Just wondering if anyone knows how the rainwater affects inshore fish. I know it stains the water, but what else does it do? How long does it take to cycle out? Does it push fish to higher salinity water? Does it actually slow down the bite?
Fish feed is several ways. Sight,movement, and scent. Sight is negated in stained water. My experience is it clears in a complete tide cycle most of the time.
big dog
The change in salinity isn’t likely to be a huge factor, it takes a HUGE amount of water to alter the salinity in most of the rivers/streams. That, and most of our inshore fish have huge tolerances for salinity swings.
I think the rain will have a more significant change in the temperature of the water, it can cool down the smaller streams fairly quickly.
I haven’t noticed anything particularly different about their behavior during the sort of rain that I’d attempt to fish in, and rain that’s heavy enough to make a real mess of it usually gets me off the water, since I usually have a kid with me.
Huge amounts of rain, like what we got on Thursday, tends to slow the action down I’ve noticed. That sort of rain will definitely have an effect on the salinity, temp, and other things.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
Sometimes if you get enough rain it will push fish out of small creeks and rivers. Hurricanes and etc
Can kill the shrimp season, just look at last year>
It really messes up “my” red drop in the Combahee river when we get a lot of fresh water!
As long as your not in a fresh water fed creek, what Wando Grill said. One tide cycle after a rain and your salt level is back. It’s a big Ocean out there.
Low Barometric pressure changes right before a storm can also be some of your most productive times. Dad always told me fish bite the best right before and during a storm. Lots of studies on fish behavior and pressure changes.
quote:
Originally posted by Redfish_mattThe change in salinity isn’t likely to be a huge factor, it takes a HUGE amount of water to alter the salinity in most of the rivers/streams. That, and most of our inshore fish have huge tolerances for salinity swings.
I think the rain will have a more significant change in the temperature of the water, it can cool down the smaller streams fairly quickly.
I haven’t noticed anything particularly different about their behavior during the sort of rain that I’d attempt to fish in, and rain that’s heavy enough to make a real mess of it usually gets me off the water, since I usually have a kid with me.
Huge amounts of rain, like what we got on Thursday, tends to slow the action down I’ve noticed. That sort of rain will definitely have an effect on the salinity, temp, and other things.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
I guess it depends on the species of fish, the river system, and the amount of rain. Somewhere like the Ashley with extensive freshwater runoff, species like trout will move downstream. They can handle fresh water, but don’t prefer it. A more tidally fed system like the Wando won’t see quite as big of a swing. Agree though, that water clarity in the short term is a bigger issue.
I’ve had several of my best days in the rain. Actually the most reds I ever caught in one trip was on an extremely rainy day but I think it had to do something also with a temperature change/pressure has it was a warm front coming in during February. Just a guess. meanwhile I went out yesterday in the rain and left them biting. overall though I have gone out on days when I thought it would be perfect and caught nothing whereas I have gone out on rainy crappy days and killed it. Im interested in this subject too . in all honesty I think it is a combination of things so maybe there is a matrix out there somewhere with the combinations of tide water temperature range barometric pressure etc
For those of you who have been out multiple times in the last week or so, has the bite slowed over the last few days after all of this rain compared to what it was before say Thursday?
That’s not because of the rain, it’s just the moon phase. If you look at the solunar tables. last Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday were all high activity days, marked at 3 fish which means very good. Tuesday was lower with 2 fish, Wed was 1 fish. Thurs was zero fish.
See http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/south-carolina/shell-point-hwy-170-bridge
and http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/south-carolina/shell-point-hwy-170-bridge
Fri was back to 1 fish, Sat 1 fish, today 2 fish. Wed back to zero. Not another 3 fish day until the 10th and 11th.
Fish still got to eat in the rain, but they do it in cycles around the moon, sun and tides. The tables are surprisingly accurate. Not always, but pretty dang close. Plug in your own location.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
quote:
Originally posted by Duck sauceFor those of you who have been out multiple times in the last week or so, has the bite slowed over the last few days after all of this rain compared to what it was before say Thursday?
Larry is correct. The moon and pressure is very important. I fished a couple of times late in the day with fish caught…about normal catching of over sized reds. Less people tends to work in your catching favor. I keep a log and record tides b pressure and a few other things. This week should be good.
big dog
For all who are very interested in this topic the best way to answer this would be create a fishing log and record every minor detail to your fishing day whether you caught 100 fish or 0. In a couple years or so go back and look at how things compare to the previous year. I’ve done this for the last 3 years or so and the amount of information you can obtain will not disappoint!
06 hewes tailfisher 17
quote:
create a fishing log and record every minor detail to your fishing day whether you caught 100 fish or 0.
Yes. I’ve been doing that for 30 years, inshore and offshore. I log tide, time, wind, moon, weather, location, catch, bait, everything. If I was smart enough I could probably put it all into a computer database, then just plug in the date and conditions of the day and it would tell me when, where and how to fish 
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose