I spent two years trucking around the the ocean on a 210' boat. We were hit with lightning directly once, otherwise nothing happened. Lightning struck all around us all the time, and nothing happened. That does not mean that I am saying it is safe. Just my story. Yeah the fishing is always off the hook when a storm is passing through. The barometric pressure change seems to have an affect on the fish and their feeding. What it is exactly I dont know. Maybe the fear of not getting a bite to eat for a while due to storms. But that has held true in any place I have been. Florida, Idaho, Washington, California, Panama, Peru, doesnt matter. The intial barometric change for the first couple of hours, on the up and the down but mostly on the way down, has always produced good numbers. And that seems to pertain to almost all species too.