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Got a question or maybe an answer? This is the place to share your experience and get some help from other readers.
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 Do fish stop biting when the barometer drops?Rajesh David Marfatia writes: Why is it that when the barometer rises, the fish are more likely to bite? It seems that many fisherman subscribe to this meteorological-come-biological theory... I am not entirely convinced, however, if one of your experts could explain exactly how this 'principal' was founded, I may be swayed. Recently, a fisherman emphatically explained to me that when the atmospheric pressure rises, the water levels drop and the fish consequently surface in an attempt to equalize. While surfaced, they tend to feed. I.e. Pressure is up, the fish are too. Conversely, I have heard that when the barometer is 'on the rise', the atmospheric pressure applied on the fish discourages them to feed as much. The reason being that by filling their stomachs with food would only worsen the effects of the atmospheric pressure differences on them, i.e. pressure up, the fish are down. …please explain?! (29 May 2001) Karen O'Riley replies: Hi Rajesh, In answer to your question, I'm a professional fishing guide in the Grampians, and my personal experience with trout is they prefer a rising barometer, like quite a few other species, but I will stick with what I know. On the other hand, some of our natives prefer and feed well when it drops. I find that trout fishing is pretty good when the barometer is sitting around 1020. Whatever species you target, keeping a record or journal of your trips will help you collate your own data base, and your own theories. Tight Lines to you Rajesh, catch you on the water. Regards Karen O'Riley. (11 June 2001) Geoff replies: About barometric pressure changes. The mean atmospheric pressure at sea level is approximately 14lbs/square inch. A fish that is 32ft down feels an additional 14lb/square inch water pressure and another 14lb for each 32ft of depth (apologies for the non metric measures). So any theories regarding atmospheric pressure changes directly upsetting a fish don't seem to make sense. All a fish would need to do to maintain the same pressure is rise or drop a few inches. Fish must have another way of sensing this. (4 February 2002) Peter Jolly replies: The old saying goes "1020 fish a plenty". I know that we used to wait till the barometer went up to 1020 before we would go fishing for natives but we found that for some reason if the barometer went up fast or down fast the fishing was usually the same, good! I think one reason we think like this is that we very rarely fish as the weather is getting bad so we mainly get fish when the weather is fine, and the barometer just so happens to be up or going up, it may just be a coincidence. (11 February 2002) Michael.R replies: We seem to do extremely well just before a storm or a cool change. Which seems to support the barometer theory. This is on both fresh and marine waters. As soon as that change rolls in it's like someone has pulled that switch and no matter what you do the fish just don't bite... Just don't go out looking for storms or changes on the water though, your life is not worth a few fish. (18 October 2002) If you have any advice for Rajesh or any other comments or questions, use our contributor's form and be in the running for some great monthly prizes. |
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