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Raising an eyebrow at monitoring barometric pressure? Shoot 9 out of 10 times the barometer is the first thing I check. However I just use my phone to see where it's At and if it's rising or falling. That's generally gonna be the deciding factor if a cold front isn't coming in. id like to hear everyone else's thought on their theories behind the barometer.
Hey Dakota-Le , what kind of trends and observations have you made in your 10 years of keeping data?
Hey chilly willy, think that barometer can ride in a snowmobile bouncing across the ice or is that going to mess it up. Well nothing to shocking really, just the movement of the fish on lakes depending on time of year and thickness of ice. Its really just telling for me to know what part of the lake to go out on and what structures to fish. Thicker the ice the less active they tend to get on me, and the deeper i have to go. The only goof ball things that i notice is i really struggle with early pan-fish versus mid to late ice, and walleyes for me are pointless mid winter, I can see a trend that the thicker the ice the worse it gets for me, decrease in size and catch for the eyes. I typically catch more northerns the sunnier it gets. So its not to shocking, first ice i target walleyes and pike, mid ice i switch 100% over to panfish, and very late ice i go after walleyes and pike again. Really though outside of the above obvious trends, the real usable data is where they are at on underwater structure depending on time of year and ice conditions, thats the real ticket for me is to go to the right spot, right out of the gate. All its doing is increasing my efficiency. Whats really fun to do is compare data and notes on lakes with others that do the same thing.... that you trust haha.
My thought is, the deeper the water the more the barometer comes into play.
Actually, the deeper the water is, the less effect atmospheric pressure has on fish. Hydrostatic pressure is heavier on deep water fish than atmospheric pressure. For every 33' of water you go deeper, pressure increases 14.5 psi. Once you get that deep or deeper, the fish don't even notice atmospheric pressure because the hydrostatic pressure is higher. It's the shallow water fish that are affected by changes in atmospheric pressure like crappies in 10-15' deep lakes. I don't know if it's the pressure itself that makes fish react or the weather that shallow water fish associate with pressure changes. During one fishing trip I was on this year at a 10-15' lake while in a low pressure system. It was drizzly all day and the fish were hitting very light and it was mostly small fish. I could see a lot of fish staging on the bottom all over the lake on my FF but they wouldn't bite. As the front passed and the high pressure hit dragging along a severe downpour, the fish disappeared. I saw nothing on the FF. Was it the front or the downpour? I'm thinking it was the sudden change in pressure.
Old school barometer- cows. On the way to your fishing hole, if the cows are laying down then so are the fish. You might as well turn around and go back home.
What a cool thought. A brief article about it: http://knowbefore.weatherbug.com/2014/11/13/can-cows-predict-weather/So you dislike a falling barometer. But I have quite a few experiences where we got a good bite as the storm moved in.DL: I like what you're doing and I'm jealous of your collected data. I've often thought that would be an excellent way to go but have never bitten the bullet to do it.
good read. Basically, just get out and fish when you can!
