How the weather affects fishing

All serious fishermen knows the how much the weather impacts fishing. The weather impacts the behavior of a fish, which in turn impacts fishing. Therefore, to be a successful angler you need to pay attention to the weather and how it relates to fish.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure. The part of the weather that we, as anglers, need to pay close attention of is the barometric pressure. The barometric pressure affects fish behavior to an amazing degree.

Fish can detect barometric pressure changes through their lateral lines and as the weather changes the barometric pressure changes. As the pressure changes the fish will tend to react differently. When the barometric pressure is stable, meaning that there are no fronts moving in or out of the area, the fishing will tend to be normal. On the other hand when the barometric pressure is falling (which many times means that the weather degrading or becoming worse) fish tend to become much more active. And when fish become more active the fishing tends to be much more productive. When the pressure is falling and bad weather is on the horizon, fishing can be epic.

A lot of people makes the mistake of looking outside, checking out the great weather, you know those great days with almost no clouds and and nothing but blue skies. This is when the barometric pressure is high, although these might seem like great days to go fishing, in these situations fish tend to be in deeper water and tends to be inactive. So when the weather seems to be great, the fishing can tend to be slow. 

The bottom line is that the weather and fishing go together to a much greater degree than you might think. Investing some time researching the weather and how it affects fishing will make you be a better angler.

Dropshotting For Bluegills

I was on a fishing forum the other day and ran in to this question, "Will a dropshot rig work for bluegills?". It's strange that I saw this question because I just tried this rig a few weeks ago in Lake Hemet.

Well the answer is yes, it works great. My wife and I were fishing for bass at Lake Hemet using dropshot, I was using a plastic worm and my wife was actually using nightcrawlers. Unfortunately, I only got a couple of bass that day. My wife were getting alot of strikes but none would take and everytime she reeled in, her crawlers are cut in half.

Looking at the water, we notice a lot of shadows darting underwater. So, I decided to downsize her hook and cut a nightcrawler in half. Sure enough, first cast and she hooks a really nice sunfish...then the second cast she hooks a nice bluegill. So I downsized my setup as well and we ended up catching sunfish and bluegills the whole time we were there.

So yes, the dropshot rig works great on bluegills, you just need to downsize your tackle and bait.

Could Be A New World Record Blue Catfish!

The 130-pound Blue Catfish caught by Greg Bernal in Missouri will not only break the world record by 6-pounds, but could break 3 other records.

If the report was correct that Bernal caught this big monster on 40 lb monofilament line then this big fish will break the IGFA's (International Game Fish Association) Blue Catfish all tackle world record, line class world record and the Missouri State record.

According to Bernal, he fought the big monster for 30 minutes and took him another 30 minutes just to get it in the boat. The big blue catfish is awaiting confirmation by the IGFA, Bernal said that he would mount it on the wall next to the 74 lb blue catfish that he caught previously.

Lake Fulmor - July 14th

This was the last day of our visit at Idyllwild. Checked out of our cabin at 8:00 am, had breakfast in town and headed over to Lake Fulmor to spend the rest of the day before heading home.

We've never been to the this lake before, but have heared a lot about how beautiful this place is. As we drove up and saw this lake, I would have to agree. Though is not the biggest lake, it sure is the most beautiful pond that I have ever seen.

We pulled up the parking lot accross the lake and find that there were only 2 cars there, which was awesome meaning we'd pretty much have the place all to ourselves. We walked accross to the lake and saw that there were a lot of structures such as weeds, grass, submerged trees and boulders. Although trout is the main fishery here, this definitely have the look of a prime bass & bluegill lake, the only problem is that the water on the whole lake is green from the algae bloom which happens in the warmer months. This explains why we did not get one bite in the 2 hours we fished. We just about tried everything: frogs, spinnerbait, senkos, jigs, dropshot and even tried live nightcrawlers for nothing...not even a nibble. I would guess that the best fishing here will be in the colders month, winter and spring. I would not recommend coming here in the summer for fishing, unless you just want to come up and enjoy the tranquil surrounding and relax.

Anyways, stayed here for a couple of hours and headed home. Although we did not catch any fish, Lake Fulmor is the definitely a jewel in the mountain. We truely fell in love with this fond and will definitely come back here in the future.

Lake Hemet During the Earthquacke

After the 4th of July holiday, my wife and I decided to go away to Idyllwild for a few days. We got the on Tuesday morning, check in to our cabin and just checkout the town the rest of the day. Beautiful little town..

We got up the next morning and headed down to Lake Hemet, which was about 10 miles away from where we were staying. Got to the lake late in the morning, rented a boat and started fishing some the small coves we found. We fished from the boat until a little after noon when the wind started blowing hard.

When the wind started howling, it really made it hard to control the boat so we decided to turn the boat in and fish from shore.

We headed outside the fenced in area and drove over to the end of the lake and found this little cove all to ourselves. Started fishing for bass for awhile but to no luck, but then started seeing lots of frys on the swimming around, they I see this shaddow on the water chasing each others. Got the light gear out, tied on a small hook and cut up nightcrawler.

First cast, hook a nice sunfish then another, the another. It stayed that way for a couple of hours, it seemed that we found and spawning bed for sunfish and bluegills. 

We were on a hot bite for awhile, with fish on every cast until the earthquacke hit. I've never experience an earthquacke while fishing. All we heard was this rolling noise, cracking rocks and birds flying. We weren't really sure what was going on till the ground started shaking, which was pretty cool. Anyways, the bite somehow turned off after that, so we headed back to Idyllwild.

It was fun fishing a lake for the first time. Weather was nice, it was warm but not as hot as it usually is this time of the year.