Hotspotoutdoors

Hey everyone! Ive never really quite understood this topic. What is considerd "high pressure" and "low pressure"? How does it affect fishing? And lastly, What is better for fishing?

Stable pressure patterns are good. Drop in pressure is good. Rising pressure is bad.

That is how I view it in simplest terms. High pressure puts the fish in a negative mood. You can get them to bite, but likely more finicky.

I use Weather Underground to track patterns before I hit the lake.

It seems that panfish are more sensitive to a sudden change in pressure, they turn off pretty easily.

Is it just me or does it seem to affect the fish ALOT more during the ice season than the open water?

Steady pressure for several days in a row = good fishing. Big pressure changes = hit or miss. Sometimes right when a big pressure system is moving in, fishing can be out of this world. As soon as that pressure system finally hits your area, I find the fishing to slow way down and the fish get extremely finicky until the pressure stabilizes for a few days.

this can/could all be true....ironically though the old wise saying that fishing is ALWAYS better when it is raining and i have to say regardless of target, i am kinda living proof of this, i always get bites in a little drizzle no matter what.

well say for example right now the barometer is reading 29.81. is that considered high pressure or low pressure?

I think that would be close to a normal pressure. I've caught fish when the barometer has been moving either way. If you can go fishing go or you wont know if they bit or not.

Its really not so much how high the pressure is or how low the pressure is, its weather or not is rising or falling. Generally, a rising pressure can make for tough fishing, and or a high pressure(over 30) which usually will mean a cold front and a blue bird sky.

Falling pressure is usually best fishing. And thats usually when a storm is on the way or here. Hence why fishing is good in the rain/snow..

How do you know if the pressure is increasing or decreasing? What sites do you go on to keep track?

I use Weatherunderground, but I just looked and I'm not sure how I got to the trending page. I keep a URL favorite saved and then just change the Sunday date for each week. Here is a link I use for the Metro area.
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airp...ame=NA&MR=1

Do the googles on "TRAC Fishing Barometer". Retails for about $18. I have an older one from a different manufacturer, but I don't pay a lot of attention to it. I just go fishing as often as possible.

This is what I have seen as well. I generally do consider anything over 30 to be high pressure, and put far more weight on the trends.

I don't look at the pressure while I'm fishing so much, generally when I'm out there I pay more attention to the environment rather than a computer or mobile device or something... birds, wind, insect activity, temp changes, clouds increasing etc...

After I'm done fishing I go to weatherunderground and look at the weather history data for the location I fished. At a min I go and download a month worth of history data to add to my records later. It's really a good tool for analyzing this stuff.

To get to the history data, There is a "Local weather" tab at the top of the weather underground page. Click on that and select "History Data." Type in your city/zip/whatever and a date. Once you reach the next page you can select different ranges, (week, month, custom, etc).

low pressure means less pressure on the water, and the fish are more "free" to move throughout the water column. High pressure means more pressure on the water, and seems to affect the fish negatively. Surface map forcasts showing isobars are a great way to predict fish mood a few days out. I've found that pike seem to be the least affected by pressure changes, with crappie and walleye the most affected. Just my opinion based on the limited fishing I've done why actually tracking the barometer.