Barometric Pressure and Angling

Good afternoon to everyone,

Through out the years, I have been looking at this forum for much information and many tips, and I thank all of you for it.

As I continue my battle in understanding Lake Simcoe, I am trying to figure out the correlation between the barometric pressure and feeding tendencies of fish, especially whitefish and lake trout.

I am wondering what everyone's opinion on this topic?

Do fish seem to go down deeper, and feed less during high barometric pressure (For example the last few days with the cold weather system, the pressure has been very high)?

Do you think fish tend to feed on shallower areas during low pressure times? For example a top of a shoal at like 30 - 50ft?

Do you find increasing or decreasing pressure affecting the mood of the fish in terms of bite aggression?

Any and all information is welcome.

Thanks in advance,

For me, it always seems to help going deeper when the pressure is high. I was out last weekend in high pressure. Spent the morning fishing 50-60 fow and not much as a mark. Moved deeper to 92 fow later in the afternoon. Iced 3 lakers in 45 minutes

I have studied what I could find on this issue. My conclusion fro all I have read is low BP causes the fish’s air bladders to expand so they go deeper where the pressure is greater to get in a comfortable zone so fish deeper, Most opinions indicate rising pressure trend is best , abrupt change is good high to lo or lo to hi, worse BP trend is bottom of dropping BP trend and steady long term High BP as bite is hit or miss as fish feed throughout the day. I try to be aware of BP trends whenever I fish and hope to draw more conclusions from actual expirence. If you google barometric pressure forecast and trends there is a site that uses your location services on your phone to give you a 72 hour forecast and 72 hour history. Quite interesting.

I’ve always found low pressure = better fishing. The high pressure pure sun no cloud days I find are slower. But big changes in low pressure like today and tommorrow should be good , big change to high pressure not good. If it’s steady consistent weather then I find the moon phases play a roll.

Approaching system this evening and overnight… today should be good fishing in my opinion. I wouldn’t be fishing too deep today personally. I fish smaller lakes than simcoe, but with depths up to 250fow, I never fish deeper than 55fow here, usually around 45fow…. For lakers whitefish and walleye. Fish should be feeding and on the move in my humble opinion.

Oh and double whammy today it’s the full moon!

Edit: I would bet tomorrow during the storm would also be pretty good. Big fish like nasty weather.

Thank you for your insight, I will try to put it to use and come up with my own correlations.

I typically use Fish Angler app, as it gives you history and future predictions on BP, Weather, Winds and Minors and Major bite periods.

The idea for me is to look back at days I caught, and where I caught (Location, depth, bottom structure) and come up with some sort of linear connection.

But the best day to go fishing is when you can, so that will never deter me from trying it out for the day.

Nailed it! Untill I'm retired, opportunities are limited. Just get out.

I like to use windfinder for BP forecast. It does change often just like the wind. So I always check the day before I wanna go fishing.