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How Important Is Barometric Pressure For Fishing?

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5K views 29 replies 27 participants last post by  Golden Trout 
#1 ·
It is not something I have paid a lot of attention to. But I have noticed that when a cold front is moving in fishing seems better - at least in Montana on streams...

What are your experiences/thoughts?
 
#3 ·
Rising barometer is generally correlated with dropping stream flow and clearing water following a storm. Salmon and steelhead fishing in rivers is often better under such conditions. Fishing also tends to be better in the salt under rising or steady high pressure, in my experience anyway.

Others?
 
#14 ·
I would think the opposite to be true. High pressure typically have clear skies and drive the fish into hiding places, ie sunny days This is not taking into account the mention of streams flows running lower and clearing. I'm thinking more of cloud cover
I always heard that they went on the feed knowing that conditions might force them to hunker doen when the brunt of the storm hits.
Maybe just theory I have no proof, other than I fish when I can
 
#4 ·
Never paid much attention to the barometer with salmon or trout. Bass fishing always seemed better after high pressure and the barometer dropping.
 
#8 ·
I definitely think pressure effects fish. In fact, it's probably a big part of the explanation for how you can fish the same lake (or river) on consecutive days, using the same gear and techniques, and have vastly different degrees of success.

When it comes to nailing down the patterns, good luck is all I can offer. So far, there's not a conventional "rule" about weather and fishing I haven't seen broken at least a couple times. There do seem to be some "rules" that generally hold true more than others. For example (in my experience):

*Wind from the East, fish bite the least. Whether it's got anything at all to do with the wind or not, I usually find few, tentative bites that don't stick in an East wind. This is almost an actual rule for fall salmon, but not quite. Probably has something to do with barometric pressure changes, but who really knows?

*River on the rise? Stay home and tie flies. Sure, you can intercept moving fish in these conditions, but most of the time, they seem too bent on traveling to stop and bite anything (or something...).

*Full moon? Try again soon. Especially for resident fish, I find a full moon to be a consistent bite killer. I did have my best ever numbers day on steelhead the day following a peak full moon, but I have yet to have an even moderately productive day following a full moon since. I usually try to plan my fishing around full moons and go clamming instead. ***I am told the reason trout fishing sucks during the daylight on full moon days is that resident fish eat at night on full moons, so they're less apt to eat the next day. Perhaps that's why I get so many weak, tentative bites on those days. I am also told that fishing lakes at night on a full moon can be really good, but I've yet to try it.

So, you see, as Sg said, it's clear that fishing is better on a slightly rising or dropping barometer, unless it's not.
 
#10 ·
Denny Rickards has been a proponent of the theory that a falling barometer negatively effects lake fishing - at least generally. Kind of aligns with my experience as well, although I've had a few times where storms rolled in and fishing a lake became ridiculously easy. Those times were the exception though, and were hatch situations...
 
#16 ·
Back in my back-trolling plugs days, Steelhead fishing just ahead of a low-pressure storm front used to be lights-out in the pool above McNary. Time just preceding & immediately following thunderstorms/gully-washers back home have always yielded great fishing, also.
 
#22 ·
Just anecdotal, but a few days ago I was fishing one of my favorite (and normally productive) mountain lakes. Barometer was falling like a rock, with intermittent gusts of wind, then periods of calm.

There was a massive mayfly hatch going on....sitting in my kayak, I was covered in resting mayflies....as was the lake.

There was absolutely no topwater trout action occuring. I tried everything...dries, nymphs, wetflies....not a single strike all day. Maybe the trout population was simply stuffed, but I think the barometric change put them off feeding.
 
#27 ·
Fishing freshwater for trout: I have experienced my biggest mayfly hatches during dropping pressure. The bigger the drop the better the hatch. Those have been just prior and during thunder and lightning storms. Rising pressure and clearing skies have always been a bust until the pressure stabilizes. For saltwater, as Nick says, cloudy overcast, and gray are always good. Clear, bright and dead calm are tough. Can be done but ya gotta work.

Leland.
 
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