When we’re planning a filming trip for In-Fisherman TV, it’s a good idea to add at least one weather day. If we’re after pike in late summer into fall, it’s often necessary. Cold Canadian and warm southern air masses push and shove in the skies over the North Country, bringing conditions from thunder and rain to warm and sunny, cold and windy, and everything in between. Weather can turn things sour in a hurry, but it also can mean filling the HD tapes with footage of giant pike just as quickly.
Many species we target are affected by weather. Depending on the combination of conditions, it can cause fish to feed more aggressively or make fishing difficult. Some scientific tracking studies show responses in fish activity and habitat selection to changing weather, but many times results are inconclusive, because it’s hard to isolate cause and effect between complex environmental and behavioral variables. Forecasting pike isn’t an exact science, but the weather can help you determine what patterns to start with.
Pressure Relief
Bob Sampson is a barometer man. The outdoor writer, science teacher, and multispecies angler from Salem, Connecticut, has long been interested in the relationship between weather and his fishing success, whether he’s after striped bass and summer flounder in saltwater, or pike and muskies in lakes in the Northeast. “I’ve been studying how barometric pressure affects fishing for four decades,” he says, “but after purchasing a handheld Bushnell DNS Digital Compass with a barometer feature about 4 years ago, I started seeing results in real time.”
Sampson believes that water temperature is a primary variable driving fish response, but he’s convinced that pressure changes and associated weather play major roles in how good the fishing is. “I’ve seen that even small pressure changes, as little as 0.05 inches, were enough to turn the fish on or off [standard atmospheric pressure at sea level is around 30 inches of mercury]. And it depends on which way the pressure is moving.
“The students in my science class conduct experiments where they fish a local pond and keep track of the barometer. Bluegills are abundant and provide good sample sizes. Time and time again, rising pressure brings the poorest success and dropping pressure has the highest catch rates overall. About 60 to 85 percent of bites are associated with some level of pressure drop.”
Sampson is so convinced that, unless he has a commitment to go fishing, he’s seldom out under bluebird skies and rising pressure conditions. “Steep pressure drops are best and often coincide with feeding sprees,” he says. “It helps if it’s due to an incoming storm front, which also brings darker skies and winds.
“Even small dips in pressure under sunny or partly sunny skies, with no apparent change in the weather, can get the fish revved up for a short time at midday. If the forecast calls for bright skies and hot weather, I try to get out during the low light early in the morning before the bite slows or stops as the day wears on. Then around midday, I sometimes see that the pressure indicated on my handheld unit drops just a tick and there’s a short flurry of feeding activity. I suspect the tiny pressure dips are caused by the heating of the air at the surface, causing the air to rise. It might be just two or three or four fish, but something happened to turn them on, and the small pressure change is the only thing I can detect.”
