I've been reading a bit about barometric pressure and how it affects fish behavior and feeding habits. My layman's summary of what I've read so far is that fish will become more active just before a drop in barometric pressure, and less active the longer that the low pressure system is around. The last two trips to the river have been tough. One trip I went 0 for 1 and today was a big skunk, but I was only able to fish the last two hours of daylight today. Each trip had relatively calm weather leading up to the day I fished. Of course on each of the two days I fished in the last few days a low pressure system had moved in and dumped rain. I feel like I've had similar results on more than these two occasions. Unfortunately I have not yet begun any record keeping on my fishing but intend to start so I can maybe see a pattern after a few years.

So what are your thoughts on Barometric pressure? Is there a time when you'll just stay home because of what the barometer says? Is it even worth worrying about and should I be more focused on water temp and visibility?

Thanks for any input. Learning every day.

I say go fishing whenever you can and let the fish decide whether they want to bite or not. I think you can over think things sometimes and I guess in most cases in the NW you could decide your way out of fishing more times than you go. Just my .02

+1
Being a M-F, 9-5 kinda guy, so it makes me a weekend warrior. So I fish primarily during those times, and go whether or not. Weather, being taken into some consideration, but you have to fish when you can. It's true you can rationalize yourself out of going, especially when there's great opportunity in the next convergence zone!

Now if I was a "Bass" fisherman, and there was a cold front moving in and a falling barometer. You better get that "Sparkle Barge" off the trailer and fish, because there only going to bite on crankbaits for a short time before the sky starts falling!!! Just kidding, don't mean to dis my "Ditch Pickle" fishing buddies.

My worthless .02
Winterun

I'd say its steelhead fishing, there isn't fish in every river every day at every spot. Plus with all the reports recently, I'm sure everyone is hammering every piece of water day in and day out. I'm no expert though, I'd check the STS chronicles for mentions of barometric pressure.

My idea of steelhead fishing is bring spoons, waders and try to fish a river that is wadable, if it is not wadable sit at home get drunk, troll, or kick it with family, or get drunk and troll. So if a barometric pressure is going to affect a fish that is gonna bite a spoon, then that fish isn't worth my time.

Basically something similar to what I just wrote,BJ

Like said above,when ur a weekend warrior ya gotta go when it's in regardless of netting and changing weather.Take your window and make the best of it.If it's not blown out,Hit it.Good luck,
SZ

I'm convinced Salmon are affected by pressure swings, but dont apply the same thought to Steelhead. I think many who have been fishing for steelhead much longer than I would agree they can be caught on the sunniest of days, in the nastiest of weather, and most everything in between.




I actually like low pressure in the winter , when the river gets low and cold. I seem to do best fishing under those conditions because it concentrates the fish and the methods I typically employ get them to bite.

If you are referring to fishing at Reiter on the Sky during those last few trips.... There were a ton of fish caught on NYE morning when the river was dropping from ~11-10k. I hooked four and saw probably 40 fish on the bank. The next day I went up with three other members here and we fish from there down to Proctor and only hooked two, landed two for the group. Out of the the rest of the army of casters I saw roughly six fish for 40-50 people...
That's fishing....

hocus pocus

East wind.........when I wake in the morning and my wind chime is clanking, wind chime is on east side of house....I just pull the covers up and get some more sleep.

East winds affect hunting, clam digging, and fishing.....and not in a positive way.....

Low pressure does not often mean low rivers...quite the opposite, low pressure means rain and rising rivers around here.

High pressure is what will get you cold and clear weather, which will get you the low and clear rivers you are looking for, SkyGuy.

Except at the extreme ends of the scale, I don't think it matters all that much, in my opinion.

Fish on...

Todd

Yep, yer right. I meant to say high pressure there...

Once the day has already been stricken from the office calendar, I don't givadam whether the wind is from the east, the barometer is falling, or the river is rising.

Life's too short as it is.... I'm goin' fishin'.

If a person waits for perfect conditions to fish they might as well take up golf.

Wind from the east, fish bite the least.

I'm a weekend warrier myself and often only get 2-3 hours per week on the river due to my work schedule. It's not uncommon for me to work 3 weeks straight without a day off so I'm stuck bombing up after work when I can. Ask anyone I fish with and they'll tell you I'll be out in the shittiest of the shi t. All I'm trying to do is understand the fish as much as possible. The better I understand them,, the more I can make contact with them.

Thanks everyone.

As to Salmon only no Steelhead, it means a lot early in the season in the lower Chehalis. Chinook are the ones that stand out most as they will move hard on a big drop and the bigger the drop the more that come running. Coho not as much as they are little water spawners and flows drive them more but they will move out of the bay into tide and a little above on a good drop.

As in all things fish this is not true always but reasonably so. In a dry fall when you get that big drop on the front edge of a storm the Chinook pick up before the storm even shows. Wet year not as dramatic as they are already working their way up stream. Coho like the water to move in mass but if you get 4 inches of rain early then they will move with the same pattern.

Folks do not notice it as much as you would think as the nets take the surge right out of things. Oh yeah almost forgot, in this area East winds almost always come with a high barometer as fish not close to spawning tend to hold waiting for the signs of rain coming. ( unless your flows are way up all ready ) Does not effect the bite much ( salmon now ) but in tide water you have to go find them and not wait for them to come to you.

I have no doubt barometric pressure has a major effect on salmonids. Fishing Kamloops trout in the high country, where small storm cells move through several times a day its easy to see. As Rivrguy pointed out with Chinook you see a big increase in activity just before the low arrives. Activity stays high as it passes and drops right off as the low moves on. Then the pattern repeats itself again as the next system moves through. I have seen this way too much time to consider it a coincidence.

An old time steelhead angler and writer - of course I forget his name now - used to keep detailed track of barometric pressure and his success. He found a very strong correlation. (I may do some Goggling on this later if I get time.)

But . . As Doc say go when you can.

I'm pretty sure there is a set of rules for all this, but I haven't found it yet. I firmly believe that resident trout turn way down during the day on a full moon (and in the couple of days before). I started a thread about that a while back, and I seem to recall most who responded saying that they had similar opinions, but as is usually the case, there were exceptions who said they had experienced the best trout days of their lives on a full moon. I haven't been able to identify any reliable guidelines for fishing salmon and steelhead as regards the phase of the moon. I almost had myself convinced that the full moon was bad for them too, but this last December, I had what I suspect will go down as my best ever numbers day on steelhead on the day after the peak of the full moon. It's probably worth noting that the conditions, moon aside, were similar to what Sky-Guy says he likes. In this case, the fish weren't concentrated so much as plentiful, holiding in every sneaky lie, and ridiculously willing to bite.

As for the barometer, my research turned up the same results as steeliedrew's but my experiences haven't always followed those rules. I will say that I tend to feel more confident on days when the moon is something other than full, the barometer is slowly dropping or steady, and the wind is coming from somewhere between south and west, but like most are saying, the time to go is when you can go. Bring a positive attitude (not usually too hard when going fishing), fish with confidence, and take comfort in the fact that you will do as well as conditions and the fish gods allow.

The one thing I think we can be sure of is that having more fish around makes for better fishing in all weather conditions. For that reason, I think that the overall weather pattern (El Nino, La Nina, etc.) may have more to say about how much success we have in a given season than specific weather conditions. La Nina seems to bring the best possible conditions to our rivers and the ocean, if the numbers of fish I have seen in the past couple years, relative to the few years prior, is any indication.

Never noticed much change with the barometer myself. Have noticed a ton of difference with changes in flow. Fish when you get the chance but get a little extra excited on low flow cold days when you need to break the ice out of the eye on the rod tip.

Vedder and I witnessed one of the all-time greatest shutdowns of a bite in history. Last year up in Alaska on the Alagnak, fish were everywhere. Good every day, but, about the 4th day in, we went and hit the river early and knew a huge push of fish was going to come in from the perfect daylight tide. And yup, here they were, and they came and just kept coming. Vedder was on a roll with the fly, and the main seam we were fishing was stuffed with fish. Fish after fish on our rods. Then the wind, the rain, and the darker clouds. Then, nothing, and I mean nothing for hours. Fish even quit rolling, no signs of fish anywhere except the hundreds flying by the boat as you looked in the water. There were tons of fish in the water all around the boat, some doing laps, some heading up. But only a roller here and there, and nothing biting at all. We came back early for once in the afternoon cuz of the crappy biting fish, tried a few spots heading up, got one fish in one seam and that was it. Back at the lodge, everyone was talking about the fish just quit biting around 11 a.m. And it was the entire river they quit. It was an EPIC LOCKJAW. Not many possibilities as to why except....pressure. A river stuffed full of fish like a trout pond, and ya couldnt get a biter.

But, I'd fish in record low pressure anyways, cuz hey, ya just gotta fish.

Fish won't bite on a falling barometer, or vice versa.
Fish won't bite on a rising barometer, or vice versa.
Fish won't bite on a steady barometer, or vice versa.

When the wind is in the north, the fisherman doth go forth;
when the wind is in the east, the fish doth bite the least;
when the wind is in the south, it pushes the bait in the fish's mouth;
when the wind is in the west, the fish do bite the best!