[burnie]

I read a paper years ago that showed fish feed on a steady or rising barometer and only the Zander would feed during a drop in barometric pressure, only problem is , Salmon don't feed so will it have an effect on their mood?

 

[westie4566]

Some interesting stuff here.

I'd never even heard of the 11am fish, but thinking back I've had quiet a few springers around that time over the years, 4pm has also been a good time for me.

Jockie you mention dead days when the trout aren't rising - I know what you mean. I also get more interested when I see brownies starting to feed. To me there's a certain amount of logic to it. We know (believe) that some of the triggers for salmon taking are curiousity, aggression and latent feeding response.

To me it makes perfect sense that if the brownies are up and at it, something in the salmons brain will remember that feeding response from when they were juveniles and it may make them more on the lookout and interested.

 

[Jockiescott]

I‘ve kept that issue because of the Currie article , and the one on Irish shrimps.

I was just about to ask if there was any chance of seeing the "feast of shrimp flies". 😁

 

[mows]

It may well be due to the insect reactions.
On the Southie , i dont see the kingfishers often, but at least 50% of the time i see the kingfisher, i get a fish.

 

[whiter]

I arrived on the Kerry Blackwater many years ago after rain. The ghillie said: "The blackbirds have started to sing, so the fish should be on." I got 4 grilse and my chum got an 8lber. The water was good and falling, the fish were running but the additonal factor was the clearance after a front had passed; the barometer was rising - always good - and the birds had emerged from shelter. So maybe bird song indicates improving conditiions.

 

[Rrrr]

Another one i see but dont understand is mist/fog on the water. Ive seen pools stacked with rolling seatrout and tons of plucks/takes. as soon as that fog drops near the surface it goes dead within 5 mins. Ive heard about it being temprature differentials but why a fish would care about air temp just dosent make sense.

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[charlieH]

Read Andrew Brett’s book about salmon and barometric pressure.

Im not a serious salmon angler, but it’s interesting stuff.

It's an interesting theory, certainly. However, it was based on quite a small sample of fish, and mainly from one river (the Kyle Carron).

One of the most successful anglers in Scotland today, who will no doubt be known to some here, has done some of his own research into Bett's barometric theory. Based on a rather larger sample of fish, and covering a rather wider selection of rivers, he says he has found no evidence to support it.

 

[goosander]

There are times when you look at the river and it has a leaden look about it with nothing moving. Mates flogging away for nothing. Sitting there you notice a change in the surface and start catching fish.
Fishing for trout on the lochs a move of a few degrees by the wind can bring on a great rise
Bob.

 

[meyre]

All very innerestin'!
Agree with Rrr and Ducan Glass . 18 yrs on the Spey and without doubt the majority of May/June fish seem to have an urge to visit the bank between 10.45 and 12.45. Truly extraordinary or perhaps normal.
I have forgone lunch to persevere until 1400hrs...but no pattern there. .
On the Don at Easter there was a flurry even in snow storms between 11-11.30 .
Afternoons for salmon are blank - for me. The Wye , well the only fish and it was very large came to hand at 11.30 following 3 missed offers.
In blistering weather , low water , it's dawn and dusk ... the reason is that in between nothing will move for good reason.
So the birds are a jaunty sign perhaps but that 11 o'clock 'lunch' bell is a salmon thing. What's going on there?

 

[meyre]

I read Brett's exciting book. I bought a monstrous water proof Japanese watch , quite lovely and it did everything short of frying an egg. It was most distracting and sadly I cannot say that the pinging pressure readings caught anything.
But why 11 am ............the sun has been up in Moray or Aberdeenshire since 3.30 am in June...in fact it barely sets. What happens in Iceland or the Kola?

 

[MCXFisher]

I wrote about this almost 10 years ago. Have a look at this article which discusses marked peaks in hen fish taking times across a 10 year period. The other article examines the correlation between cock fish behaviour and light levels. Barometric pressure is an inadequate explanation, not least because the hour to hour fluctuations are too small to be significant.

 

[meyre]

Many thanks. Only Cocks and light intensity is accessible ....and it is clearly a good explanation of sudden competitive behaviour ...rather like the sergeant's early and ghastly appearance in a barrack !
Can one find the other item in your Salar Blog?

 

[Hardyreels]

I am what is known in America as an amateur naturalist / ornithologist, one of those people who when I was able to choose elective courses in uni I took vertebrate zoology for fun. Many years as the conservation chair at the largest Audubon chapter in my state you could call me a former birder. If we add in the decade raising poultry and game birds there is even more avian experience. It was a simple correlation for me as a fly fisher to relate the behavior of birds to that of fishes because their brains and reproductive systems are somewhat similar. Feeding behavior related to changes in weather also seem somewhat similar or at least in my experience they were with trout.

 

[happy days]

Seen so many fish caught in so many variable conditions that this theory is a tale for the birds.

 

[Petekd]

The 11am fish is my thing. No idea why it happens but i hook alot of fish at 11am or 10 mins either side. An old hand told me about it years ago and whenever ive had a fish i check the time. Its 11am more than it should be.

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I’m a firm believer in this too, happened way too often to not be something in it. However in my case on the stretch I fish it may be more to do with the fact that after a 9am start, a slow dander down and fishing through a pool or two en route to ‘the good bit..’ that it’s purely coincidental.

 

[Rrrr]

I’m a firm believer in this too, happened way too often to not be something in it. However in my case on the stretch I fish it may be more to do with the fact that after a 9am start, a slow dander down and fishing through a pool or two en route to ‘the good bit..’ that it’s purely coincidental.

My start times can vary from 4am to 10am and it still seems to work. Ive thought about light angles etc but it seems to happen throughout the year when the sun will be at diffrent angles anyway.

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[Loxie]

It's an interesting theory, certainly. However, it was based on quite a small sample of fish, and mainly from one river (the Kyle Carron).

One of the most successful anglers in Scotland today, who will no doubt be known to some here, has done some of his own research into Bett's barometric theory. Based on a rather larger sample of fish, and covering a rather wider selection of rivers, he says he has found no evidence to support it.

The trouble with all these theories starts when you take them too seriously and pack up when the theory says the fish are off. I think Falkus was spot on when he said to ignore old wives tails and just fish as even if you dont catch there is still much you can learn and you certainly wont catch or learn anything sitting at home.

As to the barometric theory an experience I had back in the day when Salmon were plentiful in the Westcountry convinced me it was nonsense. I took an afternoon off to fish. In the carpark a friend of mine was just packing up. He had had 5 and announced that his watch thingy was telling him the pressure was now wrong so he was going home and I was too late. I ignored this, went anyway and landed 6!

 

[Rrrr]

What are peoples views on seatrout reading baro pressures ? Ive seen it a load of times in low water when they start running before we get rain and a spate. The only variable i can see is baro pressure as a front comes in or they notice cloud cover and move based on that.

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[Jockiescott]

So if not barometric pressure, what is it that makes the river look like an empty puddle?

I've been living with my river 100 yards from my back door since 1986. I can fish the river 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from April to October.

I used to scoff at the old hands when they said, "That's not a fishing day". The days you could not have forced them to the river at gunpoint. 😂 As I've gotten older, I've come to realise that they weren't too far off the mark at all.

That isn't to say that you didn't touch fish on those days. However, the takes were all soft, half hearted plucks and I very rarely actually hooked anything. It was a real slog.

This was during the summer too when pools were full of grilse. You went to a pool one day and it was like watching a pot of soup boiling with trout and grilse splashing. Then the next day it was completely dead. The next day was like a fish tank again?

I suppose its just one of the mysteries of nature. Long may she keep her secrets. 🙂

 

[firefly]

All animals live with and adapt to the weather. They feel the changes before we do. Barometric pressure is one of the indicators they can use without having to look at the gauge. We might not feel the difference, but they sense it, especially in aquatic environments. Subsequently, their (feeding) behaviour is influenced by (sudden) changes. There will always be odd exceptions, but they'll never disprove the correlation between natural phenomena and the creatures experiencing them. It has been going on for millenia, we've only started to think about it a two hundred years ago.