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Posts: 69
Location: Phoenixville, PA | Besides the weather and the moon, what do you find to be the most reliable indicators of fish activity, positive or negative?
I spend a lot of time watching birds. When I see Cormorant up in the tree with his wings spread out hanging out with all his buddies, it is never a good sign. |
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Posts: 1530
| in fall we watch seagulls. they follow shad school.. storm fronts also. water clarity breaks also..evey body of water has its tips. |
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Posts: 333
Location: SE Wisc | Feeding loons, schools of ciscos or gills breaking the surface, oh and when I’m at work muskies seem to be more active than when I’m on the water! |
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Posts: 8788
| Wildlife. Even the cows and horses on the way to the lake can tell you something. |
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| carp jumping |
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Posts: 4
| Storm fronts are my favorite time to fish. |
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Posts: 2274
Location: SE, WI. | Leaches swimming high in water column;) JD |
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Posts: 284
| My bucktail stopping sharply mid retrieve!!  |
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Posts: 1220
| The line buzzing right before it gets really dangerous. Better nix that. When the line is buzzing, it’s already too dangerous. But the only thing nearly as effective is seeing net(s) in the water near to you. Nothing is as predictive for a window as fish who have actually eaten. |
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Posts: 20229
Location: oswego, il | Depending on where you are fishing, the amount of boats on the water. Knowing the water, the periods ths fish can get active or concentrate will get you in the hot bite zones. Adding weather, light period and the solunar period to that even better.
Edited by ToddM 1/26/2018 7:07 AM
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Posts: 99
Location: Tulsa, OK | Kind of funny, when I go bass fishing and pass farms that have cattle laying down all around the farm it is usually an indication that fishing will be slow. If they are up and about, moving and eating, then the days are usually better. |
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Location: Vilas | years ago my son had a piranha... most days it would eat 1-2 feeder fish..... then one day, as soon as the feeder fish hit the water it was gone, dumped in another one, again, gone in seconds... he ended up putting in 12 feeder fish before it was full! I wish I coulda been on the water that day!! |
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Posts: 291
Location: Madison, WI | Junkman - 1/26/2018 7:00 AM
The line buzzing right before it gets really dangerous. Better nix that. When the line is buzzing, it’s already too dangerous. But the only thing nearly as effective is seeing net(s) in the water near to you. Nothing is as predictive for a window as fish who have actually eaten.
One year on TFF buddy casted out and his line floated from the bait to.his rod tip. We were all like...da f!#%......Oh rod was buzzing when lifted, you could literally feel every hair on ur neck stand. That was a few years before everyone had radar on ur phones. Most freaked out I've ever been in a boat and did not want to be there. No fish activity either.
As for original question, wind shift....at some point it shifts and there is a calm for a few hours before it starts from new direction...we got 3 50's on LOTW last year in a 2 hour time window when all of a sudden, everything just laid down....soon as wind stated up from "new" direction, fish shut off and didn't see a thing. No weather front...just simple wind shift. |
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Posts: 343
| I fish at night a lot. On the 4 to 8 hour drives to said fishing spots, if lots of animals are on or crossing the road; the fishing is usually good. Bummer driving, as I've had to slam on brakes or swerve to avoid hitting deer, antelope, elk, and moose, sometimes all in one evening. |
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Posts: 897
| PredLuR - 1/26/2018 6:31 PM
As for original question, wind shift....at some point it shifts and there is a calm for a few hours before it starts from new direction...we got 3 50's on LOTW last year in a 2 hour time window when all of a sudden, everything just laid down....soon as wind stated up from "new" direction, fish shut off and didn't see a thing. No weather front...just simple wind shift.
Last August on LOTW was weird for my group in that wind shut down the fish completely. We did well when it was calm. Wind would start and they shut down. It was not like that in July. When were you up? |
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Posts: 833
| Active wildlife in general is a good sign. Of course like everything with these fish, it isn't a guarantee. My 2nd best day of the season last fall was a day where we saw a ton of deer and turkeys running around on the way to the ramp. 90 minutes later we had a double in the books. Then the fishing stopped and we went home early, quite satisfied.
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Posts: 291
Location: Madison, WI | whynot - 1/28/2018 7:10 AM
PredLuR - 1/26/2018 6:31 PM
As for original question, wind shift....at some point it shifts and there is a calm for a few hours before it starts from new direction...we got 3 50's on LOTW last year in a 2 hour time window when all of a sudden, everything just laid down....soon as wind stated up from "new" direction, fish shut off and didn't see a thing. No weather front...just simple wind shift.
Last August on LOTW was weird for my group in that wind shut down the fish completely. We did well when it was calm. Wind would start and they shut down. It was not like that in July. When were you up?
We were up first week of July and again over labor day weekend. We did "fair" over July trip and caught all the biggies on the late trip. It was the same for us, during the wind it was slow, if we got any calm weather and the wind laid down, we caught(saw) fish. Wind came back up, fishing slowed down. I get that's usually the case for fish to move up on spots etc. but it seemed to be more so the case this time around. Even fishing calm sides of structure it was slow. We got most of the nice fish in those little windows between wind shifts. |
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Posts: 8788
| Any change in light, wind direction, wind speed, clouds, etc. has been a very reliable indicator for us. What sucks is when the fish are moving and something changes, because that usually shuts them right down. If they're not moving, we pray for change. If they are, we pray that nothing changes. Had a day a few years ago, perfect overcast day, SW wind, light chop, periods of light rain... It was the kind of day you wait for. Fished for 6 hours, saw nothing. Around 3:30 I spotted a small break in the clouds. "I see blue sky..." Yep, here comes the sun. I said "watch. The suns coming out, we're gonna catch a fish right now. Next cast, fish. They were everywhere for about 20 minutes until it got cloudy again, and that was it for the day.
Had just as many days where we were seeing and catching fish and something subtle changed with the wind or sky conditions, and that was it.
It's a double edged sword. The more you pay attention to that stuff, the more it messes with your confidence, especially on good days when the wind stops, or starts, or the sun comes out, or goes away. Lighting'em up one minute, dead sea the next...
Edited by esoxaddict 1/29/2018 1:15 PM
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Location: MN | When you can smell em. |
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Posts: 1084
Location: Aurora | Nershi - 1/29/2018 4:32 PM
When you can smell em.
X2^^ It smells like.... Teen Spirit |
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Posts: 781
Location: Ames, Iowa | The last hour and a half of light. |
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Posts: 612
| MuskyT - 1/25/2018 11:16 PM
Storm fronts are my favorite time to fish.
I agree with this as well as surface fish activity |
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Posts: 612
| I've got beautiful fish on a hot blue sky day w/o wind and also under both windy and dead calm periods. As for following solar-lunar effects, they have produced a few times, however often they didn't. After > 30 30 years I' cannot predict for sure when they bite and where they'll be. I tend to notice lake specific patterns - spots that's about the best I can do in general. Yes a few things like a front on it's way in and fish swimming -jumping at the top can be good indictors but in reality time on the water helps. |
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Posts: 770
| Catching a fish is always a good indicator of fish activity |
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| imo before thunder is unbeatable |
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Posts: 390
| Birds are wonderful indicators as already stated, eagles build nests in best fishing areas, seagulls and cormorants follow bait.
My wife has a nerve disorder and when it acts up (more than normal) fish are biting. Pet (cat and dogs) also seem to correlate to fish activity, I have actually spent time documenting this for my own experiments. Im a nerd, I know.
Edited by bbeaupre 2/24/2018 3:27 PM
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Location: 31 | When we see more than 1 muskie riding high in the water column on the side scan while trolling… can pretty much predict fish activity then.
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Location: Eastern Ontario | If i was forced to be somewhere else wearing a suit and tie it would pretty much guaranty a feeding rampage. |
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Posts: 431
| In years past, my partner with chrones disease having to take a dump was an indicator of a feeding window. His stomach has since gotten better and now I never know when they are going to bite. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | change |
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Posts: 2017
| Wind out of the same direction for three days, dam!
Bikini’s at the beach at noon, gonna be a good night! |
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Posts: 307
| I'll second the loons. Follow them. And if you find a point/island with a Seagull standing up, fish it. If he's laying down, move on. |
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Indicators of Fish Activity