Thread: Question about the Rain

We have bee having rain in the evenings around here (between Lake Norman and Lake Hickory) and was wanting to know how it affected the crappie....slower bite/more active????....move to deeper water/shallow water????.....etc???

Thanks!

no expert here, but my opinion is the rain will cool the water down, fish will move shallower.

My buddy minnowboy says his theory is the bite slows down because so much bait from the banks gets washed into the water. Just his theory he says.

It's a good thing in my opinion. Lower barometric pressure is always good. Rain boosts oxygen levels at the surface, lowers temperatures, lowers sunlight, making the whole lake "shady". Insect's are flushed into the shallows, and the change in water temp. and light, triggers hatches of waterborne insects, which starts a food chain that draws the crappie shallower. I'll take feeding fish over lock-jaw any day. After all, we are always competing with their natural food sources.

Thunder and lightning are the downside, but if it's just rain............:D

boatstall

Rain, if its a lot, will drop the lake temperature. Where fish have been pocketing up in deeper holes closer to their preferred temp range when the lake temp is hot, they will now start spreading out over larger areas of the lake. They get harder to locate to me until the water temp gets colder again and they once again start to pocket up in deep holes again to maintain their preferred temperture range and once again get easier to find again. In the spring we can find them as they are on spawning mode. In the fall they are much harder to find to me as they are on no pattern except to follow the bait which are also spreading in to the cooler water. Its like a cycle. Rain being one of the inputs that make them change a particular mode they are in. Shallower is better in spring and fall and especially after a lot of rain but finding them is harder. my opinion for whats ts worth. ...iamfishing

No expert, but it has been my observation that a light drizzle slows the bite. Most of the time a drizzle will end and the sun pops back out. Every heavier rain I have fished in has been productive. I caught better quality and bigger numbers.