By way of a short-version refresher, barometric pressure is a measure of the weight of the air in our atmosphere, at any point on the earth. It’s measured in inches, typically ranging from something over 28 inches in nasty weather to more than 30 inches in fair-weather high-pressure conditions. Typically, we don’t register changes in pressure consciously, though various ailments such as headaches, joint pain and mood swings have in some folks long been attributed to a rapidly changing barometer.
But what do fish feel with barometric-pressure changes, and how are those feelings manifested in behavior? That’s the million-dollar question, and one for which there is no clear answer. Among serious anglers and guides, most are believers in the importance of barometric pressure on fishing success, and in most cases that means fishing when the barometer is falling.
(About the Photo: Sometimes the worst weather equals the best fishing as on this day when Capt. Sonny Schindler ran to Taylor’s Reef, Mississippi, and put his anglers onto the fastest fishing he had seen there in 20 years. Photo: Capt. Sonny Schindler)
Great Fishing Before Storms
For saltwater guide Capt. Sonny Schindler in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, the fish-gone-wild time means being on the water during a rapidly falling barometer before a big weather system (storm) moves in, but with enough time to fish for at least a few hours before stormy conditions make it unsafe. Schindler cites a couple of instances that made him a believer, once while fishing Taylor Reef, in the northern Gulf off Bay Saint Louis.
“Capt. Kenny [Shiyou] and I fished it with clients one day when we shouldn’t even have gone. The sky was turning black, and we could feel the weather about to hit us.”
But there they were — and so were the fish:
“If you put a hook in the water with absolutely anything on it, you’d get bit!” Schindler said. “In 30 minutes, we’d filled the fish box, but waited a bit too long to hightail it home and were pummeled by the storm before they could get off the water. Still, our customers loved the insane fishing. I’ve fished that reef hundreds of times over the past couple of decades and never seen anything like that day.”
In addition, Schindler cites a trip years ago when tagging tuna with acoustic tags far offshore in seas of 10 to 12 feet, but spaced at 10 to 12 seconds apart — unheard of for the Gulf, so “we hardly felt the seas.” Schindler doesn’t know the barometer reading that day, but clearly it was crazy low, conditions that gave them the Gulf entirely to themselves that day.
“We made [caught] bait in minutes,” he remembered. “Then every bait on every pass got hit. We released around 20 yellowfin in the 40- to 60-pound range, and finally had to head in. I was young — probably wouldn’t do that again, but it was crazy fishing.”
What the Pros Say
Bernie Schultz, a full-time Elite Pro bass angler for more than 30 years, says, “Barometric pressure definitely impacts fish. I’m not sure how it does that; I just know that the bite usually improves as the barometer drops, in pre-frontal conditions.”
Like Schindler, Schultz recounts a day that made him a believer. In this case, he had a day to practice on Florida’s Kissimmee Chain. “I was vying for Angler of the Year, and a fully rigged boat was on the line. The skies were ominously dark and the winds really stiff. The barometric pressure was so low I could feel it in my ears. It was not a good day to be on the water.”
Other competitors took the hint: “I don’t recall seeing a single other boat that day,” he said. Schultz ran to Goblets Cove which offered some protection. There, “throwing a clacker-style buzzbait, I caught big bass after big bass — all six to eight pounds. And all of them struck the lure so hard, it was like a cinder block hitting the water.” With the worsening weather, that evening the tournament director announced cancellation of the event. “With only one more event remaining, I was able to hang on to win the title and the boat.”
Drew Gill ranks number two among bass pros in the world. He takes a pragmatic approach, figuring it’s not so much the barometric pressure reading that counts as it is an indicator of weather changes. Those changes result in more or less visibility (heavier cloud cover vs. bright sunshine) that affects fish catchability, depending where and in what sort of habitat one is fishing.
For Ed Zyak, who fishes Florida’s central eastern inshore waters, “In a falling barometer, the bite usually picks up. I can fish bigger baits more aggressively.” Steady barometric pressure is also a good thing, Zyak says, but during high pressure with a barometer climbing, “I know the bite is going to get tougher. I usually try to downsize my baits and slow down my presentations.” He may also fish a bit deeper — deeper shorelines and off the edges of flats.
Similarly, legendary Venice, Louisiana, guide Mike Frenette is no fan of high-pressure systems. On the other hand, “I think that sometimes fish get crazy during low pressure.”
Someone Should Really Study That
Linking all these comments by professional anglers is that their thoughts are speculative, based on anecdotal evidence. As for hard science, there isn’t any; I could find no significant scientific studies that correlate fish behavior with barometric changes. Such studies would be very hard to set up, with so many variables uncontrolled, and expensive, with little justification.
The closest thing to a scientific explanation for why fish behavior should change during pressure changes is that changes in pressure “will confuse and discomfort fish” because it affects their gas-filled swim bladders. (Of course, not all game fish have swim bladders.) But, again, I could find no scientific basis to quantify just how “uncomfortable” fish might feel during barometric pressure changes.
David Ross, a PhD scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts writes in In-Fisherman (March 2018) that normal hydrostatic pressure changes, at least in the ocean, are far larger and occur much quicker than changes from barometric readings. “Barometric changes are simply trivial to fish compared to the normal pressure changes” that occur below the surface. Granted this may be more true for fish in deeper water.
Also writing in In-Fisherman (August 2021), Dan Johnson takes some exception to the rule-of-thumb thinking that falling pressure is best for fishing.
“Low-pressure systems that signal approaching major cold fronts can shut down fishing.” On the other hand, Johnson writes that “Some of the most reliable fishing action occurs when the pressure has been steady for several days or more. Extended periods of fair weather allow fish to find the best blend of ideal water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, light penetration, and other factors, and then fall into predictable feeding routines.”
While some anglers might try to plan their fishing around barometric changes, most probably ultimately figure it like guide Frenette: “Rising or falling barometer, if I’m going out, I’m going out — either way.”
