here's the thing about pressure. a low allows more particulates to rise up and it starts a food chain reaction. plankton feed, bait fish feed, game fish feed. high pressure settles particulates somewhat down. but im like the rest, just fish because its not that drastic of a thing. doug is a smart dude, kinda the mice and the owl thing... we talked hours about this and i studied the baitfish as much as the bass while managing the bps tanks. no googling here.

Go to a bait store on a high pressure day and then on a low pressure day. Observe the minnows in the tank. I think under one condition they will be balled up on the bottom and in the other they will be evenly dispersed throughout the tank. I think this is a causal effect of the barometer. I may be wrong. Lots of guys like the high pressure bluebird days because they feel it tends to position the fish as opposed to scattering all over.

All that being said how do you modify your approach to catch more fish on those days? Have you personally experienced lower fish catch rates due to barometric pressure? If so do you have a technique you go to on these days?

I've kept logs of every trip that I have taken since 2008...including weather, water & air temps, sky conditions, wind, and bar. pressure. For me, my catch rate is about 20% better when the pressure is below 30.00. I still catch fish above and below that mark, but the numbers improve when on the low side.

High pressure (for me) means that the fish will either nose up to structure (wood/docks/standing timber) or go deep. Maybe they don't really go deep...but rather the deeper fish do not feel the pressure change as much as the shallow fish, and are more willing to chase baits.

I try to go "finesse" in high pressure situations (drop shot, whackey rig, small jigging spoons, chatterbaits), and throw the bigger profile baits in lower pressure (c-rigs, jigs, spinners, cranks).

Three years ago, I pre-fished Rayburn 4 times in 4 weeks to get ready for a tournament...and got a total of three bites ( one dink) for my efforts. The pressure never got below 30.44 in any of those trips. Tourney day my son and I read the pressure before blast off, and saw that it had dropped to 29.89...so we went shallow and boated two limits on jigs, c-rigs, and also threw the chatterbaits. We ended up taking a 2nd and 4th place on the day.

Two years ago we went to Houston County Lake on a January morning and the pressure was 30.34. We caught 2 or 3 in less than 10 feet, and decided to go deep to offset the pressure. Started whacking 'em on jigging spoons in 30 feet of water. Average fish was around 4-5 pounds, with this 8.5 - all on the deep spoons.

My guess has always been that high barometric pressure coincides with high, clear skies, low winds and oppresive heat during the summer, which most people would associate with tough fishing.

My two cents would be that I think it's more the weather conditions associated with high baro pressure than it is the pressure itself clamping down on the fish. Just my opinion.

Retired from NASA flight support 15+ years now and living minutes from good bass waters that I could fish everyday, I watch and carefully analyze the barometer, winds, cloud cover, lunar phases, nighttime low temps, insect forage reports, lake levels and thermocline graphs all to just carefully pick which days I choose to go fish.


And I am so bad of angler that I still zero as much as anyone..perhaps more.

But I'm out there on the best days to fish.

Barometeric pressure or not, most anglers have to go when they get a day off from work regardless of the pressure. I personally have been out on the water ahead of a cold front many times in the Fall and the fish would go nuts due to the low pressure. As soon as the the front passed it was like a light switch after it passed and the pressured soared back up. That said fish still have to eat and pressure will change through out the day and there will be time during the day when the fish bite. Fast rising pressure will affect fishing making it difficult to catch bass. Bass will pull tighter to cover and seem to sulk, resting tight to wood, brush, or what ever cover is available. When this happens you have got to be on top of your casting game hitting every piece of cover you can. As the pressure stabilizes or lessens a bass will have a larger strike zone and become easier to catch. I know when your on the water regularly you can tell the mood by how far the fish come off cover to bite. Sometimes you have to hit the cover (more than once at times), other times only come within a few feet.

Bottom line fish when you can, and when the going gets tough....... FISH HARDER!

How much do fish respond to these day-to-day fluctuations? Consider that a normal value for barometric pressure is about 30 inches. Strong high pressure is about 30.70 inches. A powerful low, such as during a hurricane, can reach down to 28 inches or less. The difference between these two extremes (2.7 inches of barometric pressure) is equal to about .09 atmospheres. The barometric pressure difference from a simple passing cold front is only about .06 atmospheres.

The rate of a falling barometer also tells us how fast a low-pressure storm is approaching. A slow-moving storm would have a dip of about .02 to .03 inches of barometric pressure per hour; a fast-moving storm will drop the barometer about 0.05 to 0.06 inches per hour.

Simply stated, barometric pressure does not change quickly enough to magically turn the bite on or off. It certainly is one of the ingredients in the overall weather process, but temperature, cloud cover, wind direction and speed, and humidity can also affect fishing conditions. More importantly, the rate and amount of change in barometric pressure is insignificant compared to what�s going on below the surface.

I always kind of thought that it was the extremes in the pressure that matter for example, a storm or a front is approaching, usually the pressure drops when this happens, fish always seem to be very active at this time while it is approaching, Once the front passes and the pressure tends to rise quickly, the bite seems to die. Fishermen long have used this rule way before all the eletronics were invented. I guess fish tend to know that the sudden drop like that is time to feed because of a comfort level it provides then as it passes through and has the rise like a north wind and blue bird skys equals high pressure and the fish may know it and may affect the bladder or what ever but what ever it does it seems to make them uncomfortable ubtil it becomes stable again. Minor moves I dont think has to much of affect one way or the other, just the major or sudden rise and drop just from my time on the water.

Conditions get right....you WILL NOT FIND ME in the office! LOL!

Good discussion here. Lots of informed responses.

Like Mark said, go fishing when you have the opportunity, dont worry about pressure.

Like James said, I have been on the lake in the fall when a storm is approaching and the fish go crazy before the front passes and you catch 100 until the front passes and the switch turns off.

Personally, I love to fish in the fall and winter on high pressure days. I find deep structure (30 feet or deeper) and find the bait balled up (from high pressure) and you will find the fish right there!!!

BTW, great info Ron!!!

Falling pressure is a direct indicator of good fishing conditions.

There are several myths as to what makes bass react differently under different barometric pressures. One being that high pressure makes the fish uncomfortable and stressed, therefore prompting it to seek shelter and not feed. This is not true. The truth is that the falling pressure makes the plankton and invertebrates more buoyant and causes them to float or suspend, making them easy targets for shad and other bait fish. The increased feeding activity by the bait fish in open water makes them an easy target for predator species such as Bass. Bass become more active as a result of their prey becoming more active, and vice versa.

The influence of Barometric Pressure on fishing is greater in shallow lakes, than deeper ones. Deep water has so much internal pressure that the atmospheric pressure has little effect.

Another Barometric Pressure trigger for bass feeding activity is the cloud cover associated with each type of system. Falling barometer is a sure sign of an approaching front, which means cloud cover will increase. The darker conditions associated with cloud cover will make bass more active. Less light on the water makes the fish feel less vulnerable and more likely to cover more area in search of food.

Barometric Pressure has little or no influence on fishing in constantly flowing rivers and streams. The water flow causes constant changes in pressure, reducing the significance of pressure changes on the surface.

Hope this information helps.

Here's a far out thought. What about lightning ? Is it possible fish instinctively move deeper to avoid being electrocuted when they feel the barometric pressure rising ? I don't get off the lake because it's raining but do get off when there's lightning because I don't want to be injured or killed. Anybody had there line "sing" when lightnings about to strike or saw a lightning strike the water half-mile away when their line was in the water ? Let me tell you it hurts !!! Two months after it traveled up my line I pulled a small wad of metal out of the finger that was touching the line. It melted the line on spool also.I'm sure the fish feel the same way.
They don't have the weathermen we have but their senses might tell them there is some possible danger so they need to avoid it.

There is some information on this in an old book called the "Scientific Angler". It gives you some really good information about the affects of High Pressure. A very good read of underwater studies of all types.

Bass have a very large air bladder. This is what helps them keep their balance as our equilibrium does for us. When a Low pressure system comes through, the fish are conditioned to know that High pressure will set in afterwards. So, they go on a feeding frenzy. They know that they can't feed efficiently after the high pressure system sets in. Affecting their air bladder and balance. Since, this is why many people will flip some type of structure, trees, stumps, dock post, etc. Many of the bass will balance up against this. Bites become of the premium. You have to put it front of their face to get them to react to the bait. They aren't going to expend a lot of energy to chase inefficiently. Hope this shed some light on the affects.