year, moon phase......get the picture here?

Some of those text-book, stay at home because of the cold front hitting last night, and the wife wants you to entertain her type days have been real educators for me. I don't stay home because of cold fronts. I don't stay home because the barometer is changing or has changed. These are the times you can challenge yourself....learn from what nature hands you.

Like I said, it's an interesting topic. But I pay far more attention to water temp than the barometric pressure.

[WAG416]

I was to go fishing one day with a friend and he swore up and down before we left his house that we werent going to catch any fish, because of a high barometer and an East wind,"east is least" he would tell me. I told him I was going with or without him, so he came with. We had the best fishing that day than I have ever had In my life.

I believe it's an example of what CrappieTom was stating, there are no givens.

WAG

[Deitz Dittrich]

I wrote an article titled "my theory on bass fishing and I am sticking to it." It has an excerpt on weather that pertains to baro and how I feel it affects fish. Here is that part fo the article.

Quote:

---

WEATHER

Denny Brauer says in his book, "Weather is the most important thing to

consider when it comes to fishing." I can't argue that. However, I don't

think minor weather changes directly affect bass as much as we think they

do. Minor barometric pressure changes affect fishing in that they affect the

lowest end of the food chain. When we are stuck in a high pressure system,

the zoo plankton are less buoyant. Thus they stay on the bottom and are

unavailable for minnows and other bait fish to feed easily on them. If the

barometric pressure falls, the little creatures become more buoyant. They

float up off the weeds and bottom making them easy prey for the minnow and

other creatures. When this happens, the bass follow. Bass are opportunistic

feeders. They feed when its easy, whether they are hungry or not. When the

minnows and other bait are not easily available during high pressure times,

you can still get them to feed, but they are not out looking for food

because they know the food is not out. So, this means you have to go find

them. Conversely, when the pressure is falling and everything is on the

feed, you can throw just about anything in your tackle box and as long as it

ran near the proper depth and is in an area with fish, it would catch fish.

When the pressure is rising, this is the worst time. The fish have ended

their feed and are now like you and I are shortly after our Thanksgiving

feast-- not in any mood to eat, that is for sure. But, like I said, they

will still eat. A major weather change is something different--especially if

its a cold front. Bass are cold blooded, they have no way of regulating body

temperature. When we are hot, we sweat. It's not that easy for them. They

need to adjust, so you might have to work a little harder than normal, but

you can still get them to bite. I think my favorite quote of all is by Kevin

van Damm, he says "If it weren't for weather we would have nothing but

ourselves to blame for a bad day fishing."

---

[CrappieJohn]

Bass!!!? Come on Deitz....you never even mention a game fish! lol. Just kidding.

Maybe we need to split this question into a species related thing answer-wise. Crappies and sunfish are warm water species and I find are far more suseptable to changes in water temperature than the barometer unless we are talikg going from a belly dragger of a low to high skies and north wind in a matter of hours.

Ice fishing will find influences of barometric change to be more pronounced, but I think that in open water and even just slightly warmer water and weather the barometer plays less less a part in the panfish than in the bass.

In open water and while dealing with crappie, day to day baromtric changes are of little consequence while a two degree change of water temp can shut the fish right off.

Mr. Horn has indicated that this was about walleyes and what I have seen in the many, many years of fishing the Mississippi is that it takes a real radical change in weather (barometer) during the open water to make a marked difference in the bite, while people fishing lakes under the influence of the same weather system cannot touch a fish. This leads me to feel that not only does the barometer affect different species in different ways, but it also depends on the water system you are fishing....is it a river or a lake. And then you get into all the intracacies found between your favored species vs big water/ small water, etc.

I don't let the barometer influence me much other than how it influences the wind direction and it is from that that I make my daily adjustments in how I fish. But it has to be noted that I am not fishing bass. My original repsonce here was directed at crappie fishing and while the barometer may come into play during periods of extremes regarding them, it certainly is not the most critical thing I consider when I first get to the water. Ask anyone who has fished with me...the absolute first thing I do is determine the surface temp and when I get to where the wind has dictated I go I do a deep water temperature survey. Then I fish.

The barometer might be an detriment for some fish that react to small changes in it, but we have to remember that fish, like the waters they are found in, are not created equal and that implementation of any journaled or logged data,say for bass, is not necessarily universal to crappies. They mayboth fall into the panfish classification, but are worlds apart in how they behave.