question about barometric pressure

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Scott Crawford

question about barometric pressure

Post by Scott Crawford »

The weather channel lists the barometric pressure in Stockton as 29 and rising. What does this mean in your opinion in regards to fishing the delta. I looked @ the radar and a front is moving this way which I thought would lower the pressure, but I guess we are more post-front than pre-front. I will be fishing the Delta tomorrow and wondering if anyone tracks this and has insights on how it affects the fishing. I know a falling barometer is generally viewed as better than a rising one. Am I misguided? Thanks in advance. Scott Crawford
Cooch

Difficult conditions a best....

Post by Cooch »

typically a risding baromater means we're in fer clearing blue bird skies after a front, which is exactly what we'll be hit with tomorrow. Very tough conditions considering the recent cold snap to hit.

look for the Delta bass to tuck deeper into cover and become lock jawed. It'll be a crankin kinda day if'n ya wanna catch numbers of fish.

Cooch
basstud

Re: Difficult conditions a best....

Post by basstud »

>now this is one of those things that confuse me,i understand bluebird skies put the fish tight into cover but what confuses me is you say it is a cranking kinda day.now im no pro and not to be a smarta$$ but it seems common sence would tell me to be flipping or pitching into cover if nothing else but to irritate the fish into hitting as cranking is generally done in more of an open water situation....please set me straight on this hehe typically a risding baromater means we're in
> fer clearing blue bird skies after a front,
> which is exactly what we'll be hit with
> tomorrow. Very tough conditions considering
> the recent cold snap to hit.

> look for the Delta bass to tuck deeper into
> cover and become lock jawed. It'll be a
> crankin kinda day if'n ya wanna catch
> numbers of fish.

> Cooch
Cooch

Purty simple,

Post by Cooch »

cover as much water as possible with a reaction bait. The crankbait will do this and remain in the strike zone for much longer periods. THis is not a technique that I'd recommend for all bodies of water, but it is the most effective on the river under blue bird skies. With all that grass out there, you'd never be able to cover enough water to trigger enough strikes from those negative feeding fish with a worm, jig or topwater bait.

On some rare occassions, other baits may work. It only took me two tournaments back in the early 80's to understand this and just do it after blanking. I caught zilch on my jigs and plastics, and the top 3 guys had fat limits on cranks, heck 1/2 the field had limits on cranks. And this has continued year after year out on this river.

First blue bird day after a series of storms, high pressure system with a rising barometer, us Delta rats know we gotta crank ta catch fish. The absolute opposite is also true, high winds, pouring down rain, crank that river!

Cooch
Cooch

It's kinda like......

Post by Cooch »

up at ClearLake, when yer hit with bluebird skies and a high pressure system, go by 5 dozen minners, yer just gonna absolutely slay em like we did yesterday! LOL

Different techniques will work better on certain ponds under these conditions, for me and many others, crankin puts em in the boat when nothing else will.

Cooch
Brian Paine

Re: It's kinda like......

Post by Brian Paine »

Hay Cooch: if you are on Clear Lake under these conditions and can not use live bait what would you use and how would you approach it?
Brian
Cooch

I have began to......

Post by Cooch »

to find that I can catch good quality fish up there using a C-rigged Lizard. For years I've used this on the foothill lakes with spots and smallies for great success. But I've never been able to apply this technique to the Delta or ClearLake. Just this past winter, I figured out the kinds of areas to fish where this C-rigged lizard indeed will catch fish, and a lot of them. My last two trips to Clearl Lake this past week, when conditions where tough, we resorted to this and were able to turn our day around and put fish in the boat. I had a great winter up there mixing the lizard with the jigs and rip baits, and actually relied less on minners as a resort to catching fish. Minners have their place, I'll use them accordingly. Most of my clients hire me to help them better understand that lake at a given period of time in the year. They are quite capable of fishing the minners on their own, and do.

C-rigging, is the closest thing I know up there that, is done much like we minner fish. All I had ta do was try a variety of baits and colors to find which would work. Typically, in the spring when we get these high pressure systems, I would venture into the canals, sloughs, creeks and little back pockets and flip into the flooded trees and brush. One of the text book patterns that bass hold true to is that they will bury themselves in cover. This did not work for us on Saturday due to the fact that there were no fish up shallow, hence nothing in the shallow wood or brush. But the fish we were catching, both on the ripbaits and minners, where 20-30 feet off the bank or away from the tulles, typical staging, suspending fish. The C-rig worked really well for us under these conditions up there. I could fish it slow and keep a temping bait in the strike zone for long periods, and cover a lot of water at the same time.

And that I believe is the key to being succesful under these conditions, getting a bait they'll eat and keeping it in the strike zone for as much time as ya can. Fer some guys, the dropshot does this. But I think what happens at ClearLake, is guys get too hung up on staying with those brown Purple, MMIII type colored baits. When I was there on Thursday, the Oxblood and Bold Blue gill got us a bunch of bites with Mike & his kids, where the MMIII and Mead Special drew ZERO strikes. It wasn't until Brandon started ta smack em on the lizard, that I changed the color of our dropshot worms and then began to catch fish on this as well.

The key, is to pull out the kitchen sink. Find the areas where there are fish( I do this with minners, understood, ya can't do this in a tournament, but they are the ABSOLUTE best search tool an angler can have for finding fish in practice!)). Then camp on em till you figure out how ta catch them on artificials. Once ya figure this out, then ya follow the pattern of where the fish you just located are, through out other areas of the lake using the productive method discovered.

I don't know that I have a sure fire way ta catch em on ClearLake, to the same extent that I say, "When it's like this, yer best off crankin the River". But I sure would learn towards that C-rig Lizard while they are transitioning, then I'd recommend a jig once they're up.

Cooch
Hippie/Mark

Re: Wierd Thing about Saturday!!!!!!!

Post by Hippie/Mark »

It was for sure post frontal, but it was the best day of fishing for my partner and I this year!!!!! I cannot count the number and quality of fish(for Oroville) that we caught!!! Cold rain at 3:30 am and then blew to bluebird beautiful the rest of the day. The fish, you would think would have had lock jaw, or be tucked to close to cover NOT!!!! they were out and about and biting FAT Spots!!!

It was a really weird, but hey why complain!!

Hipster
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