Sunny Days and High Pressure System Blues

[DeeCee]

Hey, over the years of ice fishing I have noticed that bright sunny days and high barometric pressure seems to really kill the bite on trout and perch through the ice.
Any thoughts on this?

Also its seems to me that two or three cloudy days in a row and lower barometric pressure seems to turn the fish on to biting. Then when the weather changes to sunnier day the bite is slower.

Also does anybody know why morning and evening seems to be a good bite time for fish?

Would like to hear others thoughts and experiences on the subject.

DeeCee []

I ice fish not because I like the cold, but because it is the only time of year I can impress my wife, by walking on water.
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[kentd71]

I read some where that right before low pressure comes in they feed more. It said the changing pressure is what they do not like and that with 3 days of the same pressure they will get back to normal feeding. I have caught several fish in the middle of a bad snow storm on Henrys opening weekend so who knows.
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[gstott]

I've heard that bass especially don't like the bright light. I don't know if it physically bothers them, or if they just feel more vulnerable with bright light. I would also think that in the summer evenings and mornings would encourage the fish to become more shallow because they wouldn't be as visible to predators, and because the lack of direct sun on the water would help cool things down a little. As for ice fishing, perhaps these behaviors just carry over from open water. Just a guess though.
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[windriver]

I don't have a scientific explanation, but historically I have caught 80% of my fish ice fishing before 10 a.m.

It seems like after 10:00 I really have to work the fish to get them to hit.

Perch are an exception. Most of my perch are caught in the middle of the day.

Windriver
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[DeeCee]

I have on one occasion had a similar experience where right before a snow storm I had the only bites of the day and caught one fish and then got out of there in a good snowstorm. I have found approaching low fronts usually translates into a better bite.


DeeCee
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[DeeCee]

Thanks for the reply gstott. I read in the INfisherman magazine a few years ago that largemouth bass move in to the shallows an hour or so before nightfall to prey on small fish minnows like bluegill. The article said that during evening hours the largemouth bass has superior eyesight compared to other fish species such as bluegill and it gives them an advantage over their prey.

About 12 years ago a friend and I were fishing on Ririe reservoir for smallmouth bass from a boat. It was a clear sunny day and we had a very small isolated thundercloud come over us and the wind and storm lasted about ten to 15 minutes, then it was gone. Previous to the storm the day was bright and sunny with no clouds. The fish had been down in the water column about 25 to 30 feet deep. During the brief storm the fish had quickly moved down to about 50 feet or more. It took a full hour before they had returned to the 25 foot depth. I think the dramatic and sudden light change spooked them to the deeper depth.

Hey gstott, what a beautiful little trout in your profile photo.
Is it a redband trout and where did you catch it anyway?

DeeCee
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[DeeCee]

Thanks for the reply and input Windriver! []

Several years ago my father and I arrived on Devil Creek reservoir and started ice fishing about 45 minutes before the sun came up over the mountains and shined on the ice. In that 45 minutes my father landed one rainbow and it seemed that when the sun hit the ice it was over for the day until the sun went down behind the mountains in the evening.. As the evening shadows fells upon the ice the fish magically turned on all of a sudden. In that last hour before dark, we caught our limit of six trout each. Morning and evening was bite time. I wonder if fish feel more secure in shaddows and at dark?

DeeCee
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[gstott]

Good old Infisherman, they definitely know their stuff. I may need to start getting their magazine again.

That's an interesting story about the smallmouth. Maybe the noise and wave action from the storm bothered them too. Back when I lived in Salt Lake, I fished Little Dell Reservoir a few times. On the clear days, I never caught anything, but if I went on a really nasty rainy day, I usually caught some nice cutts. My friend hit it in a blizzard one day and just knocked them dead.

I'm not quite sure what that trout is. It looks like a redband, but I caught it on the Upper Provo River off the Mirror Lake Highway, and I don't think they're supposed to live there. I suppose it could be a cuttbow, or maybe even some sort of golden/rainbow hybrid. I was pretty surprised by it when I caught it. That's why I took it's picture even though it was small.

Greg
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[fishjon]

I don't have any science backing me up but I have noticed when flyfishing that the aquatic life goes crazy just before a storm when the barrometer is dropping. I remeber one day in particular where I couldn't buy a rise and then a storm front blew in and bam. Mayflies started to boil out of the river and so did the fish. I must of caught 50 over the next hour. Then it started to pour and it was over. I wounder how "bite times" through the ice correspond with the activity of the aquatic insects? I know most of the fish I catch through the ice of any species are full of insects and plankton and such not other fish. Although that deffinetly happens to.
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[gstott]

It does seem like most aquatic insects seem to like lower light conditions. I would say that seems especially true of pale morning duns. They always seem to start popping out of the stream when a summer storm roles in. I have fished some good stonefly, drake and damsel fly hatches under bright light conditions, so I guess it depends on the species.
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[davefishman]

I actually have a GPS unit that has a barometric pressure sensor and a pressure plotting utility on it. I have only had it since September, but I have noticed that the fish seem to begin biting when the pressure starts dropping and stop when the pressure bottoms out. Thus, It may be more of a function of the change in pressure than the actual pressure, but either way, I believe that things are definitely effected by pressure.
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[DeeCee]

I believe you're on to something davefishman. I have wondered if the change in pressure might not affect the fish's swim bladder in some way which in turn affects its eating desire. Who knows?

DeeCee [:/]
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