Barometric pressure

Can anyone explain how barometric pressure affects fishing, and possibly post a link to a good site that tracks it?

Thanks for any help!

WS

Bambino:

This is a great discussion, and to be honest, I’d love to hear what other people think on the matter before I go blathering about my opinions.

That said, here’s an example of where I go to check barometer. This is for a Duluth, Mn weather station.

It’s part of Weather Underground. Do a search near the area you’re fishing and scroll to the bottom. Click on about any of the nearby reporting stations, and a full graph of the 24 hour history is shown. To me, a single reading is relatively meaningless without the trending information.

Joel

A stable barometric pressure is the best for fishing, they are more active during these conditions. If you were catching fish one day on cranks and then you get a big change is pressure you will probably need to slow thing down and live bait rig, jig…etc Now there are times as pressure drops just before a storm that you can get on a hot bite if you are in the right place at the right times as the eyes are feeding like crazy!

barometric pressure is something to keep an eye on thats for sure, i think it changed today when the wind picked up.

Sharply falling pressure is supposed to be good. I am sure there are plenty of people on here with stories of near death experiences fishing as a storm blew in.

Joel definitely hit it out of the park with “trends”. For me, its the pattern, NOT the exact condition at that moment. As a high pressure system moves in, normally the winds calm down, skies clear, and the bite goes soft.
As a High sits centered above us, winds are calm, clear skies, and light can penetrate much deeper. Therory in this also claims that the added pressure forces plankton and other food sources for baitfish down, and they don’t rise off of the bottom mud or aquatic plants. I question that, but then I’m not a marine biologist either.

When low pressure begins to move in, the air is actually more dense with moisture. With that, low clouds are much more abundant, winds are variable, and the bite becomes more aggressive. It’s my opinion that the low light conditions are a huge contributor to the “why” fish turn on during low pressure systems.
Low pressure zones are “pushed” by high pressure along the jet stream. Low systems generally don’t stall when disturbances are stacked up. So we get the quicker in/out when compared to slow moving high systems. So the “window” of opportunity tends to be smaller during a low.

Common to the upper midwest is to have multiple lows pass through back to back, then followed by a high. This is when we get the week of rain, crazy winds, and no stability. Throughout these days, we have more conditions stacked in our favor for an aggressive bite, more frequently.
As the lows give way to a high system, the sky begins to clear, winds begin to diminish, light penetration goes deeper into the water column, and the daytime bite generally falls apart.
I’ve read a few really good studies about the myths of fish moving (mostly bass) based on the pressure. Most of what was found was untrue. Bass remained in the same general depth/location during both periods of high and low system. Interesting was that during the low light periods of the high systems (dusk/dawn/night) bass moved off their cover and cruised the flats feeding. Compared to the low light conditions of a low (all day long) where they cruised and fed in the same places.
Now, if you really want to take it to another level, apply the moon phases of major and minor to the equation. I’ve done a lot of study this year of peak bites Vs. the moon phase times. Holy crankbaits is that accurate!

I fished the same area last Sat., Sun., and yesterday. On Sat. the barometer was 30.05 at midmight and rose to 3.20 by midnight. We didn’t catch any fish.

Sunday the pressure was 30.20 at midnight fished until noon when the pressure had fell slowly to 30.15. Caught a few, crappies altho small. Tip ups were flying tho. By midnight the barometer was down to 29.78.

On Monday when I started fishing at 7:30 the barometer was 29.72, or fairly steady during the night. I fished until 3:00 or so when the bite slowed when was also when the baromter started rising again from 29.66 to 29.77 by midnight. Had a good day getting 6 gills, 6 crappies all bigger than Sundays, 5 keeper bass and 1 northern for the pickle barrel. In general I think the tip ups were more active too.

You can draw your own conclusions from the data.

Wow! That’s a lot of information for a one-room country school’er to digest. Thanks for the time spent addressing my question. I want to start keeping a closer read on the existing conditions as they pertain to fishing. Much of what you guys have shared will certainly get me going in the right direction, and helps put into perspective what I am or will be looking at when following trends.

Thanks again!

WS

The barometer tells me how large of a window I have to fish. Low pressure generally tends to show us a bite that lasts longer and the the areas fish hit at will be more wide-spread. Toss in a high pressure and the window of opportunity can get pretty darned narrow for a day or so. That infamous spot-on-spot type of bite can rear its ugly head during periods of high pressure and the actual bite might last for only minutes instead of an afternoon.