Yeah, it was hard to keep a straight face when my wife was looking for her iorning board last year...........

Long-winded, but this might help explain the original question....

NAFC member Roger Hugill—a seasoned fisheries biologist and tournament angler—says one of the least-understood factors affecting fish and fishing is barometric pressure. It may get a little ink or lip service now and then, but few people do more than scratch the surface of this important piece of the fish-behavior puzzle.

“Everything in the water either sinks, floats to the surface or suspends,” says Hugill. “Few anglers give it much thought, but a change in barometric pressure is to a small degree like a change in gravity.”

Plus, because objects weigh less in the water, the affect of a pressure change is far more pronounced beneath the surface than above.

Here’s how it works. In simple terms, barometric pressure—or atmospheric pressure—is the weight of the air pressing down upon us. Don’t laugh. It can be a heavy weight to shoulder.

A 1-inch-square column of air, measured from sea level to the top of the atmosphere, would weigh about 14.7 pounds. Multiply that by the surface of your favorite fishing hole and you’ve got serious pressure. So much for lighter than air.

Fish, anglers and other living creatures are built to handle this pressure, or we’d collapse like the Cowboys in the playoffs. But changes in pressure can ignite major shifts in fish behavior. Understanding all the dynamics is the key to playing this wild card to your advantage.

During his 33-year career with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Section, Hugill has learned more than a few fascinating facts about fish. One is that they react to pressure changes more than most fishermen realize.

“Fish are extremely in tune with their environment,” he explains. “They have an incredible array of pressure-sensing systems—such as the lateral line—that key them in to changes in barometric pressure, which in turn could signal feeding opportunities or foretell the arrival of a major weather change.”

How gamefish react depends on what affect variations in pressure (and accompanying factors such as fluctuations in water temperature due to a warm or cold front) are having on their food supply and the world around them.

For example, a drop in pressure can cause tiny particles of sediment and other material to float off bottom or rise higher in the water column than they normally suspend—particularly when currents are involved—slightly reducing water clarity. But more importantly, it can affect tiny creatures such as zooplankton and phytoplankton—the building blocks of any respectable aquatic food chain.

“These organisms need to move up and down in the water column in response to changes in light intensity and other factors, so they have built-in mechanisms for maintaining buoyancy,” says Hugill.

Some have tiny air bladders. Others possess the ability to retain air as a means to regulate their position in the water. “They’re generally able to adjust to variations in barometric pressure, but a fast change can catch them off guard, making them slightly unstable.”

This can push algae, phytoplankton or zooplankton out of its comfort zone and make it more vulnerable to predators. In some cases, gamefish such as crappie may move in to feed on zooplankton, but often a parade of forage species ranging from bloaters to shiners and dace—depending on the fishery—may also show up to feast on destabilized prey. Larger predators follow to sample the baitfish buffet.

Most catchable-size fish aren’t phased by the change in pressure. If anything, they’re stoked by it. “The physical affect on bigger fish is less pronounced,” Hugill explains. “Bass, walleyes, pike and other larger fish are built to handle it, and the changes in pressure are small compared to their overall size, mass and ability to swim.”

Plus, these fish are used to adjusting to depth-related pressure changes as they travel up and down in the water column. If you’ve ever jumped into a lake or pool and had your ears “pop,” you know that pressure is greater the deeper you go.

“If a fish is neutrally buoyant three feet beneath the surface, then swims down to 10 feet it won’t suspend anymore; it will sink—so it has to adjust,” Hugill says. Compared to these depth-related pressure changes, a slight rise or fall in the barometer is easy for a bass or walleye to handle.”

All of this helps explain why a rising or falling barometer often signals good fishing. Now is the time to be on the water, fishing known feeding areas with aggressive tactics.

If you’re targeting largemouth bass on a weed-rimmed natural lake in summer, try raking the surface of feeding flats with fast-moving topwaters, or rip jerkbaits along deep and shallow weed edges.

Walleye anglers would do well to switch from snail’s pace techniques like dragging live bait behind walking sinkers to trolling high-action cranks or spinner rigs with beefy blades. In short, forget finesse—this is the time for action.

It’s worth noting that fish and other creatures living in shallow water are more susceptible to the affects of changes in atmospheric pressure than their deep-water counterparts. So a bluegill holding in five feet of water is more susceptible to changes than a lake trout 100 feet down.

something else to take into consideration, barometric pressures can vary signifigantly from one region to the other, the fact that normal atmospheric pressure AT SEA LEVEL, is approximately 14.7 psi, can vary greatly, especially when we are at such high altitudes such as in central texas, as opposed to other regions. I believe that us in higher elevations of the state, are affected much more, than folks in other places, such as east texas for example. This would explain why some folks hammer them on very high pressure days, and some folks cant catch even one fish. Im not sure what the elevation is in north texas, and how badly the north texas lakes are affected by high pressure, but if you talk to anyone who fishes alot on the central texas area lakes, most will tell you how bad fishing can be post front with high atmospheric pressures. as Guys post pointed out, some fish can deal with it better than others, take white bass and hybrids for example, you can actually see thier air bladders when they are sitting deep on the bottom with a high powered sonar. you may not even see the fish arches they are laying so tight to bottom, but you can see the red dots, that is thier air bladder.
crappies may not be so well adapted.

One thing I've noticed is that people like Chuck Rollins, Cliff Spindle, and others who make their living catching crappie tend to deal with these things. While it may have an effect on the fish in an area/structure where you've been having luck on them, somewhere there are fish that are willing to bite.

If you notice in Chuck's posts, when things are tough...he moves...a lot. 5 minutes and no bite? Gone. No fish shallow? He trys mid-level, deep, and deeper.

I think the key to fishing in less than good conditions is to keep moving and trying different things. Structure, depth, presentation, bait, etc.