Fish like rain, right?

davidclayton

Random question here. I think it's generally accepted that fish like rain.
* Low pressure drives them to feed
* Adds oxygen to water
* Breaks up light penetrating, which encourages bait fish to move
* Noise of rain distracts them from boat noise
* Disguises shadow that the boat leaves

So how about this scenario...
There's a big lake, and it's only raining on one half of the lake.
Will the fish in the other half be attracted to the rainy side?

stevenmu

Interesting idea. Since you mention bait fish I assume you are talking about larger fish, trout, pike etc?

I suspect that they would not move to go from a non-rainy side of a lake to a rainy side. If the fish is in a location, it is there because it has already judged it to be suitable in terms of providing a food source and cover etc. Because rain that would affect one side of a lake and not another is generally pretty temporary, to swim across the lake for it would expend a lot of energy for very little gain.

I think it's very likely though that an area of the lake which tends to attract more rain could hold more fish as they may be more successful there. It's an interesting idea worth putting to the test.

davidclayton

so let's say you put a huge umbrella over one side of the lake for a couple of hours while you do some fishing.
you fish on both sides. it's more likely that you'll catch more fish on the rainy side?

canon5571

Now that you mention it, I think there could be something into that!
I have sometimes noticed when out trawling (mostly for trout) that if ya got a shower ya might get a run of takes. Not always guaranteed to happen but has done on a few occasions. I have always heard that fish will defo not bit in thundery weather. Anyone know about this?

coolwings

While on the river :

I have had a day of sporadic showers. At least 5 showers (light rain) with periods inbetween lasting approx 30 minutes.

On this particular day the trout were rising to pale watery duns, and the rise stopped when the rain began, and recommenced as soon at it dried up again. This was repeated several times as the day passed, so the pattern became very clear and obvious.

It is possible that the hatching nymphs were being trapped by rain turbulence, and the trout switched to catching them under the surface,but I tried nymphing and caught no trout, also I observed no flashing trout moving to take nymphs under the surface. There were no rises to trapped emerger nymphs in the surface film, nor rises to rain-drowned duns just under the surface.

It is also possible that the reduced light levels during the showers reduced insect activity, and consequently trout activity catching the insects. I doubt that was the cause because the trout naturally feed in low light levels and have excellent ability to hunt then, and the showers were making things better for them (optically) not worse.

I was left with one of two conclusions.
Either the pale water nymphs on the bottom did not want to hatch out in rain, and suspended their rise up off the riverbed until the rain ( up at the surface) had stopped.
Or they kept it up and the trout were well enough fed to choose not to take them while the surface was being cooled, and roughened by falling raindrops.


I think the rain dimpling the surface, cooling it, was sufficient to prevent nymphs from ascending to the surface to hatch out. After all they have to float a bit and dry their wings before flying away to safety in the bushes. It's likely they are programmed to choose dry air to rise up and hatch in. But how do they know what's going on above?
In that case the trout stopped feeding because new pale watery duns were no longer available.

riverbum

I remember being on the river one summers eve after a warm day with not a rise in sight. I only had dry flies with me and so I was about to head for home when it started to rain, within 2 minutes the river absolutely exploded into life with rising trout , an absolute feeding frenzie!

So who knows, the rain ,from what I can see can have an effect either way depending on, probably ,100s of other factors at the time, type of hatch ,size of hatch, progression of hatch etc, etc.

This is a great subject but tough to get a definitive answer on.
Rivers and lakes prob difer in results also as running river water would already be highly oxygenated and a shower of rain wouldn't make much difference, however the lower light level would be advantageous in both scenarios.

I think it is safe to say though that we are all well used to the rain here on this island ,trout included!

stevenmu

I've heard it both ways as well, people talking of rain bringing fish on, other people talking of it putting them off. I guess it's really down to whatever the fish are doing at the particular time anyway. Certainly when trolling I've always found rain is good.

I would still think though that the fish wouldn't actually move to the rain. I think it just makes fish that are already there more likely to feed. Fish tend to not like a calm clear surface where they can be seen by predators, rain tends to break the surface up giving them cover and making them feel a bit safer. It would also make an angler or a boat harder to see, and dampen any motor noise. So all in all I think it makes them feel more comfortable with moving around a bit and feeding.

Of course if what they want to feed on is on the surface, it's going to make it harder for them to see that too, so it can swing both ways.

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davidclayton wrote: »

Random question here. I think it's generally accepted that fish like rain.

I dont buy into all of that idea, i was told that by lots of people when i started fishing, but i dont think its fully true. for pike, i believe a change in the weather can turn them on the feed i.e. on a cloudy day if it rains, or on a rainy day, if it stops raining, but if you are in deep water it isnt really a massive issue!!