Piking Opportunity

[fantasticfisherman]

i suppose thats why i like lure fishing so much, it works all year round and its an active way of fishing for them

[Dick Dastardly]

Bait fishing done properly is EXTREMEly active mate! give leap frogging with four rods along a featureless drain/river or around an unknown still water a try and you will see what I mean! no bed chait for an active bait fisherman just a quick breather on the livvly bucket in between leaps!

 

Glenn,I honestly believe they can sense an impending change in air pressure let alone the change itself.Give you but one example of many similar situations that have lead me to believe this. One day whilst fishing on a trout reservoir on a routine trip we decided as the weather wasnt to pleasant to actually fish of the cages where our fishing boat was kept moored.Here we would at least have the luxurey of using the hut for a brew! Hadnt been keeping a close eye on the weather as we had both been in the US on a trip.Due to the weather not much was expected and not a great deal did happen.Just as we were considering calling it a day the fish suddenly came on the feed.There was no realy noticable change in the conditions but it was non stop untill the light started to fade.Checked the barometer in the hut and it showed a slight rise but not much.By the time we had packed up,covered the fishing boat up, gone ashore in the commando,drove the few hundred metres back to the cottage the barometer in the kitchen had gone sky high! next morning was classic high pressure conditions and the fishing just as good as the previous evening.Like I said just one example of why I feel they sense the comming change.

 

I also feel that the mere fact that fish live in a pressured enviroment ie water is why they are so sensitive to air pressure changes.

 

I think it is the light values which encourage/assist pike hunting in high pressure conditions rather than the cold.

 

Why they pick up deads in low? I once did a study on bait preferences (part of my degree) I logged every single fish caught (321),every run/take over a winter season.There was lots of interesting data but for the purpose here it showed quite clearly that lives and lures would catch the most in multiple catchs whilst deads would always "save the day" so to speak where they would inevitabley be the ones taken on poor result days.

 

Incidently on the particular water used there was no prefernce to live lure or dead when it came to size of fish as I caught the same 24lb fish twice ,once on dead and later on a live!Whilst on a river that I carried out a similar study even though the ratio of fish caught on lives to deads was over 30 to 1 in favour of lives the amount of doubles caught was more than 8 to 1 in favour of deads.

 

Like I said Glenn I can only guess at the reasons why but the fact that this is the case is to me written in stone.

[GlennB]

Why they pick up deads in low? I once did a study on bait preferences (part of my degree) I logged every single fish caught (321),every run/take over a winter season.There was lots of interesting data but for the purpose here it showed quite clearly that lives and lures would catch the most in multiple catchs whilst deads would always "save the day" so to speak where they would inevitabley be the ones taken on poor result days.

 

Cheers Budgie. Do you think that the "save the day" fish on a poor day is down to the smell getting reluctant fish interested? Of course I suppose there's always the fact that it's possible to get a deadbait to linger in a fish-holding spot, whereas a lure is just 'passing by' a few times. A pike that can't really be arsed might mosey over to investigate the interesting smell?

 

BTW what was your degree? Sounds like a good choice if you got to fish endlessly as part of your studies

[Steve Burke]

I've no doubt at all that fish are sensitive to atmospheric pressure. However this is not just light levels or anything else; it's the pressure itself. To check this scientists found that trout in indoor tanks in controlled conditions were active off the bottom when the pressure was high and on the bottom in low pressure! It thus couldn't be light or temperature that caused the effect. Almost certainly it was the barometric pressure.

 

Like Budgie, I've found that pike come on the feed as pressure begins to rise as an anticyclone moves in. This is regardless of any fall in the water temperature. Long term members may remember the fabulous time I had in December 2002 when the pressure rose after being low for weeks but it was flipping freezing! This is another of the many past threads discussing barometric presure. See http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.p...topic=29714&hl=

[Steve Burke]

We've often discussed moon phases and inland fishing on the Forum and sometimes the debate has got heated to say the least! Just do a search!

 

My own feeling is that the phase of the moon does affect fishing results. For instance, a large proportion (too large to be chance) of US freshwater records came within a day or two of either new moon or full moon.

 

The connection between the moon and fishing goes back even further than John Aldon Knight's book in the 1920s. In fact, the ancient Maori calendar is based on the moon, with each day of the lunar month being rated according to the fishing.

 

Having said all that, I don't believe that the moon is as important as many other factors, including the weather and floods etc. Instead it's just one more piece in the jigsaw - in non-tidal waters anyway.

[Newt]

Having said all that, I don't believe that the moon is as important as many other factors, including the weather and floods etc. Instead it's just one more piece in the jigsaw - in non-tidal waters anyway.

 

Steve - lots of hunters over here use the same prediction tables as are done for anglers. I think the theory is that whatever conditions are good for fishing will also be good for shooting. It is a good bit easier for us land animals to observe the behavior of other land animals and it does seem that the times/conditions/moon-sun phases that are said to be good for the fishing also see the animals more active and moving around.

 

As you noted, just one more piece to the jigsaw since a rain or snow or major pressure front has more immediate effect.

[Tim Kelly]

Steve - lots of hunters over here use the same prediction tables as are done for anglers. I think the theory is that whatever conditions are good for fishing will also be good for shooting. It is a good bit easier for us land animals to observe the behavior of other land animals and it does seem that the times/conditions/moon-sun phases that are said to be good for the fishing also see the animals more active and moving around.

 

As you noted, just one more piece to the jigsaw since a rain or snow or major pressure front has more immediate effect.

 

If you ask an American guide which days are booked furthest in advance they will always be the ones where the moon is predicted to be at its most beneficial. I suspect it's one of thise things that becomes self fullfilling. If most people go fishing when it's predicted to be good, guess what? that's when most of the fish will be caught! The poor moon weekends have less fishing effort and therefor the results look that much poorer.

 

If you look back over your fishing results and try to find a pattern of success in good moon phases during random fishing effort I would be fascinated to see and difference. I certainly haven't noticed the effect in any of my results. In fact, it looks as if most of my better fish have come in "bad" moon phases, but often because the days when the season started or the trout ressie opened didn't happen to be on a good moon day!

Edited December 18, 2005 by Tim Kelly

[Steve Burke]

If you ask an American guide which days are booked furthest in advance they will always be the ones where the moon is predicted to be at its most beneficial. I suspect it's one of thise things that becomes self fullfilling. If most people go fishing when it's predicted to be good, guess what? that's when most of the fish will be caught! The poor moon weekends have less fishing effort and therefor the results look that much poorer.

 

Tim, that's a very good point! I confess I hadn't considered that. However I wonder how many more US anglers do fish on the days that are predicted to be good? Newt and other US members?

 

 

 

 

Steve - lots of hunters over here use the same prediction tables as are done for anglers. I think the theory is that whatever conditions are good for fishing will also be good for shooting.

 

I've mentioned this before on the Forum (and took a bit of stick for it!) but when I see rabbits out in the day I expect to catch well. However, this seems to apply more to species like perch and chub than pike.

[jeepster]

can't remember the last day i didn't see rabbits all round our house, also can't really remember the last pike i caught!

[GlennB]

can't remember the last day i didn't see rabbits all round our house, also can't really remember the last pike i caught!

 

Hunt rabbits instead? Good to eat too In fact I can't remember the last time I had rabbit stew .. we often had it when I was a kid but it seems to have become unfashionable or something.