How much does barometric pressure influence feeding habits for bass?

I've heard that it very important and others have said it doesn't make much of a difference.

Any help would be great!

Up here in Northern Ohio it makes a big difference especially in the Spring time. Once the water temps start cooperating in later April or Mid May bass will feed heavily on the incoming low pressure. So anywhere from 12 hours until its raining the fishing can be fantastic.

The next day fishing becomes tough when the cold front arrives and temps drop by 15-25 degrees. You can still catch them, but your numbers will be down and fish will not be as active. Fish that were widespread in the flats head for cover or vegetation to escape the sun.

In the summer it doesnt make as big a difference IMO it's during the Spring and the Fall at least up here.

Unless the barometric pressure is associated to a weather pattern then I pay attention to it ( actually I 'm paying attention to the weather pattern ) other than that I don 't bother with it.

If I were retired and could pick and choose the days I get to fish I would pay attention to things like barometric pressure. Since I work most days, I fish when I can, regardless of the barometer.

That said, I've always heard that unusually low pressure is poor fishing and that a rising barometer is best.  But honestly, I just never check.

Some articles are sort of hard to find, and one of these were articles about barometric pressure. From what I've read I would associate "high pressure" with "dense cover" or possibly "lock-jaw," and "low pressure" with "activity" or "feeding." There's more to come into play because there are stable and unstable conditions and they all affect the fish. I read something that Bill Dance wrote, about the bladder sack is what is being affected by the pressure? Not sure.

I'm like the other guys...I fish when I can no matter what the barometer says.

It's always been my believe that barometric pressure is purely coincidental and not at all causitive.

High-pressure weather cells and low-pressure weather cells typically coincide with blatant changes in wind speed and light levels

and therein lie the causes. When a fish adjusts its water depth by one-yard (distance between water surface and fish)

the change in pressure per square inch is greater than a cat-5 hurricane.

Roger

Some of my most successful fishing trips (bass, inshore and offshore) have been on a Falling Barometer. I love to see storms moving in, winds picking up, and skies starting to blacken, except when its cold. I can't explain what it does to a fish but my experience is that they are greatly effected and usually start feeding actively. Here is a good read that explains some more on what barometric pressure does to fish.

http://www.quickoneplus.com/fish/articles/page.asp?page=barometric

It's always been my believe that barometric pressure is purely coincidental and not at all causitive.

High-pressure weather cells and low-pressure weather cells typically coincide with blatant changes in wind speed and light levels

and therein lie the causes. When a fish adjusts its water depth by one-yard (distance between water surface and fish)

the change in pressure per square inch is greater than a cat-5 hurricane.

Roger

X2 - I fished ENE winds with a rising barometer last Saturday that peaked around noon at 30.5" and caught 63 bass. The next day, with winds turning more southerly and barometer fallling all day back to 30.0, I caught 57 more. Water temps were mid to upper 40's both days. If you can figure out location and presentation and adjust accordingly, there are always some biting bass to be had. There are many other more important environmental cues to be paying attention to in my book.

-T9

There may be some validity to barometric pressure, weather conditions, water temps and everything else that people use an excuse for not catching fish.  I use a simple rule, they are either on or off, when on they hit anything and when off they hit nothing.  Some of the best fish of my life have been when I wasn't supposed to catch them, every negative condition against me. 

I am not a fisheries biologist but I do have a very good library on bass fishing and here is a recap of the April 2005 article regarding the subject that I found to be very interesting.

Enjoy!!!!

Some guys will tell you that barometric pressure is critical to their fishing success and that it is the most critical element of bass fishing.

Then the guys will tell you that that has no idea how barometric pressure affects fishing.

What makes it difficult regarding barometric pressure is it is never the same from one part of the country to the next.

So what is barometric pressure? It is the weight of the atmosphere placed on objects, including water. We start at sea level and then move up and down in inches from 29.92 with the air temperature at 59* and dry.

Remember, warm air is not as dense as cold air so the colder the air the more pressure is placed on the earth's surface.

High humidity will make the air lighter so there will be a lighter pressure.

So what does this mean to us when we fish?  It means that a bass will feel or sense the pressure bearing down on them depending where the bass lives.

A lower elevation lake would feel very heavy to a bass living up in Colorado as altitude also plays a role in barometric pressure on fishing.

Bass have their bladders and the slightest variation in water pressure affects their bladder.

So what is important to understand after all of the above is that the change in water pressure and how the bass will react to it where the bass is living at that time.

You know that when we have a front approaching and the barometric pressure starts to fall bass fishing is great. Either the bass' bladder shrinks with the lower pressure and makes the bass feel better so he feeds or low barometric pressure will allow the small vegetation to float to the surface where the minnows and small baitfish eat them and the bass follow the minnows and baitfish.

A high barometric pressure may expand their air bladder causing restrictive movement and discomfort and the bass may believe they are full and will not feed.

Fishing on a falling or low barometric pressure is best.

A steady, moderate pressure is the second most favorable pressure to fish.

And a high or rapidly rising pressure reading is the worst.

So how do you know what the barometric pressure is without a barometer?

You can see the fronts moving through and then blue bird skies. The front is the lower pressure and the blue bird skies illustrate the high pressure.

Remember that while a bass will react to the increasing pressure on the first day, the second day is always the toughest because the pressure is generally the highest on the second day. The third day after a front passes the fish are getting acclimated to the higher pressure and the pressure will begin to drop. 

So fish on the second or third day after a front passes your area.

A largemouth bass will move into the thickest, heaviest cover they can find when the pressure starts inching up. They rarely drop deep to find cover. They simply move over to find it.

And when you have high pressure the strike zone may be only a few inches wide so you have to throw a jig and pig or a plastic and put it right in front of their faces time after time after time. And fish s-l-o-w.

Now according to the articles smallmouths and spots are different. They do not seek out heavy cover. Rather, they head for deep water. So if you find a smallie in 20 feet you will find the spotted bass in 25 to 30 feet.

Remember, blue bird skies may not be a problem. It is more important for you to know the day the front passed through and if you are on the front or back end of the high pressure.

One more thing. We all know (or should know) that when the wind blows from the east the fish bite least. In North America the prevailing winds flow from the south or west. A north or east wind is caused by atmospheric disturbances that disrupt the south-west pattern. This indicates a pressure problem.

Air temperatures don't matter, either. What is the problem is the cause of the temperature dropping which is usually a cold front or a low passing through.

I hope this has been helpful to everyone. Sorry it is so long.

Thanks Sam.  That was really good read.  Have never paid much attention to the barometric pressure before but now will watch more closely.

Sam,

Thanks for the info. What magazine or book had it? I'd like to read in more detail.

Thanks

NBR, I think it is a Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries magazine.

I have no idea how to see the old copies. 

What about the days where the barometer is falling, wind is picking up, and clouds are rolling in and you can only get bit flipping tight to cover or finessing them, or the high pressure, flat calm, blue bird sky days when they are chasing crankbaits back to the boat. Those situations don't go by the "book"  and happen all the time but they do happen. Why?? To quote an old wise NYbasser " Why??.............because!!" We often time over analize this stuff to the point of paralisis, yes it helps to know that often time during a frontal passage bass become more active, but it's not set in stone, you just have to go fishing and figure it out. I don't know how many times I have had a good day of fishing that would have been poor if I did things by the "book". I know guys that won't even pick up a moving bait if it's sunny out, even if they have pitched/flipped every dock, grass line, and weed hole on the lake and caught little to nothing. They keep beating there heads against the wall, same guys will toss a spinner bait all day if the winds blowing, catching or not.

If you haven't tried to fish when the pressure changes / weather fronts approach when the bass turn on your missing out on the best bass fishing trip you will ever have.

Me and my son were fishing in a swamp with livebait(worms). We were two hours away from an approaching front with rain comming. It was early evening approaching dusk. I was reeling in my baited hook when a fish attacked it. I said to myself they want something moving. I never really used lures with success yet but i had some new mepps #3 inline spinners(assortment package). I put on the mepps #3 silver/gray tail and started catching bass after bass on every cast. My son hollers over and says do you have another one of those lures? I threw him a mepps #3 red/white with brown tail and he also started catching bass after bass too. It was a bass feeding frenzy for the both of us. We had doubles after doubles till it got dark. We were better than the guys on TV. After this we were bitten by the bass fishing bug for sure.

Our second shot at this feeding frenzy was in the early evening too just before dusk too. Again with a front comming in with the pressure change happening. I'm catching 2lb to 5lb bass fish after fish non stop again. We must have caught over 50lbs of fish on this trip. This was in the low light using a rebel BIG Claw crawfish lure that dives to 10' in firetiger.

My third shot at looking for this feeding frenzy to happen again is we had a few days of light rain and it let up for a few hours. Standing in one spot from shore i caught 19 bass while fan casting the whole place. On the way home i gave another place a quick shot to see if they were turned on there too. I caught three, 3lb smallies right away. All on joesfly's 1/4oz bass size in fire tiger apache. This tells me with cloud cover in a low light situation go with the fire tiger colors or brighter colors.

Seeing this color thing happening over and over made me want more knowledge about lure colors in bass fishing. One of my thoughts was why do the bass turn off when it gets darker. I was fishing with a joesfly in blackgnat thats a silver blade with a black tail in the early evening. The bite was on and i'm catching a few bass. As it got to be dusk the bite dropped off. I put on the joesfly in firetiger apache and caught a few more bass before it got dark.

Now back to this pressure thing. I'm trying to figure it out for many years now so i know exactly when to go fishing during the pressure changes and the incomming fronts so i can time it right. No positive results yet over many years of looking for an answer. I go before the rain, during the rain and after the rain and i can't nail down the time when this frenzy will happen for it happens at anytime. My only results so far is its happening before the front hits. And during the light rain sometimes they will turn on.

My older brother told me about this frenzy happening and he always said to keep going they will turn on sooner or later. He always fished during the pressure changes and the incomming fronts. Bill

BTW; I picked up an older Combo-C-Lector that Dr Loren Hill developed at the university of OK. I have tried it were i could test it and found out it does work. I tested it for a few days and found out on one day only a red colored crank would work when no other color would, on another day only a brown colored crank would work when no other color would, on another day in the same exact spot green worked when no other color worked. On each day the combo c lector chose the color that worked. I did have days were any color worked too. But on the tough day the combo c lector picked the right color to catch fish. Again i fished the exact same spot and time during this test of the combo c lector. This was with the older color selector and now i want to get the new one so i can test it too. There are so many things that can influence the lure color too. Bill Dance said the bass can't see all the colors all of the time. If they did there wouldn't be a minnow left in the place think about it. I'm hooked on this color thing too. The water conditions can guide us wether we use a natural color or a bright color or a smaller size or a larger size lure. There's a lot more to think about than just chucking a lure.

Now withy the pressure changes and the front approaching choosing the right lure color and size matters too. Then its having a vibration, a rattle and if we use a scent can also mean success too.

My point is everything works together for success.

Its not luck in fishing its skill. 8-)

I will add that running water and deep water fish are less effected by barometric changes shallow fish are most effected.

On 3/26/2011 at 5:33 PM, ww2farmer said:

What about the days where the barometer is falling, wind is picking up, and clouds are rolling in and you can only get bit flipping tight to cover or finessing them, or the high pressure, flat calm, blue bird sky days when they are chasing crankbaits back to the boat. Those situations don't go by the "book"  and happen all the time but they do happen. Why?? To quote an old wise NYbasser " Why??.............because!!" We often time over analize this stuff to the point of paralisis, yes it helps to know that often time during a frontal passage bass become more active, but it's not set in stone, you just have to go fishing and figure it out. I don't know how many times I have had a good day of fishing that would have been poor if I did things by the "book". I know guys that won't even pick up a moving bait if it's sunny out, even if they have pitched/flipped every dock, grass line, and weed hole on the lake and caught little to nothing. They keep beating there heads against the wall, same guys will toss a spinner bait all day if the winds blowing, catching or not.

More specifically, "Why??.............because!!" We often time over analize this stuff to the point of paralisis"...

 

Most of us fish when we can. You can give yourself a headache or talk yourself into not going when maybe it's the only time you're going to have for a month. And because of what? Some stuff that seems like it could be true but nobody can actually prove and nobody knows why?

 

I agree, the general patterns are good to know but if you're getting to the point where you let a weather report keep you from fishing (not including dangerous conditions), you need to put down the books and magazines, turn the internet off and go fishing!

This is a 2011 thread with good barometric info. Understanding the basses eccosystem and behavior is helpful to catching bass but you can't catch bass sitting on the couch.

Tom