Fishing Experiment.

[sambrochill]

well fellas my buddy and I are going to try and solve the question with about a million threads. and that question is "how does air pressure affect fish"

My friend and I are going to fish a select pond and fish it in different weather conditions and try to put an answer to this question once and for all.

I'm using my knowledge of the scientific method to help me with this experiment.

wish me luck and hopefully i can find an answer to this.

and maybe science fair this year will be a lot better  ;D

[Evan Pease]

That sounds pretty cool. Plus you get to fish ;D.  Keep us posted.

[Bassn Blvd]

I believe it has already been answered.

[Paul Roberts]

Fun science fair project!

One difficulty I see, doing this by angling, is keeping presentation equal during sampling. Going with one lure only would help, but the bass might get turned off to that lure. Maybe a range of, say 3, lures that you fish in succession -the same way and amount of time each: a plastic worm, a jig, and a topwater, for example (Whatever is appropriate for your chosen water).

Doing this in one pond would be best, and easiest. But, fishing pressure you exert might be a problem. Rotating though three ponds might help, but that's an awful lot of effort.

Anyway you do it, you'll have to get A LOT of fishing in to cover the barometric range. Lots a hard work there ;D

Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes. If anything, you'll learn a lot about science, if not about bass.

[sambrochill]

well today was my first day of experimenting and it went ok didnt catch to many fish but it was fun

and yea Paul i took what u said into consideration and im using three baits mainly, a t-rig, a top water minnow and then a medium diving crank bait

hopefully tomorrow will be better

[Paul Roberts]

Fun stuff. Keep us posted.

[JShrock07]

Sounds like a fun project!!!

Keep us posted!!!

[George Welcome]

Difficulties off the top: size of fish - size of pond (lake) - depth of fish - depth of pond (lake) - depth of presentation - size of presentation - temperature of air - temperature of water at presentation location - altitude - and coping with the ever changing pressures.  All or most are uncontrolable variables and are just scratching the surface in order to present any valid study.

Have fun with the project but keep in mind that even if you could answer all variables that your findings will be only of local validity and not universal.

If I was your mentor in this project I would definitely suggest something else for this year's science project.

[Paul Roberts]

If I was your mentor in this project I would definitely suggest something else for this year's science project.

I understand George's comment -this is a big undertaking -if you really expect a definitive answer. Heck, a million dollars and a stable of grad students would be hard pressed here! But, you don't have to attempt the definitive study.

Part of (often a lot of) a science fair project is to delve into science, and discover how complicated nature is, how carefully you have to observe, think, and plan, and the limits of our ability to perceive nature. And we all discover how TEDIOUS good science most often is! (In this last regard, I think you've picked a good project).

There's a common misconception about science that it is all about finding THE ANSWER, when it is more often comes down to defining better questions. Better understandings come along the way.

Go for it. Have fun with it. You'll learn a lot, but not necessarily what you had intended. And that's OK.

Consider all of us your peer review LOL! ;D : :-[ :-X :-?

[sambrochill]

I know i probably wont find a definite answer to this question

but i was thinkin about maybe making my topic not so broad and more specific to a certain pond and my purpose would be to find out how air pressure affects fish in this local pond and take these findings and hopefully use them to help with experiments in other ponds and lakes around the world

[George Welcome]

My presentation on this subject was not meant to eliminate the question process, but more to get you to understand the difficulty of the question. Further, I left unmentioned the subjectiveness of the your question. In presenting any resolve to your question you have to understand that your observations are based on your ability to fish, your knowledge of the lake, and your knowledge of the bass's habits at the time of the study. Those parameters could be quite different from one fisherman to the next, which makes your observations quite skewed, and absolutely subjective.

[sambrochill]

You've made very valid points and they do have me thinking about this experiment as a whole and whether or not i should try and proceed with this.

I'll probably still go for and it keep researching but maybe not use the experiment for science fair

[dr.crow]

Definintely keep going with your study, but I recommend you record every conceivable variable you can think of, such as: barometric pressure, cloud cover, time of day, moon phase, wind speed and direction, water clarity, water temperature, etc.  Even fishing in as controlled situation as you can find, the variables are many.  Still, if you collect enough data, you will be able to statistically analyze it and possible make some correlations.  I don't believe so much in the air pressure effect because a slight change in depth of the fish over-rides any effect a decimal change in air pressure can cause - still, the pressure may be correlated to other events - a coming front, for example, or simply just steady conditions.  Believe it or not, what I have found is that the moon phase is the biggest factor.  Over years of fishing, I have caught more and better fish within a couple of days of either the new or full moon.  As to the why, who knows.  Keep us posted!

[avid]

Kudo's to you young jedi.

Of course you realize that you will never put the question to rest for anyone other than yourself, but I applaud anyone who uses the phrase "scientific method" on this forum.

I'm looking forward to following this experiment.

Sounds like fun.