Night fishing

[canepole]

Night fishing, I need your input on this subject, would you rather fish at night with the moon shining bright or do you want it to be real dark. and please explain why.
I will post my thoughts on this subject tomorrow....

[muskie_hunter]

i like to catfish at night period.... moonlight or not. for me it's more comfortable when the moon is out and a little lighter. but for some reason i seem to catch alot more fish when it is a very dark night!

[98custom]

I like fishing at night with a bright moon

[malaki]

i like the full moon because its easyer too see but i cant tell any difference in the fish bitting.

[blackwaterkatz]

I seem to catch more fish on the darker nights, but I also enjoy going on a night when there is enough moonlight to see good.
There is an interesting thread "Moon Phases" started by Jim under general catfishing that you may want to read, too.

[Nate]

it doesnt really matter about the light to me as long as it's dark out. Ive never had much luck fishing for cats during the daylight hours.

[willisjj]

Seems like to me, the fish bite best the 2 or 3 days before a new moon. I really don't go by that though, as I fish whenever I get the chance. I used to follow those "Solunar" tables when I was a kid, but it has been so many years now I don't even remember what all that was about. There are several really good threads about this on the old site. You might try doing a search or just hang on and I am sure that you will have a lot of knowledgable responses pretty soon.

[centralcalcat]

For Mendota, CA a Bright moon means an off day fishing. When the moon is high, typically the bite either comes late after it has started to set, or not at all.

[wolfman]

The darker the better for me, always seem to get more hits when its dark out.

[abilene]

Hey Canepole, I believe the darker the better. The little fishies can't see in the dark and cats can. They can "see" things with their whiskers and sonar. They can detect the "signal" of sonar impulses like a submarine.
Cats don't like to chase stuff, they like to sneak up on it and grab it. Sometimes they like to play around with it for awhile, like foreplay. The reason they like it real dark is so the little fishie won't see them coming. If they do, they might run away.

[flaboy]

I have to say the darker the better in my opinion, but then what do I know?

[Southernraised84]

I never really paid much attention to the moon(not when it came to cats)I just like being out there...lol.I have had luck with half moons to no moon at all,but the biggest fish i caught to date was right on the edge of dark. :know-big:

[Desperado]

The really dark night tend to catch the bigger fish , then the full moon times.

[johnboat]

well canepole, heres another response for ya... I went out tonight just alittle before sunset, and stayed for about 4 1/2 hours.. or untill i could'nt see my poles.. in that time i had several bites, and came home with a fine mess of channelcat...and untill i made my way back to the truck, i did'nt realize that the moon was almost full...(forgot my lantern.lol) anyway, in answer to your question, i'd say i like bright moonlit nights so i can find my way in and out of where i'm fishing.. but i don't think it has much bearing on how the fish bite..i may be wrong, but i seem to have just as much luck with a moon as without...

[johnboat]

well canepole, heres another response for ya... I went out tonight just alittle before sunset, and stayed for about 4 1/2 hours.. or untill i could'nt see my poles.. in that time i had several bites, and came home with a fine mess of channelcat...and untill i made my way back to the truck, i did'nt realize that the moon was almost full...(forgot my lantern.lol) anyway, in answer to your question, i'd say i like bright moonlit nights so i can find my way in and out of where i'm fishing.. but i don't think it has much bearing on how the fish bite..i may be wrong, but i seem to have just as much luck with a moon as without... :)

[ASASIN]

Doesn't matter to me. I'll fish either and catch the fire out of 'em on dip baits. It is convenient having the moon shining bright so you can see better. I can't tell a difference in the bite from one moon phase to the next, they are still on fire, course we are using chum. God bless.

[cat4life]

I like to fish a night with no moon. Never caught a fish when I point out theres a full moon. Sure its posible though.

[canepole]

Abilene , I feel the same way you do, I think the cats do alot better on a real dark nite, I like it to be real dark with alot of activity on the water.
When the moon is shining bright it seems like I don't do to good.

[duxsrus]

I think the bite is better when there is a new moon but a full moon sure does make running a river much easier.

[Nate]

Yanno, the more I've thought about it..

I can recall my best nights catfishing being clear nights with no moon, when the air temp fell below the water temp causing a slight hazy fog to roll across the water.

Just make sure on nights like this you keep all your tackle bags and boxes and anything else you value closed or covered. If not everything gets misted over from the fog and stuff starts rusting.

[omots2]

i ,myself dont care if the moon is out or in at night its quiet not a lot of bort traffic waters calm down its just great then there is the little matter the fish seem more active around here at night

[Larry]

Dark nights are most productive. But all the biggins 10+ seem to hit right before or at Sunset in my experience.

[Redtick]

I agree about the lack of boat traffic at night. I think the fish in general, and catfish in particular, don't like it. All I can say is I usually have my best fishing when I am the only boat on the lake regardless of the moon condition. I hunt at night as well as fish and I usually stay at home on those cold, moonlit, still nights. I sometimes can get some action on cloudy, moonlit nights when the wind is blowing.

[JAYNC]

Ok heres a question, regardless of moon, do you fish in your boat with the lights all of except the anchor light or do you have a lantern going, also will a radio on quietly reduce bites.

[nuthinlikeacat]

My biggest fish have always come with a new or full moon

[thunderchicken]

I like to fish a few days either side of the new or full moon. Seems I have had better luck during those times. Also have noticed other critters seem to be more active then too so maybe it has something to do with the gravitational pull on the earth. i know one night I was fishing from shore and was sitting in my truck and a skunk walked by and skeered me to death. He didn't know whether to spray me or run but I'm glad he left. Haven't had that problem on dark nights.
:cool:

[Catcaller]

There was a magazine article that I read some time back that was fascinating to me. I cant recall at this time which publication it was...but I want to say Field and Stream. Anyhoo...It was about the IGFA world record list of fish that have been caught to date....and during what moon phase they were caught in. A shockingly high number of world records of all species were caught during the four days preceding and the four days following a full moon...OR...a new moon. The split between being caught during daylite hours or at night were fairly even. It was like 90% and some change of all world records of any species that have ever been caught... were done so during those periods of the moon phase....and the remaining very few percent were scattered elsewhere between those phases. Just food for thought.

[master_cat]

i catch most catfish when the sun is setting and for about an hour after dark after that it slows down maby im doin somthing wrong

[BKS72]

If I am off in a cove or somewhere else where there is no traffic, I turn all the lights in the boat off. Don't think the dim stern light or a lantern bothers the fish, but it sure attracts the bugs. Also, I can't see the water or my lines as well staring past the light at them. I have a radio in the boat, but hardly ever turn it on. Again, don't think it bothers the fish, but it bothers me. I like music, but on the lake or river, I'd rather listen to the silence or the current.

[JAYNC]

Ok, the last few times I went out in the boat I have caught little to no fish. I think it was more of where I was casting at night, the deep holes. I will start fishing more shallow with floats, and one of these times I will catch a nice one. I was hoping the radio didnt bother the fish, nothing like fishing at night with a few friends drinks and tunes.

[lookinfurabiggun]

I love fishin at night, no preference to moonlight, I just love being out there.

[catfishmama]

I have not done much fishing at night as a matter of fact my second time night fishing was Saturday the 17th. But I got to say that night fishing is really better then anything I have ever done including sex. The moon was full I saw a falling star and the lightening was putting on a good show over the Iowa banks. And the fish were biting great. Each catfish I brought in was bigger then the last. I caught a total of 5 fish and hubby caught 2. Then the fish stopped biting and so we decided to head in. But it was great, my choice would definiately be night fishing.
Catfishmama

[JimmiMallo]

I always catch good fish anytime around a new moon and the week before a full moon. Seems like when the moon gets to full the fish slow WAY down where I fish. I have not caught less than 4 keepers in quite a while and I went out on the last full moon and caught squat! A few baby's that I was tempted to use as bait LOL :p Don't get me wrong, the best time to fish is any chance you get, but the full moon is when I do my least amount of catchin'

[derbycitycatman]

Ive never caught much during those bright full moon nights, but I love to get fishing about an hour or two before dark. Ill fish as long as I can or run out of bait. I really dont pay much attention to moon phases.

My favorite time to fish is the day before a major storm. Sometimes even before a small rain storm. I think theres something that the barometric pressure does to the fish. Ive got friends who swear by one of those barometric gauges.

[nuthinlikeacat]

I fish from shore most of the time. When I go out with a few buddys, we have 4 or 5 lanterns going, a huge fire, and the radio blasting, and we make lots of noise tossing the football around and it doesnt seem to bother the fish any.