Thunder and fishing

have often heard that it turns the fish off big time, something to do with air-pressure? or something????????, anyone know anymore???

I used to do a lot of coarse fishing around athlone and lough ree when i was younger. Plenty of thunderstorms during the summer there and I always found it great for fishing. The heavy air pressure seemed to turn the fish on to feeding like crazy and it would often slow down once the first rains started to fall. Had lightning hit the far river bank on the shannon one day - about 200yds away but very bright and very very loud. needless to say, watch out if you're using a carbon rod

I'd agree....seems to send the fish into a feeding frenzy. Dangerous fishing, though.

Fished once with one of my mates when its a thunder and lightening storm started, it was getting pretty hairy and my mate had one last cast, caught a 14lb bass less than 10 yards from the shore on a popper. Think it effects them alright ina good way for us fishermen...

Approaching thunderstorms will make salmon very dour.

But once thunderstorms are over salmon will take anything.

have found the same thing,before the thunder storm fish go off the feed, but as soon as its over, they feed like crazy,but mabye not every fish species are the same.

I have always reckoned that a really "close" summer evening before a storm often made for the best evening fishing of the year, and my trout fishing at dusk and into dark has been good on those evenings.
After dark, I am beginning to think that a clear sky might be better, but that rarely happens during thundery weather.

Salmon taking after the storm passes I would put down to the thunderstorm's rainfall causing a fresh inflow of new water and a drop in water temperatures, which would suit salmon, them being a cold water fish.

One thing is sure, YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AROUND YOU when fishing on these days.
A windswept beach (especially a boat) can easily cause you the angler to be the highest object in a radius of a mile or more when there are no trees nearby. Now that's not a good thing when lightning is expected.

I had lightning strike less than 300 metres away. I don't want to ever get that close again! An arguement in favour of old type fibre glass rods maybe?

Fly fished a good few times for trout over the years in thundery weather. To my recollection never caught, or for that matter even seen a trout feed during one.

Lightning is apparently excellent for conger eel fishing (or so I've heard) as eels have very dense and sensitive lateral lines. You'd want to be fairly mad to go take 14ft of carbon out when there is electricity shooting about though

Had two nights sea trout fishing in rivers after dark over 15 years where the fishing was incredible in the time leading up to a thunder storm that time of dead heat not a whisp of air before the first flash of lighhtning or blast of thunder. fish were resident in the pools but hadnt really been taking in previous nights despite trying every fly with different lines at different levels.They went crazy taking anything put in front of them prob best couple of nights seatrout fishing i ever had one of those nights in fact i was in a pool up to my chest in water and another guy up a bit in same pool that when the storm kicked off the fishing had been so good we both braved it out fo a while(Not knowing one and other and i suppose being brave!) until one of us began to moved out of the water (me! and suddenly we both ran out of the water with our rods/conductos in our hands! I was out on wed night bass fishing as a thunder storm was approaching and i thought its going to be bonanza time but did no good but dont know if there were fish there either

fished before,during and after 2 recent thunderstorms , never got a fish, been out in same area 40/50 this yr anf have had fish every other time, would be pretty certen that there was fish present

Last time i fished in a thunderstorm was on the cunnigar didnt get a thing but waders full of water and a soaking i dont think il ever forget, and there wasnt much action fish wise.... also dont think its advisable to have 10ft fishing rods in a big open space like that with thunder rolling overhead!!

heres something i found on here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18849&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Have noticed without doubt over the last few years that low pressures are very bad for ray and huss in particular and i know of several skippers of charter baots who say that shark fishing is a waste of time when there are several lows surrounding us.
Even a one day break with high pressure can change the fishing dramatically although one day of lows amongst a long run of highs does not cause too much of a downturn in sport.