Fishing Results Correlated to Air Pressure and Water Temperature?

[peterjg]

Has anyone studied fishing results to a link between air pressure and water temperature? Any details/findings? I feel that there is a possible correlation but what confuses the issue is that if fish are effected by different air pressures they only have to move to either deeper or shallower water! For example, my fishing diaries over decades indicate that foggy weather (usually high pressure) is useless for pike fishing!?
Various authors have touched on this subject (Gibbinson, Walker, Parker, Etherington) but has it been actually studied? I might buy a portable digital barometer?

 

[seth49]

There's plenty of apps for mobiles for barometers

 

[peterjg]

Thanks Seth49, I'll look into it.

 

[Keith M]

When I was a Naval Meteorologist based at Northwood back in the 70’s; I used to regularly fish the Kennet for Barbel and Chub with my mate who also worked in the Met office with me.

Whenever we set out to fish we always made a note of the weather conditions (including air and water temps and the air pressures over the last few days and the wind directions). Weather observation and forecasting was our job when we were at work so we weren’t doing anything unusual to what we always did anyway.

We fished mainly at night after completing a long day watch in the Met office; but occasionally we fished during the day.
So our observations were made mainly at night.

We noted that when the air pressure over the previous few days had remained fairly steady; or it had been steadily falling or the air and water temperatures had remained fairly steady; or had been steady before starting to rise over the last few days then our catch rate was expected to be quite good; more times than not.

This was true regardless of whether the air temperature was only a few degrees above freezing or not; it was only when the air pressures had been rising or continuously changing up and down and the water temperatures had been continuously changing up and down or had started to fall that we would expect to catch fewer fish.

Air pressures and the air/water temperatures are usually linked together anyway; as high air pressure and colder clear sky’s usually go together; and it’s often the blanket cloud that will keep warm air below it; especially during the winter months and during the nights; although this isn’t always the case; as there were several nights when we fished in our T-shirt’s during high pressure periods with clear sky's above us during the summer months.

NB: It’s also relevant to realise that the heat comes from the reflected surfaces after the suns rays have hit them; and absorbed and/or reflected them back out as heat; and the heat doesn’t come directly from the suns rays (or so we were taught).

Keith

 

[peterjg]

Keith, many thanks for your interesting reply. For many years I have monitored and recorded water temperatures but have not taken much notice of baromic pressure. I guess that individual barometer readings are pretty meaningless but baromic trends in conjunction with temperatures could be useful, probably more so in the colder months? However; there are so many permutations, for example: with high pressure more oxygen is absorbed by water but usually with low pressure winds are stronger; wind direction can alter air and water temperatures, does air pressure directly effect fish feeding behaviour and insects?

Seth, at home I have a weather station with a digital barometer that measures air pressure in mmhg (millimetre/mercury) and a aneroid wall barometer that measures in fthg (feet/mercury) and I've managed to set the two of them to compare. I've found a smartphone app (free) which gives on the spot air pressure and height which effects air pressure. Thanks for your idea.

 

[@Clive]

Isn't this linked to the American fishing charts whereby certain moon phases give better or worse fishing and moon phases are often linked to barometric pressure?

Regards water temperatures; I noticed that after a mild spell with sunshine the surface water temperature downstream of weirs was noticiably lower than above the weirs. Where does that temperature go? I surmised that if the weir was a skimming type where the water spills over a lip and does not go through a low sluice, then the tumbling of the waterfall acts like a mixer tap. The warmer water on the surface is absorbed into the whole depth of the water downstream of the weir. This makes weirpools attractive to fish in the colder months.

 

[peterjg]

@Clive, you are definitely muddying the water! A full moon even in daylight definitely adversely effects roach fishing. It's all so interesting but probably we might just as well just go fishing. Maybe we should just get on with it and not try to be too clever?

 

[@Clive]

@Clive, you are definitely muddying the water! A full moon even in daylight definitely adversely effects roach fishing. It's all so interesting but probably we might just as well just go fishing. Maybe we should just get on with it and not try to be too clever?

My fishing trips are based around commitments and weather these days.

 

[peterjg]

Clive, re your above post. I'm sure that you're right, it's interesting though to try to find a pattern or system to improve results - but what I really need is a few hand grenades!

 

[nottskev]

A well known local angler, Arche Braddock, is not only a great angler but a long-term experimenter, tester and compiler of data. He might be best known for his creation of flavours for different species and conditions, use of freezing to get flavour into (as opposed to onto) baits and design of rigs for methods and species, but a few years ago he put on an evening for us in the back room of a pub where he shared his tank-test results of the breakdown times of various boilie mixes, explained and passed around the room the baited barbel rigs he'd been using/carrying on a night session that week and talked through what patterns he could discern in the mass of data about moon phases he's collected over years, giving out blank copies of the grids he used to record phases and catches. And loads more. Amazing chap and eye-opening stuff. I came away clear in my mind that I'm a pint-of-casters-and-give-it-a-go type of fisherman.

 

[@Clive]

In June I took an old friend fishing and we've fished together about 8 or 9 times this year. He is 84 and was fishing before I was born. His skill level was and still is what could be termed as 'Bob Mortimer' in that he cannot hold a rod properly which entails changing hands three times just in order to cast. That often results in him dunking the feeder and resulting scattering of bait during the cast. His casting accuracy can be described as a 90 degree arc, anywhere from 5 to 25 yards and his loose feed goes nowhere near where the feeder or float is. The first time that we float fished he held the rod across his knee with loose line blowing in the wind so that his float was travelling through the swim like a yacht under full sail. When he gets a bite, or more accurately when he realises that he has had a bite (there could be several minutes between the two) he strikes twice vertically then winds in at the same speed whethere he has missed the bite or there is 2lb bream on the end. More often than not he doesn't know whethere he has a fish on or not until the fish or bait come into view. Then he continues winding until the float or feeder is at the rod tip meaning that the fish is out of landing net range.

And yet he catches fish and always has done.

 

[nottskev]

However sceptical we might be about the idea of "luck", it looks like some people do have it. I bumped into a bloke on the Dee above Chester who was looking for a bit of help as he was keen to coarse fish but had only been sea fishing a few times. We got on well, and I took him fishing a few times. By the time he'd caught more than me, mostly reverting to a beach-fishing style, on the Dee, the Severn and a carp pool, I was starting to question what was going on. That's not the only time I've taken novices who kept shouting "Got another one, Kev!" until my "Great stuff. Well done" was getting a bit strained.

 

[Philip]

Some of the big Carp hunters put great stock in moon phases to try and predict when the "biggun" will be coming out next.

The harvest moon is usually a popular one ...lots of bivvies will be out on that night every year.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I don’t like fishing on or near a full moon. I wouldn’t not go, but I certainly feel less confident of a decent catch.

 

[Philip]

Must say I am not a fan of full moons either but i wonder if its because the nights i know its a full moon is when i can see it so the sky will be clear tempreture will probably drop and light levels will be higher.

If its cloudy i dont really know if its a full moon as i am not checking moon phases before i go...i might have had some red letter sessions on a full moon without knowing it.

Also just occured to me..would a full moon also impact fishing during the day at that moon phase ? ....interesting subject.

 

[@Clive]

I think that a full moon usually coincides with high pressure and clear skies. In summer I don't mind those conditions, but in winter clear blue sky, cold temperatures and no wind are to be avoided if possible when stillwater fishing. Sometimes you get a longer period of high pressure caused by factors other than the moon and when I used to fish Worsbrough Res a high pressure spell like that in January and February had me heading off to the Wharfe instead where I could guarantee a bit of grayling fishing around midday.

 

[@Clive]

This extract from a book that I have just bought from the charity shop explains everything.