What exactly is fishing pressure? I have read some fishing reports where the talk about "fishing pressure". Not sure what this means.

I've been on lakes like Bull Shoals where there is a boat every 200 yards along every shoreline for miles. Those bass are constantly being hammered. If there were any hungry fish they'd have already been caught by the time I got there. That's pressure. Makes fishing very tough. In contrast, My favorite bass lake rarely sees any other bass fishermen. Makes it much easier to catch fish when yours is the only lure they've seen in days.

Fishing pressure is a term relating to the amount of fishermen on the water fishing for the same fish you're targeting. For example, somewhere like Lake Guntersville gets a lot of fishing pressure because tons and tons of people go there to fish because it's such a great lake. From what I hear, you can go there pretty much any day of the week, any time of the year and the ramps are pretty close to full. This translates to lots of baits being put in front of bass and bass can become accustom/conditioned to seeing every presentation out there. Fish will become somewhat harder to catch, depending on the lake. Now take a little lake pretty close to my house that might get a few boats a week on it total. Those fish are hardly being fished for and won't be as skittish.

 

Other examples of high fishing pressure would be:

• the days following a big tournament 
• a holiday weekend
• lakes that hold bass in very condensed areas

Maybe the mods should add it to the glossary. If you have any other quick questions check the glossary out and also the information tabs above. There are pages upon pages of information at your finger tips. 

 

 

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing_lures/bass_fishing.html

Even though winter sucks the one great thing I will say about MN is there are so many smaller to mid sized lakes full of nice bass that maybe see a handful of bass fisherman a week. The pressure is nothing like down south. If I see 5 or more bass boats at the ramp I assume either its a holiday or a tournament because it is rare in my area.