Moon Phases

[jim]

OK OK I probably shouldn't open this can of worms again but this week end I had an interesting conversation with a long time Santee guide while we were fishing at night.He absolutely refuses to take a party out during the 3 days of the full moon.At night anyway.He says he will fish during the daytime but not those three nights.We were 4 days from the full moon and he wasn't at all happy with the illumination we had and we didn't catch much.It wasn't from lack of trying as he moved us from place tp place and reset the lines many times and refreshed the bait continously.We did catch some fish but nothing big.I think a good project for us BOCsters would be to keep records for the next 12 months and report in all our findings to a folder or something on this new fully capable site.Anyone that fishes during the 6 days of the full moon, 3 on each side would report their success or lack there of.That way we would have some hard data ,from many various regions and we would be able to substantiate or repudiate some of the moon claims. Just a thought but now I am really curious.I like most say fish when you can but I would like to see if there is some definitive effect,good or bad of the full moon.

[slimepig]

before the change, there was a free database program in the library for just that purpose. i havent looked to see if its still there now er not. I cant figure out how to do a query with it after you get some records in it. Can a brother maybe paost some helpful instructions?

[hammerhead]

The information you are searching for was in the library. Which is in the process of being moved to this site. I am not sure when it will be up and running again, it should be soon.

[Dwednuts]

Yes, Jim I agree with your assesment of the fishing problems this week. For some strange reason the fish are holding in large groups in deep water and not hitting anything you throw at them!!! Maybe after this moon phase clears we might be back in buisness. The moon and barametric pressure both play big parts in the way fish feed,IMO.

[jim]

The one thing that was biting was Gar although even they weren't as numerous.I don't know whats up but when someone that has to fish to make a living ,won't take parties out during the full moon at night something is up.This man is a very intelligent student of the catfish game.

[Albert]

Jim,
Below is a link to an article written by a guy that kept records for a period of years.It is not specifically about cats but it made good sense to me.I thought you might like to view it.
http://www.fishingchronicle.com/Articles/MoonScoop.html

thanks,Albert

[loanwizard]

We just fished Wednesday night ( almost a full moon, needed no light) had live Bluegill, Bullhead, fresh Shad, rotten Liver, and night crawlers. Total bites, Zero.

[jim]

Thanks ALBERT,very interesting and kind of bears out what I have always felt.I long ago gave up on the SOLUNAR tables but keyed around the 6 days of the moon periods.Interesting to see some corelation to the rise and set of the sun and moon and that pretty much was the story the other night on Santee.All the fish we caught were before the moon got high in the sky,virtually all before 10pm.Thanks asain very good article.

[Catbird]

Hope this helps...I fished a lake I usually don't catch much at last night. I did catch a 3# channel and a 8# flattie. I didn't start fishing till about 1:AM and caught these around 3:AM, full moon shining. The size and amount of fish is normal for me at this lake.

[Desperado]

I don't really understand the moon phases, but I have found it is hit and miss for fishing.

[blackwaterkatz]

I haven't done a lot of catfishing at night in several years, and never really kept a record, but I always seemed to do better on the darker nights, for several hours after sundown. A moon rising on the horizon wasn't bad, but when it gets bright, I didn't seem to do as well. Not scientific, just my opinionated opinion. It's gonna be interesting to see what others say.
The article linked earlier is good reading. I will print it out and go over it again.
Great Thread!

[turtle1173]

Jim,

That's some interesting information. I have done very little night fishing. Slimcat and I went out about a month ago and spent the night on the Mississippi river Flathead fishing. It was miserably slow. Got a few gar bites but that was it. We had a smorgasboard of bait and didn't get anything. I did notice that the moon was very bright. In fact, we moved at midnight and it was actually easier to navigate by turning our spotlights off and using the light from the moon.

I just went back to check on the specific date of our trip and the moon phase. It was the night of July 22nd. According to a moon phase website I found, this was 1.8 days after the full moon. So that goes right along with your post.

[Catbird]

I went out fishing last night, full moon up and the sky was clear. You could see to get around with no lights on the lake. This is at a different state lake than the last post. I caught 4 channels the largest being 11#. I was using frozen cut shad.

[jim]

It seems the bright overhead moon might turn things off.I have always had better luck going deeper when the moon is high because I think all that light makes the fish wary of going shallow which is what we expect them to do on dark nights.Thanks to those that have contributed to the thread and I hope others will follow suit at least those of you that are out there after dark.Next thing we will have to correlate is the dark phase so keep those cards and letters coming.

[centralcalcat]

I deffinately notice the difference in my home waters> full moon=poor fishing.
Normally on full moon we go skunked or just small fish until the moon sets for the night.

[Coloman]

We went yesterday morning. We where on the water by 5 a.m. The fishing was slow untill about 6:30 am, and only picked up a little. Between the 2 of use we only caught 6 fish. 2 where in the 2 lb range, the rest where fiddlers.

[lunkerman]

It seems to me that it doesn't matter if it is full or new, but if it is the high side of the moon or low side.

[jim]

lunker,what do you mean high side or low?

[Jamey]

Waxing moon vs. waning moon?

[Catbird]

Jim, I've had a thought in my head the past couple of days (now that's a potion for disaster...) that maybe, the fish move to other spots during a full moon. After re-reading your above post about catfish going deep we may be on the same idea. My concernis this, if people just post that they didn't have any luck when the moon was full, we wouldnt learn anything from this thread. This is in no way stepping on anyones toes that posted that. I think more would be learned as to finding out the spots that members catch fish and what the moon is doing at that time. My reasoning for this is, I have had countless fishing trips that I have got skunked on all phases of the moon and I didn't learn a thing from not catching fish except I stunk as a fisherman on those nights...lol

[turtle1173]

Certainly some interesting thoughts! Is it that the fish DO NOT feed when the moon is full (or close to it) OR they are just feeding elsewhere? I guess that's what we need to figure out.

[ASASIN]

The reservoir that I fish is only about 100 acres or so and we absolutely slay them during any moon phase. We are chumming and using jo jo's pole snatcher, which is a dip bait. You can't keep 'em off the hook. Our best night during a full moon has been 200+ catfish and our worst night has been around 70 or so. God bless.

[jim]

As I said at the beginning I probably shouldn't have started all this but it is fun.We need to get hard data to find any truths.Small lakes,ponds etc aren't as affected by moon stages as much I would think at least not the tidal pull effect.As far as the light of a full moon two weeks ago Tommy Hughs,Steve and I fished with a guide that pulled us right up to the Lake Marion dam and threw all his lines into the circle of light given off by the pumphouse or whatever.There were thousands of shad working in those lights but we only had one strike.The guide said they caught a 30 lb flat there the night before.So I just am not sure the full moon illumination is the problem and this was the same guide that wouldn't take anyone out on a full moon night.So just keep goood records of your fishing trips making notes of depths,moon phase and weather and I think we will see a pattern.

[centralcalcat]

Jim,
For the last two years I have been noting which nites I did better in relation to the moon. At least for my neck of the woods, the Mendota Slough Central California, full moon nights mean erratic bites and no consistancy from larger fish until the moon sets.
For instance in the last full moon i fish with a fellow member Robb. We did ok thrugout the night but the fish we were catching were from 1-4 lbs. After the moon set about 4am the bite went wild for about an hour and our three largest fish 8#, 7#, and 6# all came back to back to back at the begining of the is flury.

-Brian

[lunkerman]

Where the moon comes up early befor sunset or a while after it has set. There is probablya better term but that is what I call it.

[Bull72chvy]

There is somthing to this moon phase thing and I am gonna try and work it for me.I have read the article by Joe Bucher,and I found it very interesting and convincing.I found a website that will let you enter your location and date or dates,I went from Aug.25-Dec31,and it will give you a chart of Sun rise and set And Moon rise and set for every date you enter for your location.I decided to print this out and I will be experimenting with it to decide when I wll be going fishing,if it doesent works I havent really lost a thing,and if it does I will have the best advatage there is to catching more fish.Well here is the site if anyone is interested and I will be reporting my findings regular in a post called MoonShine.Great Fishin everyone.JJ


P.S. Im not sure how to post a linkable site so Im just typing it in:www.40-below.com/sunmoon

[blackwaterkatz]

Thanks, Bull72chevy. I like that site. I think that will be useful for the fishing as well as hunting. I use the moon cycles and rise/set times for hunting, too.
As I fish, I will relate those trips to the charts and see how it compares with my past experiences.

[Butchy]

Last Sunday I caught a 30lb channel in a lake in central Illinois. It was 3 days after the full moon, the sky above me was clear and very bright, way off to the north I could see lightining and clouds. I caught the fish at about 1:30am and the only other fish I caught was a 1 and a half pounder 3 hours earlier. I caught it on live bluegill and I had a few other short runs but only from deep water. I had 2 other rods out in shallow water and got no bites. The big one came off a drop off in about 12ft of water. This drop off goes from about 7ft to 20ft at maybe a 45 degree angle.
I like a study like this and there ought to be a thread like this for channel, flatheads, and blues, just my opinion.

[olyeller]

For years Mom and Dad kept records of the big fish they caught (over 15#) and the most productive time was the five day period with the Last Quarter of the moon in the middle day of the five. (2 days before and 2 days after the Last Qtr).

I kept records after my wife and I bought the camp from Mom & Dad for about a year beginning in March, 2003. We caught more fish from the Full Moon until the New Moon than we did from the New Moon until the Full Moon. In other words, fishing a waning Moon was more productive than a waxing Moon. The margin was 3 to 2. Average weight was slightly greater during the waning Moon phase, also.

What does all this prove? Well, I think the best time to fish is when you can. If you can tilt the tables your way, whether it be a rise, a spawn, baiting a hole, or the Moon phase, that's well and good, too, but good fishing is opportunity meeting skill when the fish decide to bite.

[yadkinangler]

I prefer fishing with as little moon light as possible, but cannot say with certainty that there is a huge difference in the bite. I seem to have more luck trying to use changing temperature as a guide rather than the moon phases.

[jim]

Appreciate everyone posting their info/data/thoughts/We aren't trying to pick the best times just show some kind of correlation between moon phases and fishing success IF there is any specific link.

[jim]

Butchy,excellent feed back.Thank you very much.I would reccommend that you keep a log of your fishing trips incorporating this same attention to detail and you will be amazed a few years down the road how useful that info will be.Thanks again

[flatheadhunterx]

i havent paid alot of att. to it until the past couple of yrs. i know when i use to striper fish it was rough fishing during full moon because the light had the bait fish scattered all over the place, hard to get on any concentration of fish. havent had to much luck with catfish except small fish during full moon. but on the other hand went to santee last yr during the new moon. booked a wk at harry's 3 days before night of and 3 days after. thinking it was gonna be a great trip. wrong. tried all sorts of places deep, shallow, canal and didnt catch anything worth bragging about. caught 2 fish in canal one night, 1- 6 to 7 lb channel and one flattie bout 40 and that was it that was on the night of the new moon. then when i was coming in came out of the canal the lake had giant swells coming across the lake no wind was blowing and i had to pump water out of my boat to get it off the bottom to get it on the trailor at harry's it was on the bottom bout 5 ft from the shore the weight made it bottom out before i got to the bank. scared the hell out of me.so i am kinda leary of a new moon for some reason. got rid of that boat and got a pontoon something the waves will run off of lol.the rest of the wk we fished off the piers there at harry's with no great luck. we did kill the littles on around 5 lbs at the cable in the river down behind harry's one day till the boats started coming and tying up there.

[misterwhiskers]

Dunno about "moonlight" affecting fish but i am a firm believer in cold fronts and full /new moon cycles.
I always seem to do really well before a cold front hits 3-4 hours before.Days with a new/full moon always produce alot of fish also for me.
I mainly fish a tidal river and the tides do play a role in catching them but days with the full moon/coldfronts it doesn't seem to matter as much.

I don't fish that late into the night,so i can't say what effect the brightness of the moonlight has on my fishing,but i can definitely say that during the day and early evenonmg hours of a full moon it is definitely a good thing.

Someone put a post up in here(sorry forgot who it was and am too lazy to scroll down) that they was out all night on a full moon and not a bite until early morning and the fished turned on.
Possibly may be something there about moonlight affecting the fish but i still believe that the solunar phase of a full moon is a good thing.Least around here it is.

Its amazing how fish and animals can sense these things in nature!