Fishing Science: Is There Evidence That Supports Fishing Methods?

[Antti]

My dad is an enthusiastic fisherman. He goes fly fishing almost every weekend of the year and of course I join him sometimes. Many things he and his friends say and believe about different lures, weather etc often sound like hasty conclusions. So I'm wondering if there are any scientific studies on different methods and parameters involved in fishing? I am listing them for readability:

* Does fly fishing have any advantages over fishing with a normal rod?

* How does weather affect fishing?

* Does slightly changing the lure improve your chances of catching a fish? Of course a totally black lure must be worse than a shinier one but my dad can change from "something that has a little red" to "something which has a little more red" :)

There are probably more things but those were the ones i could think of at the moment. Mainly I'm interested in knowing if anyone has done serious studies on this.

 

[Proton Soup]

serious studies? no. but fly or regular tackle can depend on what you're fishing for. and the color of lures depends on a lot of factors including water quality. you need something the fish can see. and supposedly, an approaching storm front (low pressure) can increase feeding behavior. i don't know why, maybe rain washes bugs into the water. this is all lore, btw, not really "science".

as for what isn't lore, be careful about fishing as a storm approaches. my brother has had a couple of close calls with lightning already.

 

[Danger]

I suspect that the most applicable science to fishing is biology; ie: knowing a lot about fish behaviour. Stuff like lure selection, trolling depth, time of day, etc. are pretty species-specific.