Ever hear that fishing on a full moon can be really good or bad for fishing? How about fishing before incoming rain is a good time to fish? Or how about a little wind on the water can improve the fish bite? The forces of nature play a big part on fishing success and paying attention to what is happening around you can be a big bonus in your fish count.
The elements in the weather have a great effect on fish behavior. Over the decades of fishing both salt and freshwaters I have witnessed many things that accounted for really good days fishing and some really poor days. We can’t always decide when to go fishing with our lifestyles, family activities, work schedules and various other reasons but if we take into account some simple expectations in the weather conditions when deciding when to go fishing and when NOT to go then our chances of a successful outing improve.
The moon phases have an impact on the gravitational pull of the moon on the Earth. It effects the high and low tides in saltwater. One skipper told me that only fishing for certain types of fish in the ocean improves before and after a full moon. There may be some truth to that statement but I cannot tell what species he was referring to. Maybe tuna fishing was what he was referring to but what about fishing for rock cod and bottom dwellers? Is it the same principle? Again, I’m not certain it applies to bottom dwellers but there is some sort of relationship between fish activity and moon phases. In freshwater fishing I try to avoid fishing on the full moon but I certainly will fish before and after a full moon. Try to schedule your outings with some reverence to what the moon phase is, might be a good idea.
The barometric pressure whether its high or low is another big factor to fishing activity. Generally speaking, the fishing can improve just before weather changes or low pressure is moving into your area. Fishing the calm before the storm sounds corny but it’s a good time to go fishing. Why? The fish can sense the barometric pressure change in the water and know the weather is about to change. This affects their feeding cycle especially when it's raining making it harder for them to find smaller prey to locate and feed on. What about fishing in the rain? Good or bad idea? I have fished in the rain and white out snow storms and have caught fish. Maybe not as many fish as I would have liked, given how bad the weather can get, generally applies here.
On the advice of a friend of mine to fish the opener of the Sierra trout season at 12:01 AM wasn’t a good idea one year. It was blowing heavy snow with winds up to forty miles per hour. It was so bad that I couldn’t cast my line out even with a heavy sinker due to the wind. Then, my lightweight rod tip was moving so much I couldn’t tell if I was getting a bite. Common sense prevailed and I left my buddies for the warmth of my car, a cabin and getting some sleep in my down filled sleeping bag.
On another trip to Gull Lake in the June Loop Basin I fished in a heavy snow fall in a rental boat with a buddy and absolutely wacked the rainbow trout using plastic worms and Thomas Buoyant Gold spoons. We limited out in a short time and hadn’t seen another angler on the lake. We might have been a little nuts fishing that day but it paid off really well. One little tip I want to pass on here when fishing in the rain sitting on a wet seat in a boat. Get a large heavy duty trash bag and cut two slits in the bottom for your legs and use the cinching strip to tighten around your waist will keep your butt and pants somewhat dry. Call it the poor man’s all-weather suit.
One other force of nature that will greatly affect fishing is the wind as previously mentioned. Why? The wind has several key elements that may determine if fishing activity improves or goes really bad. As I mentioned, fishing in forty mph winds can be really frustrating and generally not a good idea especially in a boat on open water. Some days common sense dictates to stay home and watch TV but a little wind can be a game changer both fishing the salt and freshwaters. In the ocean, wind creates currents and fishing can be really good depending on whether the currents help the bite or are so bad that fishing is nearly impossible. On one trip down to the Sea of Cortez it blew so hard that the mothership had to tie all the smaller fishing boats up one behind the other to keep them from getting blown all over the sea. I stayed on the mothership and decided to bottom fish. Much to all my fishing club buddies dismay, they had to watch me pull a 67 lb. Grouper into the boat for third place jackpot for the 5 day trip. I had a lot of fun watching them bouncing around in their small boats and me drinking a victory beer on deck of the mothership.
Wind and currents play a major factor in ocean fishing even when trolling for tuna, marlin, sharks and other species. Going uphill against the grain or riding the swells downward all play an important factor in fishing success. In freshwater having a little wind on the water helps the oxygen in the water improve and this in turn can help make the fish become more active and bite. One of my favorite methods of fishing is to drift fish both in salt and especially freshwater lakes. Some of my best days fishing have been drift fishing up in the Sierra and local Southland lakes. In the Santa Monica Bay a little wind can really help you catch halibut in March, April and early May by drift fishing. I might be bragging but we caught 43 halibut in one day and only two were keepers fishing in the halibut tournament one year. A week later we fished the same area again but there was no wind and we were almost skunked that day. What was the difference? The wind was the key factor.
The wind can also churn up a body of water making it very dirty or the visibility bad and that may affect your fishing success. There are many other factors in nature that can determine if your day fishing will be good or not, but adjusting accordingly to the force of nature is key to fishing success.
