Fishing Articles
Fishing Pressure! Why is it so hard to believe?
When pressure has been eliminated you'll
get fish on the bite fast.
Timothy Kusherets
Low water like this tidal pool can easily put fish
off the bite. It is a type of "Pressure" that stresses fish out making
them very hard to entice. The proper technique in this situation is
to get down as close to the surface as possible. This particular angler
must feel like a kid in a cookie store and is so excited that he cannot
concentrate on exactly where to cast since there are many fish all around
him. He never hooked a single one of them. If he had understood the
pressure on the fish he would have been hooking into them with almost
every cast.
I’ve been asked many times over the years “when is the
best time to go fishing”? The answer to the question sounds funny
but it’s true. I go fishing when the fish tell me to, and that’s
it. Since fish can’t really talk with their mouths it’s
up to me to find out when they feel the best fishing conditions. Sometimes
the best times to fish are the most bizarre. Sometimes fishing can be
done during the day during banker hours and sometimes you have to fish
in the middle of the night, whenever legal to do so. It all boils down
to whatever takes the pressure off of fish that determines the best
time to hit the water, and it doesn’t matter what kind of water
it is, the same pressure can be exerted anywhere. Pressure that naturally
put fish off the bite come in the forms of Barometric Pressure, Turbid
Water caused from rapidly rising rivers and lakes, Pressure from other
species of fish, Pressure from Predation, Pressure from spawning competition,
and Pressure from available or unavailable food sources. The single
most inhibiting form of pressure is the presence of fishermen. When
pressure has been eliminated you’ll get fish on the bite fast.
Don’t let the simplicity of the answer fool you into thinking
that it’s too simple to be true. You’d be surprised at how
often the answers are extremely easy.
“So, how far we going today buddy?”
“Well, I thought we put in about three hours, so I checked the
weather and the river level and it looks like it’ll taper off
for the rest of the day; but there’s a blow coming in from the
west and it looks like a lot of rain. If we’re going to fish it
has to be today.”
That took care of the barometric problem. Checking out the flow of the
river took care of the turbidity pressure, and the timing of the distance
took care of how much time we would actually get in fishing. That’s
three forms of pressure taken care of and we hadn’t even started
out for the river. Pretty easy huh?
“Check it out Mike. I think that guy saw some fish.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well, you saw him coming up from the boat launch and now he’s
heading back with a rod and gear. It’s what I like to call a ‘tell’.
It’s an old gambler expression, but trust me he saw fish.”
A few minutes later we were at the water staring at some good green
colored water. Not too turbid that the water would put fish off the
bite by being able to see us, but not so little that we couldn’t
see fish with our polarized glasses. So we knew fish were there. With
the polarized glasses and the ‘tell’ from the other fisherman
we knew there would be fisherman pressure on fish.
“Mike, you fish right here and fish along that seam. I’m
going upriver and fish the tail-out of that pool. It drops off at the
end and looks good and deep.”
“Yeah, but look at the overhanging branches. It’s going
to be hard to get into isn’t it?”
“It just means that the fish aren’t pressured…right?
I might lose a little line to the branches now and again, but that’s
part of the game. Just be sure to stand back from the river and out
of the water. Since we can see the fish they can see us and that could
be a problem.”
“But not for you, right?”
“Pressure is the same for everyone, including me. If the fish
focus too much on either one of us, we’ll be going home to come
up with another strategy empty handed.”
The two of us were fishing in no time and a few minutes later we could
hear the lamentations begin downstream.
“Dang! Can you believe it? That tree’s starting to look
like a Christmas tree! I’ll bet I’ve lost ten leaders since
I’ve been here to that overhanging devil!”
Of course we all find value in our gear, but when the fisherman started
trudging into the river to get a better angle to un-snag his line I
could tell there was going to be trouble for us.
“Isn’t that going to spook the fish?”
“Just keep to yourself good buddy. Whatever he’s doing he’ll
have to figure out for himself. He’s fishing down there and we’re
up here and that’s all we need to know.”
“I don’t know Timothy. I can see the fish and there’s
a horde of them. Didn’t you say that if I could see them then
they can see me?”
“It’s true, but there’s no brush or boulders for us
to hide under, and we can only fish so far back from the river.”
It was a puzzle. There was no place to hide and the fish were everywhere,
and with the fishermen below us stirring the pot there was no telling
how we were going to get fish to bite. An hour had passed when I realized
there was only one course of action. I sat down with my legs directly
out in front of me, but away from the water and cast. With my rod as
high as I could hold it, I watched as the mainline moved on down the
drift. As it passed in front of me I felt at tiny tick and set the hook.
“Fish on! Fish on! I got one!”
Getting up was a bear, but with the fish pulling on the line and rod
it actually made getting up easier than it would have been without it.
The steelhead tore on downriver and bolted too and fro. It went deep
into the farthest recesses of the river and then raced towards the edges
of both sides of the river. One time it actually beached itself but
before I could get to her she managed to wiggle her way back to the
water.
“Wahoo! How did you get the fish to bite?”
I heard the question come from an angler too far to hear my answer,
so I waited until the fight was over, a picture had been taken, and
the released the chrome fish back into the blue before I was able to
tell everyone.
“You have to sit down! Don’t just sit on your knees! You
have to physically sit on your posterior, you know, your rear end.”
“Hey man, I want a fish, but I don’t think I want one that
bad. Just take your advice and head back up to fishing.”
“Look, I’m telling you that it’s why the fish aren’t
biting. Didn’t one of you guys complain about the fish not biting,
and you wanted to know what the heck their problem was? It’s us.
The can see us but if you sit down the level of the river to the height
of your head refracts their field of vision. They can’t see us
when we sit down. It’s the pressure that’s keeping them
from biting, and tromping through the river isn’t going to help
anyone.”
“Hey, I wanted to get my gear back. Do you mind?”
“Well, the ten cents you saved is worth fish you could have caught,
right? Just try it.”
The most common type of pressure is where there are
many fishermen in close proximity to each other; however, when you know
what to do the situation can still produce even as other anglers struggle
to get hookups. Here I'm doing battle with a chum salmon on six-pound
test. When the fish was landed, it weighed approximately eighteen-pounds.
It was immediately released.
Even Mike had a hard time believing that it could be that easy. But
it was true, and it was the last variable to getting fish on the bite.
Hiding using the refractive capabilities of the river surface was perfect,
and perhaps on the surface too easy, but the end product scientific
research can often be misunderstood as too easy and here was a shining
example of it. My own compatriot didn’t believe me and he had
seen me land hundreds of fish in the past. Since there was nothing else
to do I went back to fishing, and guess what? On the first cast.
“Fish on! Fish on again!”
It was a huge Chinook salmon and the battle took me about half an hour
to pull it in. In my haste to prove a point I rushed back to my spot
and immediately sat down and cast out. Guess what?
“Fish! Fish on! Coming down! Fish on there good buddies!”
By the time I had fought and released the Coho salmon, the river was
lined with fishermen sitting on their butts, and I got a huge apology
from Mike. The best part of the day was not being right, but watching
the other anglers get fish after fish. It was true. The answer was so
simple that they simply refused to believe that it could elude them
for the entire day. Mike and I had showed up about midday and probably
looked like know-it-alls, but we just wanted to help and that’s
it. That’s one of the funnier things about pressure. Fishermen
are convinced that many of the underlying pressures fish experience
have to be shrouded in murky scientific mumbo jumbo, and most of the
time it’s simply not true. It’s all about pressure.
Why is it so hard to believe? Who knows? What we do know is that resolving
the dilemma of pressure is very easy when it comes to nature. Some pressure
can be eliminated by checking out the weather for barometric fluctuations,
rising and falling rivers and lakes, and verifying drive time by calculating
the distance from point A to point B can all be done from the comfort
of your own home. Fishermen the world over know that some of the best
fishing is done when waters stabilize and clear up, but when fish immediately
feel the presence of fishermen when the first line hits the water, and
that’s an intense pressure that will keep fish off the bite if
you don’t know what to do. Remember, if you can see fish then
fish can see you and the only way to get rid of that pressure is to
convince the fish you’re not there. If you can’t a way to
blend in with the environment, then try sitting down on the ground.
The closer you are to the surface of water the harder it is for fish
to see you, and the simple scientific answer of refraction can prove
it. When you get a fish on after sitting don’t forget to holler
as loud as you can…FISH ON!
 This river is blown out, high, and muddy yet it still
produced. Ironically, there is a wide misconception that turbid fishing
conditions put fish off the bite when in reality it can be one of the
most productive times to hit rivers. How pressure is dealt with by fish
and by fishermen dictates whether it will produce or not. Take the time
to figure out pressures exerted on fish and you'll often find yourself
in the midst of hundreds of fish without another angler nearby; do you
know why? Because there is a strong belief that pressures on fish cannot
be reversed; nothing could be further from the truth. Understanding
pressure is not hard and will add to some unbelievably good fishing.
This great looking fish was returned back from whence it came. Fishing
all day long and battling over fifty fish I didn't seen another fisherman
along the length and breadth of the river. It was too bad, I would have
loved to share this amazing situation with anyone who wanted it.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2006/09 |
