By Ronnie Parris
When you go fishing, nothing affects fish more than pressure. There are different kinds of pressure. The first is the pressure we, as anglers, put on the fish. This kind of pressure is always a negative. Ask any fly angler if he wants to fish a stretch of creek that has just been fished and he will, undoubtedly, reply with a big âNO!â. This was the case most of the summer here in the Smokies. I canât tell you how many times I had to change stretches of a stream after finding myself in a stretch that had been fished the day before, and these were remote places where I hardly ever see a boot track. Same was the case for the lake fishing; Iâve never seen so many boats on the water. Folks were so tired of the quarantine that they were hitting the water in droves.
The second kind of pressure that will affect your day fishing is almost as important. Itâs barometric pressure and itâs sometimes the difference between loading the boat or going home empty handed. This was the case my last several trips. I got on a really good section of the lake where the water temp was just right and the bait was loaded along with about every species of fish you could ask for. We had gone through several days of stable pressure where the fish were feeding both on top water and down to 60 ft deep. But this bluebird morning would be different; the pressure was on the rise and bite was nowhere to be found. We did end up catching a few fish but there was no breaking fish to be found.
The next day was a little better with the trout bite on a drift boat trip, but I was looking forward to the next day, when the weatherman was calling for a pressure drop and some scattered rains and the fish didnât disappoint. We caught five different species and picked up fish from the surface to 60 ft, which was the bottom depth where we were fishing. The next day, I had an open day and I took my girlfriend, Penny; the pressure was still holding low and we had to wait a few minutes to launch the boat while waiting out a passing shower. As we pulled up on our first spot, we had only had our baits in the water about 2 minutes when she set the hook on a big white bass. From then on, it was almost constant fish on our lines with a lot of doubles where we both were hooked up at the same time. We only fished a few hours before heading in but several smallmouth got to see the inside of our boat before getting released back to the lake. We kept several crappie and white bass for a fish fry. What an awesome day with all the fall colors; makes you really appreciate our beautiful mountains.
Next time you start to plan your fishing trip and have a few days, look at the forecast and if you can plan on fishing on the falling barometer, you wonât be sorry. As always, be safe and take a kid fishing.
Ronnie Parris is owner and head guide of Smoky Mountain Outdoors Unlimited-Fontana Lake Fishing Guides, headquartered in Bryson City, N.C., heart of the Great Smoky Mountains www.smounlimited.com; (828) 488-9711).