Weather, and how it effects fish

[Tokyo Lunker]

Guys,
I am curious about weather changes and how it effects fish. For example before and after a storm or hard rain or before and after warm and cold fronts. Your input would be greatly appreciated!

[Skeeter Steve]

Mike is probably the most qualified to answer this question but,
here is my take on weather and fish behavior.

1) MOON PHASE - Constant affect.

2) WIND AND WIND DIRECTION - You have heard the saying:
"The wind is your friend". I have found west and north west
winds are your friend. The east wind for whatever reason can
kill a fish's activity for feeding. (on Allatoona)

3) BAROMETRIC PRESSURE - High pressure affects the fish also.
Such as; bluebird skies, no wind. (Post fronts)
Low pressure such as; an arriving weather front can really
get the fish active.
A fish's lateral lines sense the increase and decrease in pressure.
Atmospheric pressures affect the fish's air bladder thus affecting
the depth of water to live in dring the atmospheric pressure
change. (Suspended fish)
There are three types of weather fronts:
Cold, Warm, and Stationary. These will all have some kind of
affect, whether positive or negative.

To me, the weather is the BIGGEST factor in bass fishing.

Just my 2 cents.

Ranger Steve
<")))><

[dannyp]

BILL DANCE SAYS

Wind from the East, Fish Bite the least

Wind from the North, Dont venture forth

Wind from the West, Fish bite the best

Wind from the South, blows the bait in the fishes mouth :-

[Tokyo Lunker]

Sweet, Guys! Thank you for the explanation

[Mike Bucca]

Pretty good analysis above. Full moon can be horrible. I usually do my worst during full moons. HOwever this full moon is an exception. Usually prefrontal is outstanding for me. Post Frontal is usually tough in spring/fall and at times winter. I do better on post frontal on Winter than I do in spring and fall. I haven't seen any other rhyme and reason on things to make sense of things. I've seen it go both ways on every slogan there is in fishing but the above is a good general rule of thumb. The trick is how do you adjust. Biggest thing is fish "the moment" everyday you go out and over analyze every fish you see following as well as every fish you catch and try to duplicate it. Spots to me are much more effected by the weather than largemouth on "most" occasions but not all. I will also say that deeper fish are a whole lot less effected than shallow fish. So if shallow bombs for you deeper is usually "key" for me.

Excellent question KEN!! Karma for you!!!

Mike

[toonafish]

Gotta tell ya'...... I agree about how the moon phases and frontal conditions affect the fish, but I have had some fantastic days on toona when the wind was howling out of the east !!!

Brian

[soretoe]

One other thing to remember. When it's raining, the fish don't care. They are already wet ;D

[swimb8er]

Hey guys:)!

I gotta agree with Mike when he says to "fish the moment". I'm not a real technical angler when it comes to weather and all that. When I go fishing, I seriously try to think that I'm going to whack fish; no matter what. If I bomb one day; I'm going to whack fish the next day. That's how I've always been! It's being as confident as you possibly can be. I CAN'T change the weather! It is what it is and there's nothing I can do about that. I go fishing when ever I can go and I don't let the weather decide my faith.

THERE ARE NO RULES IN FISHING!!!!!!!!!!! ZERO! Nothing anyone tells you about fishing will be 100%. That's the one thing we as anglers need to remember. You may have the worst day fishing under a certain condition; and then whack fish under the same conditions later on. For instance! As a rule of thumb; the "best" swimbait conditions are usually low light/windy days. And overall; I'd say that's correct. However, my biggest swimbait fish was caught in clear water; with glass calm water and bright sun. GO FIGURE:)! Now I don't think it really matters. Just fish them and you'll catch fish.

Sure weather effects the fish; but don't let it effect you is what I'm getting at. You can study the "rules" and what people say; but that will never be 100%.

Another story! Last year, I was on a really good shallow crankbait bite during December/January. Not a typical crankbait time in San Diego! I was fishing in one to 4 feet of water with Lucky Craft RC 1.5 cranks. The lake is REALLY SMALL and you can see how everyone is fishing it. Everyone was fishing deep with plastics. Not only was I catching numbers of bass; but I caught a few over 6 pounds as well. It was a good bite and I'm sure that I was the only one doing it. People assume to fish deep in the winter and summer and shallow other times. I'm catching most of my fish shallow now and they're very nice. There are NO rules! Figure the fish out and that's ALL you have to worry about!

That's my advice for the day:)!

Take care guys!

[zippers]

Weather or not here I come, I use to not pay attention heavily to weather, I wish I still did not! It really screws up my thinking and anticipating. The wind thing is kinda funny cause it just doesnt hold up for me. I view the wind as a current generating machine, so I just relocate accordingly. For me the biggest factors in weather are barometer and overnight lows. That rising barometer (post front) is typically a brutal day of sissy-finesse fishing. If the overnight lows are a difference of 30 degrees from teh next days high Brutal sissy - finesse fishing.

My favorite time to be fishing Right smack in front of a storm, I mean just as its starting to sprinkle - coming down the worse the storm the better the bite.

Of course non of this applies to the delta - where tide,wind,current and timing are KEYS to being on fish.

[Tokyo Lunker]

Thank you all very much. I have a better understanding of the elememts