So I talked with Mayhem about this briefly and he mentioned that hes starting to learn what weather conditions muskies like. So far my take is that I seem to catch them at the wrong time! and never get on them during "prime" conditions.
So to continue this conversation I figured we could list our favorite weather conditions, and what we like to look for, maybe some of us have the right idea with the wrong application… like me!
Thanks for the input!
I think one of the main keys that we dont always think about is the trends of weather the week before your fishing day and what impact it has had on water temps. If the water has rapidly warmed or rapidly cooled it doesn't seem to matter what the weather is while your fishing the fish will just be off. Case in point, the week after the opener this year the water temps soared on some of the smaller lakes. Osterhout went from 54 to 69 degrees in 7 days. We went and fished it at the end of that week in cloudy low pressure conditions. The weather that day seemed awesome but the fish were off big time. My expanation? the water temps had risen too much.
Basically I think slowly rising water temps in the spring, slowly cooling temps in the fall, and steady temps in the summer or slowly rising after a summer cold front are the key to good fishing. If water temps are in one of these categories I could care less if the weather is sunny, partly cloudy, or raining, I think fishing will be decent.
Lots of people think that cold fronts kill the bite but when they are strictly talking about a drop in air temperature the fishing can be quite good in my experience the day or 2 after a cold front if the water temps don't plummet as long as you dont get the high bluebird skies and high pressure. Some of the best fishing in the spring in particular seems to be on these cold grey days (like this years opener). The water is cold anyways so the water temps dont actaully drop much even though the air maybe dropped 20 degrees.
I dont buy into the moon theories at all, at least in terms of things like moon rise and moon set causing "feeding windows". I do think that full moon and new moon periods can cause an increase in activity for many animal species.
One more thing with weather I have noticed is that you will often get bit right before or as a very minor weather change occurs. This can be something like a 5 mph increase in wind speed, change in wind direction, or a couple clouds blowing by on a sunny day. This always shocks me as it often happens right before the weather change occurs. You will catch a fish and 5 minutes later the wind will shift or something and I always thinkg "how the heck do those fish know that!"
I'm still wrong a ton about the weather but I dont freak out trying to fish the "perfect low pressure days" anymore. I've done just as well when the sun is high in the sky.
Obviously I like to have the weather be humid, overcast, and even a little rainy. I do agree that water temps have a big part in it as well, but I still like to have overcast skies. Having cloud cover always helps as it cuts down the light penetration in the water which lets predator fish hunt with more success. A rapid increase or decrease in water temps will definitely turn the fish off IMO, so it is nice to have consistent air temps for about a week and then have a cloudy, rainy day at the end of the week.
Good discussion. I like slowly warming or no increase in water temps in the spring. Slightly cooling or stable temps in the fall, and stable temps in the summer.
I am a big fan of fishing the first cool morning after a long hot spell, particularly on shallow lakes like Austin. This pattern has paid off huge for me on numerous occasions.
I prefer cloud cover, but sunny days with a chop can be good. Not a fan of flat calm high sunny days… they are the toughest. (especially on the chain, might as well go golfing)
I love a full moon during the day, a new moon anytime, and moonset. I will try to be on a good spot at moonset. I prefer mornings over evenings, but that might just be me.
I also know I have had many skunkings even during prime conditions and multiple fish days when they shouldn't be active.
Overall, my favorite time to be on the water is WHENEVER I CAN!
"Scott Williams" said:
Overall, my favorite time to be on the water is WHENEVER I CAN!
Ha thats pretty much me, but in those "whenever I can"s I have been out during lots of different conditions. The only consistent weather pattern I have noticed is sunny stable and a little wind. The best day I ever had was on a day that was sunny and fairly calm with passing rain every hour or so, it seemed to keep fish active for about 5 hours straight… which I would say is the prefect pattern.
I lagree with the water condition changes, and the fish in their world sense these changes much more efficiently than we do.
The long term weather is something I'm trying to start following, I really haven't gotten into barometric pressure much because I go whenever I can, but would like to find a source that has the current conditions, whats changing and a projection of it.
I haven't a clue if any of this matters much to an apex predator but I can say that it works for me.
I prefer rain, clouds, sun, day or night and pattern changes are best. I hate calm water but did catch my 3rd fish of the day a few weeks ago after the clouds cleared and the wind totally died and was left with a 2pm hot sunny day.
I-Solunar app for my iphone does a great job on the minor and the major periods, and has a weather function, trophy room as well. I can even email any of you the daily solunar activity if you pm me. Most importantly it has a 1 to 4 fish scale for the day and if I am on the fence about fishing and see its a 3 or 4 fish day I am definitely fishing!
B.
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Thats a good site to get your moon info from. Just type in your zipcode and it gives you all the info you would want for free for the current month only. You can get more if you pay.
For the last 2+ seasons I have carefully charted every muskie contact I have had to test moon effect amongst other things. I have not paid any attention to the moon while fishing meaning I dont run to a good spot and fish extra hard when the moon is setting or a minor is taking place. I have a scoring system that ranks contacts, an actual bite is worth 5 points, a agressive follow 3 points, and a lazy follow 1 point. Then I correlate the times with various moon periods, majors, minors, moon rise (1 hour), moon set (1 hour). Then I correct for the percentage of time each period takes up during the time I was actually fishing.
The results of this giant waste of time have shown no correlation whatsoever to muskie activity with majors, minors, moon rise, or moonset. In fact I have more "points" right now in the dead time where nothing is happening than during moon induced peak times. I know a lot of people swear by the moon but so far Im not one of them. I do think people that believe in the moon windows tend to fish their prime spots with a lot more focus during "prime time" and thus tend to have more success at those times. I have tried not to fish this way in order not to bias my results.
I do however believe that muskie activity and all animal activity for that matter can be influeced by the "peak days" usually surrounding the new and full moons. The correlation in my charts for this shows a slight advantage in favor of this phenomena and I believe in the science behind it.
I'm still charting and eventually hope to have enough data points to start and break it down even more. Why do I waste my time doing this?, I have no clue. UM claims I'm a scientist, I think I'm just a weirdo 🙄
"Mayhem" said:
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">[Permission to view this media is denied]For the last 2+ seasons I have carefully charted every muskie contact I have had to test moon effect amongst other things. I have not paid any attention to the moon while fishing meaning I dont run to a good spot and fish extra hard when the moon is setting or a minor is taking place. I have a scoring system that ranks contacts, an actual bite is worth 5 points, a agressive follow 3 points, and a lazy follow 1 point. Then I correlate the times with various moon periods, majors, minors, moon rise (1 hour), moon set (1 hour). Then I correct for the percentage of time each period takes up during the time I was actually fishing. 🙄
I like your approach. Your findings are in line with another scientific mind…a retired fisheries biologist that I have exchanged many an email with…probably my favorite musky fisherman of all time….Mr. Doug Johnson! so good work there mr. mayhem. Bottom line – when do you get bit most? When your lure's wet he says!
When i actually have payed attention to the lunar periods with the major and minor's, I have had flurries of activity during these certain times. I have never charted any of this and I feel this can sometimes be skewed on some of the heavily pressured lakes.
When I go to canada it is much easier to find fish during these periods and get them to bite within 30 min of either. It has worked quite a bit for us up there, but i don't pay attention enough when im fishing down here as I am just trying to fish when I get time.
Im on board with the moon rise/set, and the sun rise/set seem to get more action. I like changing light conditions, but the weather thing seems inconsistent for now. Like Mayhem and his solunar tables I hope to have enough data to start making sense soon!
We had a flurry of activity yesterday at about 9 AM, one follow and about 7 or 8 pike in about 15 minutes. Then again at about 6:45 PM, so something had em snapping for a little while yesterday. but the day will certainly go down in the "don't bother" category when I see 20-30 degree airtemp drops, and rain that gets stronger as the day goes on… I think I was secretly hoping that karma would give me a pig for enduring the day, but no luck.
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