High Pressure Weather

[Wanative]

While a big fan of fishing when there is an opportunity, have never caught a decent fish without getting my fly wet!

That said I pay attention to such things as wind direction, barometric pressure, solar lunar tables, cloud cover, etc. all which potentially impacts my fishing success. I like to stack things into my favor.

To the topic at hand, I have found that high pressure can affect my fishing success, more so in cold water (winter) than in warm water. My theory is that in winter there are sporadic hatches which seem to be affected by the bugs accumulating temperatures days and that a day or so into a high-pressure system it is not uncommon to see a hatch triggered but the following days the seem to be less bugs for several days. During the winter if there are say an expected 5 days of high-pressure, I opt to fish day 1 and 4 or 5 while in the spring/early summer I expect more or less consistent fishing all 5 days. If I find myself fishing on a slow day I often resort to presenting suggestive patterns on aggressive retrieves or troll hoping to trigger reaction bites (this has saved more than a few days).

Some of my best fishing has been at the front edge of a storm front which can produce some short but intense fishing.

Curt

I agree with the approaching storm front theory Curt.
3 of the most productive bass fishing outings I've experienced were during such a scenario.
I felt like Bill Dance and Roland Martin rolled into one. Crazy good fishing. Laughing my ass off the whole time as it was so unbelievable.
It happens far less times than it doesn't for sure though.
I've made a point watching for those conditions and make a point to get after them when it happens. Odds are slim but
when it happens there's nothing like it.

 

[Bambooflyguy]

Sun and no wind…..my favorite lake fly fishing weather!! I can see subtle indicator takes and sipping trout. But I guess that’s just me…..

 

[Brian Miller]

I have experienced epic fishing on rivers and lakes when pressure drops ahead of weather change. Once long ago while fishing a Wyoming stream a thunderstorm was rolling in and the fish were all over my streamers. One large Brown literally beached himself in front of me chasing my muddler. Once the rain,thunder, and lightning started,it was over.

Funny you should mention a Wyoming stream, and the effect a low pressure cell can have on fish.

I was fishing the NF Shoshone and saw a storm rolling in. I found a car sized bolder a few feet away from the water that had an overhang on the lee side and ducked under it just as the wind kicked up and the dark clouds just opened up! Looking out from under the rock, just as the squall was beginning to pass a tremendous green caddis hatch began. And less than 20 ft away upstream from me a very large trout began rising just behind the leading edge of a V formed by two rocks jutting out from shore. I estimated the bug size at #14 and tied on a green bodied Deer Hair Caddis. Then I slipped out the the other side of the boulder and waded well out and well upstream of the rising trout and began creeping slowly back down. But I saw another trout rising just off the bank closer to me. There were some tricky currents between me and both fish so I decided to "practice" getting a good slack line presentation on the closer fish. After several casts I figured out a good quartering downstream presentation up close to the bank and worked my way into position. A couple of casts and I hooked the "practice" fish but it got downstream of me and pulled loose in the current.

I looked downstream and my primary target fish was still rising so I worked my way down and directly across from it.

On my first cast the fly got carried past the V opening by the current reflected back from the rocks.
The second cast went into the V, a big head came up, the line went taught and I set the hook. I immediately moved downstream while putting deliberate pressure on the fish. The fish responded by moving upstream away from the direction of pull. Using side to side pressure I was able to steer the fish away from the rocky shore so it was constantly fighting me and the current. It tired and I reeled it in. I didn't have a camera or a tape measure but it was quite a large fish.

Meanwhile about 1/4 mile downstream my buddy had worked his way into a lee on a bend in the river and had hooked quite a number of smaller fish on the seam with slack water on the inside corner of the bend during the same post-squall hatch so we both had fun stories to tell about what happened as that low pressure cell moved past us.

What I learned from this was to keep my eyes open and carefully observe what happens on and in the water during and after a rapid weather change.