Barometric pressure????

So I am doing some research for next months magazine and have already learned some cool things. So does anyone understand Barometric pressure and how it effects our fishing. Just wondering if anyone here pays attention to Barometer's before and or after fishing, how do you use this info.

I track the barometric pressure and I try to fish when the pressure is dropping. It seems that lower or dropping pressure a is better time to catch fish than with the pressure is rising, especially when I compare notes over time.
However, that is only one factor. There is moon, clouds, sun, day vs night, time of day, water temperature, wind, all adding to a combination of conditions. I just go when I have the opportunity.

This is how I understand it:
Dropping pressure usually means a front is moving through the area. It triggers the fish to feed before the weather makes it difficult to do so. It is often one of the best times to go fishing, but the weather may say otherwise. They are more aggressive and definitely less picky in my experience.

Rising pressure usually means post frontal conditions/transition from poor to good. Typically, it takes a few days to draw the fish out of their perceived lock jaw. During this transition period, the fish generally are strapped to structure or suspended...similar to their wintertime patterns. You really need to force them to eat or "stitch" your offering for the bite. However, I've gotten into some exciting lowlight bites...probably due to some opportunistic fish looking for an easy meal struggling to cope with the change in conditions.

Mind you, most of my experience is from chasing salt water stripers so I'm not sure how effectively they can be applied to other fish.
A large pressure change is typically something to watch out for. It can either put the bite wide open or shut it down due to weather conditions. If you time it correctly with moon phases, you can really figure out the fish. Full moon, fish don't bite as well during and a few days after..but the night bite can rock. New moon, expect a lot of activity in the grey light times. If you are fishing at night, this is when the big ones come out to play.

The less pressure change, the less change the fish will go through so they are less inclined to change their habits. Think of it like seasons: large drop means get ready for winter: fatten up. Large increase means fast thaw/spring....takes a little for everything to come back out. Summer/fall are smaller changes. What is a large change? It's very area dependent so always keep eyes on the weather stations. The bigger the L or the H the larger the difference it is.

Hope I didn't loose anyone. Best rule of thumb is what Jerdon stated: go when you can. Fish can't possibly outsmart us....hah

That was cool guys thank for the info. There is more to fishing then just the Barometric pressure of course but great info guys something to really look over and try to better understand.

There is always the possibility that fish like to eat when they want to. I always wanted to use the solunar tables but never got around to it. Besides, if the best time to fish is 2:00 AM Thursday but I can only fish Saturday, do I stay home? I was reading in Bassmaster mag about a book called High Percentage Fishing: A Statistical Approach to Improve Catch Rates. Some findings in the book: "Only the most extreme changes in barometric pressure have much of an effect on catch rates; moon phases have no statistically significant impact on catch rates; and Wednesdays beat Saturdays by a margin of 3-1 on per hour catch rates."
Now what do we do?? Fish when we can.

Wednesday it is.

When I used to carp fish I'd always be hoping for low pressure, anything in the high 900's with a decent breeze to fish into and I'd be fairly confident of some action. If however you only have 1 opportunity per week the weather is irrelevant and you make best of what your dealt

Giid info guys keep it coming i want the pros and cons bring it on.

Two years ago I decided that I was going to get very scientific with my fishing trips. In my analysis I included as many parameters as I could. Much of this would have been a lot easier from a boat! So it ended up becoming a challenge, which I couldn't resist.

Parameters:

Ambient temp
Water temp
Winds
Solunar tables
Currents
Depth
Fishing Pressure
Barometric Pressure
Altitude

I love gadgets. So this was a fun experience for me. It did not turn out how I expected it to turn out.

I began to log a lot of what I called anomalies. Because I was either screwing up or something else was going on. I was hoping to see certain patterns emerge. There were patterns to be sure. But I could see the same bite times when I was sure there shouldn't be. Then there were times that I caught lots of fish when I was sure I wouldn't get a bite.

In the end I gave up reaching a conclusive result. Just as others have stated; the best time to go fishing is when time allows.

I still love and use my gadgets. But I don't expect they will ever turn into a crystal ball. I use them in the same manner I use fish attractant. They help, but they don't catch the fish, nor do they tell me when the best times are.

bigfish

Well, I guess that I'm still an ol' die-hard.
I still log all my sessions in my journal and have for the past 5 1/2-years:

My recorded parameters are as follows:

Ambient temp
Water temp
Winds
Solunar tables ... times of the major and minor periods
Currents
Fishing Pressure
Moon phases
Tackle used ... color paterans
Fish counts
Water conditions
Weather conditions
Tidal elevations by the hour during my sessions

I haven't used the Barometric Pressure in my journal as of yet.
I've never took the time to learn to understand it. I quess that I will now.

Bottom line .... the fish eat 24-7 ... and I fish when I have a window of opportunity, and I always hope that the fish got the memo .... that I would be offering them something irresistible to bite that particular day.    lol

Thank you, this was excellent INTEL and a great write up!

SP Dan     <"))><