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Why fish dont bite

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bite fish
17K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  huntfishlife 
#1 ·
I found this on a Malysian web site and thought this was amuzing. The guys name is Lureman. :p
Why and When Fish Don't Bite ?

They care about only two things in their life : Reproduction and Eating. They are perpetually hungry. Fish had been caught with bait fish tails or hook hanging out their mouth. And they still bite.

Fish don't kill for recreation, or any other reason except for the above two. They will bite a lure while spawning but not because of hunger, but to protect their spawning bed and fry.

These are facts :

But you say fish don't always bite. Sometimes you can't keep them off a hook, but most times you don't even get a bite.

So what's going on ?

Some people say it's all in the moon & its phases. Others say its the sun or the rain. They produce tables that predict when the bite is on or look for certain sign to indicate the fish are active. I'm not about to offend anyone and only will say if it works for you, keep doing it. Some people who keep track of the catch, time of day, year etc. and correlate it with all the sun & moon data, but you know what ? All methods that have been analyzed always qualify the expected results with a statement that "the local weather is an over-powering factor". So why bother with all these theories. And theories they are unless someone can produce a fish that can speak human language and tell us in their own words what turns on the bite. Well, if we eliminate all the theories what does turn on the bite ? There are some facts to work with. One, we do know that fish turn on and off feeding. And we do know weather has a great effect on feeding. So lets look at "weather".

Weather has 4 components that effect the bite. Hi & Low barometer pressure and Hot & Cold.

The Cold front. It's real hard to get a bite because the fish are not comfortable. They just plain shut down. Even the live bait anglers have a tough time picking up a small one or two. It's a fact that a nasty Cold front seals Haruan's lips and they wait it out and we have to also. This is a reason fish won't bite but why do they at other normal (no Cold front) times turn on and off ?

I don't know. However, I believe it's caused at the beginning of the food chain. Something either hatches out or starts to move that is very small. The little fish go on a feeding binge and all larger fish follow, attracting Haruan, Toman, Sebarau and etc. into action. And of course Haruan, Toman and Sebarau turn on as long as their dinner is chasing "their" dinner. It will last an hour or less and things go back to a slower pace. Haruan, Toman and Sebarau are opportunists and being always hungry they will feed all the time, providing they are comfortable. But there definitely are hot "on" times. These are unknown and unpredictable but something in the food chain is happening.

Lets take barometric pressure. The record Hi and record Low of pressure is read in millibars. Converted to pounds per square inch the difference is about one pound. So now we have about 14 pounds per square inch. (Normal sea level air pressure) And this changes about 1/2 pound either side of the normal 14 pounds. Actually the change does not go maximum or even near it so this change is considerable less than 1/2 pound, probably no more then a few ounces +/-14 pounds.

Can a fish notice this small change and has it anything to do with feeding (the bite) ? I don't know, nor does anyone else. I do know that just before a storm (and even in it) fish turn the bite on. This is a well proven fact. But does a Low barometer effect the fish body to trigger the bite ? I don't think so. Assuming a Toman is at 3-foot depth. Under normal gallivanting in the water, it would have to stay exactly at that level or the pressure from the water would increase or decrease a lot more than the small air pressure change. So it's reasonable to disregard barometers readings. Something else is going on to produce the bite.

What about Temperature ? Fish are cold blooded which means (unlike us our temperature about 98 ) their body temperature is the waters temperature and Haruan, Toman and Sebarau along with their food supply like warm (not hot) water the best. They always live where they are comfortable. If a Cold front from the night before, fish seek the warmer deep water. Surface water cools off first aided by wave action. They also like to hold in the thick weeds and structures, seems to hold the water from movement thus provides warmer water longer. In higher habitat lakes (such as Cameron Highland, Klang Gates and etc.) the fish suspend in a zone of comfort as the top of the lake is colder than the suspension zone. Rest assured the fish will seek out the warmer comfort zone at all times of the weather.

What about the bite on a Warm front ? Everything's on the plus side but still we have an "on & off" situation. The fish don't always bite all the time. Something else is going on.

Back to square one.

Anyone has a better theory "Why and When Fish Don't Bite ?"
 
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#6 ·
The article disregards the barometric pressure stimulus too quickly without fully analyzing the theory.... barometer plays a large role in whether fish are actively feeding or not .... Yes, the pressure differences at different depths are far greater then the barometric swing in atmospheric pressure. However, they are always a constant. i.e.: pressure differences at different depths are always the same. The barometric pressure is a variable that is always changing... why is it that fish often bite well, just before a front moves in? How do they know it's coming? ... Barometric pressure changes.. That is the only way they can tell... They don?t get the weather channel.

stripers have an air bladder that they use to control buoyancy.. Low pressure, the bladder grows in size; high pressure, the bladder shrinks.. very sensitive to pressure...

what I've found in my correlations this season, is that fish like a stable barometer.. They don't care whether it's high or low as long as it's stable...
don't believe it? Try fishing a spiking barom or a plummeting barom... neither will fish as well as a stable one....

I used this same link all season after each trip (good or bad). It is a 5 day history graph of barometric pressure of my local area (somewhat) after each trip I would check the graph.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/plot_met.php?station=44007&meas=pres&uom=E

those were my findings after well over 150 fishing trips .. Still only a theory
 
#7 ·
Barometer

Jigman
I dont think lureman can be taken totally seriously :D
But I certainly agree with the barometric pressure thing. Especially when they feed on flats. I have been trying to pay more attention to it. I always seem to target on coming fronts with a drop in pressure as my blitzing times. And immediately after the system clears out and the pressure rise.s I will have to assimilate what you have proposed some more.

Heres what Bill Dance had to say on the subject regarding largemouth behavoirs. You may have read it already.
All science was once theory until proven objectively. :D
http://stripers247.com/phpBB2/showthread.php?t=410http://stripers247.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1934#1934
 
#8 ·
247, interesting read, and it is somewhat true to my observations as well... fish are generally more consistantly active during stable barometric conditions.. what I've found is that whether one is fishing deep or shallow, if the barom is ripping in either direction the bite slows to a crawl.. if I had a choice of fishing a riser or a faller, I'd definately rather fish the faller especially a slow faller.. and you do get the bite spirts as the barom 'starts' to fall .. but when it's free-falling things slow..

for the most consistant bite, one you can plan on, it's the flat-line barom that wins...

I have even noted in day-long trips, what hours were best for consistant bite... gone back and looked at the history chart, and sure enough, 95% of the time it was during a flat-line period...

there are of coarse many other factors that can turn on, or off the bite, like bait driven flurries, or tide driven flurries..

But too many times it would happen in a single spot, during a consistant tidal flow, with bait available the entire time.. those were the best tests for the theory...

now all I need is a barometric stability forecast..... instead of a history graph... :roll: .. even if you had a real-time super-sensitive barometer on board it aint gonna help... but what the heck, that's why I fish all day... to catch the spirts.. :D

and hey if fishing was easy, it wouldn't be near as fun.. :wink:
 
#9 ·
Jigman

Ive found that those beautiful days with high Barometric pressure to be my least productive for stripeys. Thats why I always surmised that the cloudy overcast days were my best fishing days because of the lower pressures . Thats why I find the discussion on barometric pressures fascinating. Ive hooked into a few unlandable monsters in approaching storms. And have slaughtered em immediately upon clearing of the storm. I'm sure it had to do with the wind and barometric pressures. I must admit though 90 % of my fishing is done at night. I dont catch enough fish to determine any enduring baro patterns. Only the experience with the approaching and clearing storm successes. And some lucky big bait bites I get when I'm fishing. :D
 
#11 ·
LMAO I hear yah.. the barometer is only a small part of the equation eh? you can have the worst conditions going and have bait come out of nowhere, fish flopping all around, the works.. bright sunny day, noon time..

read an article written by a fisheries biologist that stated that low pressure is what aggrevates fishes.. and a high BP stimulates activity... based upon the fact that low BP makes their bladder expand, which it must, if the pressure within the bladder is constant... pushes against their guts making them uncomfortable.. (fish cramps) and a high BP releaves this and makes them more active.... but for the most part a stable BP gives them time to adjust to conditions and feel comfortable enough to feed and be active...

makes you wonder how that fish feels that you jig off the bottom at forty feet and haul to the surface... must have the ol' cramps big-time... no wonder they most often scream right back to the deep.. but then again I've scanned holes that deep with fish recorded on the bottom and have them come flying up to hit a popper on the surface... makes you go HMMM to any theory out there eh?....

have noticed this year too that the deep jiggin bite is much better during high BP .. and like you say during low BP more active in shallows and or near the surface...

one instance that really stuck out was when I took Jonny and Ian out in the kenny... we had a good consistant bite in the AM between say 6:00am and 8:00am then a lull to about 11:00am and the bite picked back up to about 2:00pm ... then was just kind of slow til we quit... I dropped them off at the dock and went back out for an hour or so and caught 7-8 more fish then left.... when I got home did my usual check of the history BP graph and sure as hell... BP was bottomed out early then between 6-8 it had come up off bottom ran flat for 2 hours shot up some more, flat-lined between 11-2, shot up some more then was flat afer 5 or so ... it really blew me away... weather front was moving thru that morning and was gone by day's end... the morning bite was when ian landed the striper that's in the photo on your lead page.... the one with jonny going OOOOO!

lol that was a fun day.... broke in the new boat that day.... jonny drew first blood..LOL
 
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