Long gone are the days when anglers would adopt the widespread practice of paying Celtic witches to bring forth favourable winds to help them improve their catch rates. Better still were the more “honest” witches of Lapland who were apparently cheaper and more skilled in this craft. Although this Middle Age practice has long fallen by the wayside we have inherited a traditional belief that many anglers claim contains a universal truth, and which works better for them than the sophisticated weather prediction techniques we have available today. This tradition comes in the form of the proverb “The Wind from the West” (see below).
We all link our fishing success (or not!) to the wind and weather conditions according to our individual perception of it and how it has affected our chances of catching. At a more generalised level regarding the influence of wind conditions on our fishing, different anglers develop perceptions of the wind’s influence. Sometimes these perceptions are very far apart. But to what extent do these beliefs vary between anglers? Over the page are the responses from 100 South Wales and South West England anglers to a series of questions.
UNDER PRESSURE
One of the least appreciated factors that influence fish and fishing is barometric pressure. Under normal or atmospheric pressure, water molecules form a triangular pyramid-like network. At high pressure, though, the network of water molecules begins to distort and change shape. When this happens to the water
