Barometric pressure and fish?

Pretty new to trying to find the elusive Mr. Crappie. How do you guys change tactics when highs or lows come through. I have read some about there bladder and high pressure making them slow. What do these pressures tell me and how do I look for them? I fish mostly NE NC in rivers and creeks. Water can be brackish and push them up river if it has been really dry. Salt water backs into the rivers some. I usually push or pull plastics and minnows, but I would like to do more jigging. Just finding them to jig for can consume a lot of my day. Any articles, books to read or advice would be appreciated.

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Fish 4 days a week. Don’t care if before, during or after a front. Never cared. Just fished when I could. Retired now and fish often. In Texas you seldom are run off by the weather. Of course, that is why I am here.


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High pressure the fish go low, low pressure they go high. Been watching it for 60yrs. When pressure is high, the Crappie will go down to low level or if shallow lake, they will sit on bottom. The shad schools will tell you where they are, most of the time- fish slow in high pressure. My 2cts.

If you can Find a Barometer to put in the Boat It would be a good Investment... I have one at home that shows the Past 12 Hours, In the good Range. Went fishing and was a tough bite. When I got back home I found the Pressure had been Rising at a fast rate. That will shut their Mouth till they get Acclimated ... With those Bright Blue skies the pressure will be High as well. Crappie will seek shade of some kind or deeper water. If you have a Bass Pro close go watch the Crappie in the Tank. Once I saw them doing something I thought was out of Character for Crappie. They were all hugging the wall Tail Up and Head Down Motionless..... With fish doing something like that nobody is going to catch anything----

Everything feeds hard and heavy on the back side of a high/front side of the low. We are experiencing that right now and the deer are going nuts feeding and moving right now as the cold front comes thru which is a low. Fish will do same thing.

Thanks guys

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Originally Posted by dhaire

Don’t care if before, during or after a front. Never cared. Just fished when I could.

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This ^^^^

My experience is if the pressure has been high and stable for several consecutive days, the bite will be better than if it just changed in the past couple of days. If you have an extended period of low pressure, the bite should be consistently good, but if it gets crashed by high pressure, afterward, the fish are going to be less likely to chase and more stationary. They'll usually feed heavily right before the front hits. I believe a washout low that dumps a lot of cold rain & muddies the water is the toughest front to consistently catch fish in.

Four years ago, I was diving a reef called "Sardine" in Raja Ampat, Papua New Guinea. It was lightly drizzling, heavy, low clouds, and almost no breeze (low pressure). Everything was normal and fish were moving around randomly doing their thing for the first 15 minutes of the dive. About then, the bottom fell out and ir started pouring on the surface so hard that you could hear it at 75 feet deep clearly. Then , it was like somebody flipped a switch. the little fish started getting chased by bigger fish, which were being chased by bigger fish, which were being chased by even bigger fish. A school of Giant trevally moved in and they were after anything they could catch. A couple minutes behind them a school of blacktip sharks moved in and were going after anything that looked like a fish. I realized right then that if a sharked wanted to get me, it was just going to happen & be too bad, because there was no chance to get away from them. But they didn't care about people, they were after fish. It was a spectacular dive. Definitely the food chain in action relating to the passage of a front.

Like dhaire said, go when you get the chance, it'll even out in the long run. Some days you're the hammer, some days you're the nail. Go when you can.

Jim

Man, I saw that kinda fish myself, unfortunately there was 1 inch of glass between us at the aquarium.

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Originally Posted by firefly2061

Man, I saw that kinda fish myself, unfortunately there was 1 inch of glass between us at the aquarium.

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Money spent on a dive trip is the reason why I fish from a kayak and not a nice rigged out boat. Scuba has given me a lot of experience watching fish behave naturally in their environment. It helps give me a better understanding of what's going on where I can't see and how fish relate to their surroundings.

Jim