Transducers

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by yakrider

pardon my lack of inteligence....
but...
what is that yellow box and what does it do?

It reads and records barometric pressure. It actually does more then reads it but stores it in a 12 hour buffer allowing you to access current and past data to see if there have been pressure changes and what the trend is.

The higher the atmospheric pressure the more water it can hold in the air. So usually when you get a dramatic drop in atmospheric pressure your going to get rain. Cold fronts that produce rain are actually low pressure fronts.

Water is more dense then air and when the air pressure changes it creates micro changes in water density. For years and years people have said that fish bite on a falling barometer, but the question has always been why.

My take is that baitfish do to there small size have trouble dealing with changes of temperature PH or pressure. When you have a dramatic shift in barometric pressure, it can produce a small change in water pressure, which can sometimes disorient bait and make it easy prey.

This is the same reason offshore fish feed on temp breaks. Baitfish when they hit a break get disoriented as their bodies adapt to the temp change which makes then easy prey for larger fish that are not effected by the small changes due to their increased mass.

Whatever the reason fish tend to feed before storms, and they somehow have a way of sensing storms are coming. I'd say they have some kind of ability to sense the rapid drop in pressure which signals the storms are coming.

In a way that box just gives the angler the same ability.


Jim

[Iceman]

pretty much every lake cabin in Minnesota has a barometer hanging on the wall. I never really give it much thought any more. I have enough trouble remembering to check the tides before launching.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by Iceman

pretty much every lake cabin in Minnesota has a barometer hanging on the wall. I never really give it much thought any more. I have enough trouble remembering to check the tides before launching.

I hear that. I think the main benefit of having one has to do with weather. I imagine that was designed for the cruiser market for people that would end up in remote areas without the weather prediction tools we have locally. For me it would not seem to be a very necessary fishing accessory especially at 80 bucks a pop.

Jim