Astro Tables

[Paul Roberts]

... I will have to dig though my old issues of IF and see if I can find their article, as I don't remember reading it.  Course it may have been at a time when I wasn't getting it too...

I remember that article and it was VERY weak statistically. As I remember it, it called lunar influence 3 days either side of full and new, and the days of the quarter moons. That accounts for 16 days out of the 29.5day lunar cycle for 54% of the lunar month, which yielded 71% (if I remember right) of world record catches. Now, that's very weak in itself, regardless of sample size (which is tiny) but consider that this stretches across multiple species. There's nothing there.

 

Then there was the Texas ShareLunker program data and the suggestion that catches were clustered around the full and new moons. I spent some time running statistics on that data and basically found that the 48% of the lunar month (3 days either side of full and new) yielded 50% of the catches. There was nothing there. (There's a rather long thread on here on BR going back to 2007, 2008?) Then, in a conversation with T9, he mentioned he'd looked at that data too, and found that the majority of those big bass were caught... on weekends. Am I remembering that right, Brian?

 

Then there are all the sundry moon theories out there, many proposed by some very experienced anglers, that all argue for different parts of the cycle being critical. They can't all be right!

 

Then, there were the 3 seasons I spent, not fishing, but observing and documenting the initiation of largemouth spawning in small ponds. While I could not say for sure whether the moons had influence (uncoupling it from other variables), I did find that bass could spawn directly in between full and new moons, associated with rapid heating –the heck with the moon apparently.

 

What many neuropsychologists have discovered in a multitude of ways is that our brains are programmed to find patterns in the cosmos –even when they don’t exist. The explanation for such seeming foolishness is that, although it may not be smart in the short term, it is wise in the long. Better to notice opportunities than to miss them. We construct our sense of the world. And if it’s motivational, go for it. The one thing hope does best is keep us on the water.

[deep]

Tom, Bassun, Paul, T9, anyone else; do you believe/ think that moon phases determine the location of bass on a particular structure? This is what I mean; let's say a main lake point holds a fair number of adult bass during late-fall. Depending on the moon phase, do they come up to shallower parts of the structure, or go down deeper in the water column, or suspend? See pg. 94 of In pursuit of giant bass (3rd ed) for a figure.

 

If so, that might explain some of the data points. Some (well most people I guess) fish fast and off the bottom, and shallow; some fish slow and deep on the bottom, whatever. Everyone fishes differently. If one person plotted his (or her) adult bass catches on a moon phase chart, would/ should patterns be seen? For me the answer is a resounding yes; 60% of my adult bass catches are during one particular week of the cycle, and 30% over another week, and I'm not just talking about spring/ pre-spawn data points, and no bed fish are included in the results.

[Team9nine]

What seasonal period, in Texas the pre spawn starts about March, the spawn ends around end of May on average.

Thank you for posting the Share a Lunker data, interesting that no day is any better than any other in Texas.

Tom

 

The ShareLunker program runs Sept. through April. By far, the majority of the ShareLunkers (>40%) are caught in March, with the next best month being February (~25%). April and January both account for about 12% of the ShareLunkers. That leaves Sept. through December to pick up the remaining 10%. I used the April-June seasonal period on the first post since that data was from Kentucky, which is about 450 miles further north latitude-wise. 

 

 

Then there was the Texas ShareLunker program data and the suggestion that catches were clustered around the full and new moons. I spent some time running statistics on that data and basically found that the 48% of the lunar month (3 days either side of full and new) yielded 50% of the catches. There was nothing there. (There's a rather long thread on here on BR going back to 2007, 2008?) Then, in a conversation with Brian Waldman, he mentioned he'd looked at that data too, and found that the majority of those big bass were caught... on weekends. Am I remembering that right, Brian?

 

 

 

That is correct, Paul. Saturday and Sunday account for 39.5% of all ShareLunkers caught, though they represent 28.6% of the available days. If you add Friday to the mix, that 3-day weekend period accounts for more than half (53.5%) of the ShareLunkers, but just 42.9% of available days. Here is the current breakdown for the 557 ShareLunkers in the database.

 

Mon - 65 - 11.7%

Tue - 59 - 10.6%

Wed - 63 - 11.3%

Thu - 72 - 12.9%

Fri - 78 - 14.0%

Sat - 124 - 22.3%

Sun - 96 - 17.2%

 

If all days were equal, any given day would have a 1 in 7 chance of being represented, or 14.3% of all available days. The simple take home would be that since more people fish on weekends (or even Fridays), more ShareLunkers should get caught on those days. However, there isn't enough data to know just how many more people (bass anglers in particular) fish on weekends, so we can't weight that calculation. I'm not certain if any of those day differences above would reach statistical significance or not.

 

-T9

[WRB]

More anglers targeting big bass = more bass being caught! most anglers work during the week. California trophy bass lakes Casitas and Castaic are both very small, about 2,000 acres and weekends are crowded, week days have fewer boaters, rainy week days have very few anglers on the water and the best time for trophy size bass.

Giant bass are catchable during prey spawn and off beds during the spawn, they disregard normal survival instinct that otherwise make these bass very difficult to catch during any other seasonal period.

The water temps must be stable, weather has a tendency to change that factor during the spawn as cold front often occur in the spring. When everything is aligned the moon phase can be a big factor, the majority of big bass initially move up on the bed sites during that period, then hang around until finished spawning.

Very few giant bass are caught outside of the spawning cycle. That has been my experience and the Share a Lunker program confirms. The fact the Texas Program closes down is due to very low numbers being caught and survival rates in warm water are low, not worth the expense.

Doug Hannon was a solunar promoter....what did he know!

If you don't believe in the 5 day moon phase cycle, fish everyday for 60 years and keep your own stats.

Tom

[RSM789]

I avoid the solunar tables not because they may be wrong, but out of concern that they may be right!!  I don't want to put the idea in my head that fishing will be tough, that preconceived notion can be just as detrimental as starting the day knowing exactly how you are going to catch them that day.

 

I prefer to be blissfully ignorant and let the fish themselves tell me what the day is going to be like.  I'd rather be disappointed at the end of the day instead of before I make my first cast.

 

Then again, my 3 biggest bass were caught in August, October & November, so what do I know...

[Bassun]

Giant bass can be caught year around, I haven't been able to do that! 100% of my bass over 15 lbs were caught during the pre spawn to post spawn period, the vast majority during pre spawn around the 5 day full moon phase, during the morning hours. That has been my experience

 

 

WRB -- I obviously agree that the absolute heaviest fish will be caught around the spawn, for the obvious physical reasons.  I wonder, though, how the size corelation mixes in the rest of the season -- IF -- you look at size potential.  What I mean by that is, suppose a female LMB prespawn was 26" and weighs 15lbs, we know she wont way the same in August.  But, it's the same 26" fish.  I was wondering, if in your experience / logging if you ever noticed a length increase of fish caught during the spawn thereby showing a "bigger" fish being caught versus the same fish, just heavier.

 

I know I have caught some long fish mid summer that looked more like a trout than a bass, lol.  I wonder if you haven't really been able to catch giant fish all year, only they were lighter because of the season.  I know most of us tend to focus on the weight, not length, but if we consider length and look at the potential of that fish in spring we may see a slightly different picture.

[Bassun]

Tom, Bassun, Paul, T9, anyone else; do you believe/ think that moon phases determine the location of bass on a particular structure? This is what I mean; let's say a main lake point holds a fair number of adult bass during late-fall. Depending on the moon phase, do they come up to shallower parts of the structure, or go down deeper in the water column, or suspend? See pg. 94 of In pursuit of giant bass (3rd ed) for a figure.

 

If so, that might explain some of the data points. Some (well most people I guess) fish fast and off the bottom, and shallow; some fish slow and deep on the bottom, whatever. Everyone fishes differently. If one person plotted his (or her) adult bass catches on a moon phase chart, would/ should patterns be seen? For me the answer is a resounding yes; 60% of my adult bass catches are during one particular week of the cycle, and 30% over another week, and I'm not just talking about spring/ pre-spawn data points, and no bed fish are included in the results.

 

Tom or others probably have better data to refer to as I've lost all of my logs from years past, (and honestly haven't started a new one mostly because I was pouting about losing all my old stuff - but I digress)  so I can only base my response on what I remember and conjecture.

 

Here is my thought about how the moon could position fish differently.  The light of the moon alone can drive night fishing as stated above.  We know that moonlit nights offer better night fishing where as moonless nights generally become harder to catch bass at night.  (Intersetingly this kind of fits in with the conversation about light and fish placement in a different thread too, lol.)  I would assume that nights with more light make it easier for bass to feed as they can see their prey better.  Given how light attenuates in water, that would position them more shallow during nights with a bright moon so they could best utilize that light.

 

If they do in fact stay more shallow during those "full moon" nights (I'm thinking Full +/-3) then it would seem reasonable that they would naturally position themelves not only more shallow but also on shallow structure.  I think that if a fish moves shallow during the night, and there is nothing to push them back deep, it would seem reasonable to expect them to be positioned more shallow during the following day, especially that morning.  If a fish is able to stay in one area and have all of it's needs met, why would it move?

 

 

In retrospect, this (in my opinion) may actually explain why we see more success around a full moon.  Sure, there will be more fish caught at night which would help the numbers statistically; but also, there could be more fish shallow (where the bulk of anglers fish) just hanging out in that area from the night before.  That turns it into a pure numbers game, and the more fish there are to catch, the more fish will be caught.

 

Now, conversly, one could argue the exact opposite and say they could stay deeper since there is more light and that would position them deeper.  But, in my experience - I have always caught more night bass shallow in the light of the moon than under a completely dark sky

 

I think we could add more science to support why bass would stay shallow vs just being able to see better.  So to answer, yes, I feel that the moon phase does help position fish on structure, all other factors being even.  However, I think that a seasonal pattern will be a bigger influence over all.  A full moon in a lake nearing ice over, I think, would have less impact than a full moon during warmer months.  Again, this is all just a mix of conjecture and my experiences.  I'm sure someone else can offer their experience and shed a little more light on the topic.  (pun intended lol )

[deep]

Yes, of course seasons have the bigger influence. I was wondering about how they position themselves during one given season; let's say over one full cycle during winter, since that's a stable period, and fish can use the whole water column.

 

Also, I'm not talking about night fishing. I don't fish at night, and none of my data points were caught at night.

[WRB]

Yes, of course seasons have the bigger influence. I was wondering about how they position themselves during one given season; let's say over one full cycle during winter, since that's a stable period, and fish can use the whole water column.

Also, I'm not talking about night fishing. I don't fish at night, and none of my data points were caught at night.

For the full moon to have an affect on the bass population directly it needs to impact the entire ecosystem.

Bass don't live in a vacuum, they are part of the ecosystem. Procreation, the drive to continue the species, is very strong in most species including fish. The next high priority is survival and to survive bass need to eat and rest. So how does a full moon or new moon cycle differ from 1/4 moon cycles? Gravity, the moon affects gravity and gravity affects the ecosystem directly. Terrestrial and aquatic animals, insects, some vegetation react to changes in gravity and light. Additional gravity and light does have a impact on bass prey, the food source.

When hunting bass use all their senses to locate and capture live prey. The type of prey determines how bass position themselves on structure or in cover. During the winter or cold water period and up through the spawning period the water column is homogenous, no upper thermocline layers have formed as the water warms.

The bass move upward in the water column from deeper water eventually into shallow water to spawn when the water temps are 62 to 67 degrees for LMB. The moon is going through it's phases, the ecosystem is reacting, the prey is also migrating, the bass position to take advantage of feeding opportunists.

Where I fish long under points called major points offer the bass everything they need to hunt crawdads and pelagic baitfish that are also taking advantage of their feeding opportunities.

It's been my experience that 1/4 moon phases offer fewer or shorter active bass periods. I catch bass during the 1/4 moon phases, just not numbers of big bass compared to full/new moon phases.

I found that lures moving up and over structure verses parallel or downwards works better during the cold to pre spawn periods. "spring up, fall down" the direction the bass are moving.

If the prey is in 8' feet of water, the bass will be there, in 25' they will be there. I don't believe the moon phases directly impacts what depth the bass are located, only activity levels.

Tom

[Bassun]

I will have to defer to someone with their logs to make a more accurate responce, (WRB probably has the data) but I would suspect that at least in the AM the bass would be higher in the water column generally around a Full Moon +/- 3 days.  I can't imagine that it would be a significant difference, but I think it could potentially help to find fish early. 

 

I am purely speculating though, as I have never tracked that.

[hoosierbass07]

 I bought Rick Taylor's Prime Time calendar for 2014 and have it waging on the wall.  His "astro tables" calendar is sort of nice.  His calendar shows every day of the month and shows the highs and lows of the solar and moon periods.  But does it work?  To be honest, I've found myself not looking at it more than I do when I decide to go fishing because the most important factors for me for when I go fishing - do I have the time and is the weather good.  So, I'm probably not going to order a new one for 2015 but I have already ordered the In-Fisherman fishing calendar that has their "best days to go fishing" information on it.  

 

 I caught my two big bass and a few other big big in the spring time and only in the spring time.  That tells me fishing for big bass is all about the month of May.  

[Team9nine]

Tom, Bassun, Paul, T9, anyone else; do you believe/ think that moon phases determine the location of bass on a particular structure? This is what I mean; let's say a main lake point holds a fair number of adult bass during late-fall. Depending on the moon phase, do they come up to shallower parts of the structure, or go down deeper in the water column, or suspend? See pg. 94 of In pursuit of giant bass (3rd ed) for a figure.

 

If so, that might explain some of the data points. Some (well most people I guess) fish fast and off the bottom, and shallow; some fish slow and deep on the bottom, whatever. Everyone fishes differently. If one person plotted his (or her) adult bass catches on a moon phase chart, would/ should patterns be seen? For me the answer is a resounding yes; 60% of my adult bass catches are during one particular week of the cycle, and 30% over another week, and I'm not just talking about spring/ pre-spawn data points, and no bed fish are included in the results.

 

While you can never make any absolute statements, I would tend to believe that what Murphy pictured, while possibly happening in his California waters, likely isn't the case a majority of the time, or at least not for a majority of the waters. There are a few things to consider, such as the work of Ralph Mann's and his In-Fisherman report that showed that bass rarely have the ability to make large vertical movements for any length of time. While it's hard to tell by Murphy's picture exactly what depths are in his example, 10'-15' is about the max a bass can move vertically in the water column at any one time due to air bladder restrictions and adjustments. Think in terms of all those reports you hear about anglers who have issues with barotrauma, hyperinflated air bladders and death because those fish were moved over too large of a vertical distance too fast. Another hint comes from the tracking of John Hope and his study of giant largemouth bass, where he found that in most lakes he studied, there were 3 types of bass; shallow fish, mid depth fish, and deep fish, and that outside of spawning, those respective fish almost never left their home depths, though they did suspend within those depth ranges. They also fed in very predictable and repeatable patterns within their depth range. That said, Hope did report what he termed a "crazy night," where most giant bass left their normal routines and fed suspended over open water one evening - so again, there are no absolutes, perhaps just rarities and exceptions.

 

Doug Hannon was a solunar promoter....what did he know!

If you don't believe in the 5 day moon phase cycle, fish everyday for 60 years and keep your own stats.

Tom

 

Let me state that none of this is meant to in any way diminish or discredit the incredible amount of time and experience gained by people like yourself, or Hannon or Murphy. It seems most big bass chasers I've read about all end up believing in a lunar influence to some degree, even John Hope felt it helped. Whatever works for you on your waters is obviously what you need to be doing. But in the big scheme of things, while 60 years of an individual fishing is a lot of experience to make conclusions on, it pales in comparison to large data systems like the ShareLunker database. According to US Fish & Wildlife stats, there are 1.3 million Texas black bass anglers that fish a total of 17.9 million days a year. Multiply that by the more than 25 years that the SL program has been in place (works out to half a billion bass angler days on the water), and taking into consideration all the angling variables those anglers can cover by their sheer diversity, and it becomes hard to ignore the resulting patterns and outcomes. It's really just a shame that we only have this extensive a set of data from Texas to analyze. Is it just a Texas thing, or representative of bass behavior in the entire country? The same question could be asked of the California big bass info - region specific trend or not?

 

Then there are all the sundry moon theories out there, many proposed by some very experienced anglers, that all argue for different parts of the cycle being critical. They can't all be right!

 

 

 

A little snippet to add to Paul's comment above. We've spent a lot of time talking about the 2 days prior and the same days after a full moon (5 day moon phase cycle) as being the best cycle time for big bass. However, if you look at the lunar chart in Murphy's book on page 89, you'll see that he considered those days as only "fair." Instead, his two best cycle times were the waxing and waning quarters either side of the full moon, which works out to be the period 4-7 days before, and 4-7 days after the full moon. So to Paul's point, which is really the best cycle and who do you believe? Murphy also liked the 3 days before and after a new moon as third best sequence. If you put everyone's opinions together, there isn't much of the lunar cycle left to consider a "bad" or off time - LOL. 

 

-T9

[Paul Roberts]

I too have no interest whatsoever in disrespecting people's beliefs. At the same time, I cannot help but be skeptical, to question things. As a university researcher I came to a number of rock solid conclusions (meaning hypotheses that should have stayed as such, but I had emotional stakes in -the urge to rationalize runs deep) that I saw crumble with new evidence, or maybe better, the new evidence simply revealed that there were deeper levels to the problem. I’ve had 'lack of a deep caution" beaten out of me. The enormity of it all –even within a narrow tightly controlled experiment– is overwhelming. And angling is, well, one lousy sampling method, practiced in a chaotic environment.

 

Tom, Bassun, Paul, T9, anyone else; do you believe/ think that moon phases determine the location of bass on a particular structure? This is what I mean; let's say a main lake point holds a fair number of adult bass during late-fall. Depending on the moon phase, do they come up to shallower parts of the structure, or go down deeper in the water column, or suspend? See pg. 94 of In pursuit of giant bass (3rd ed) for a figure.

 

If so, that might explain some of the data points. Some (well most people I guess) fish fast and off the bottom, and shallow; some fish slow and deep on the bottom, whatever. Everyone fishes differently. If one person plotted his (or her) adult bass catches on a moon phase chart, would/ should patterns be seen? For me the answer is a resounding yes; 60% of my adult bass catches are during one particular week of the cycle, and 30% over another week, and I'm not just talking about spring/ pre-spawn data points, and no bed fish are included in the results.

Although I have "records" (30 some years worth of journals) I just don't have the data, or trust angling as a sampling method able to sort out all the variables that can affect catches, to say anything about moon phase. And even if I did tease out a statistic, I wouldn't trust it. The "methods" are just too inaccurate, inconstant, deceptive, and generally unreliable; and the environment too capricious.

 

Does this mean that I've given up hope that we will figure it all out? No; I'm as human as the next guy.

[WRB]

Couple of things that is being over looked. There is a difference in LMB behavior depending on the strain Florida or Northern and the regional factors, shallow low land reservoirs, deep structured highland reservoir and northern natural lakes. FLMB behave differently in a Florida, Texas and California due to habitat and prey sources.

Bill Murphy studied bass where he fished, the same lakes I fish and we were in the same bass club together, any questions you may have ask me, Bill passed away several years ago to skin cancer.

The statement that a basses bladder can't adjust to more than 15' is false, 30 feet is more accurate for short feeding periods. Giant bass prefer to be around 35' depth in deep near the thermocline structured lake the majority of the seasonal periods and only go shallow to spawn, preferring bed sites in about 8' deep. Pre spawn the giants are around the 20' depth zone.

The 5 or 6 day moon phase talked about doesn't occur monthly, it occurs seasonally, full moon during the spawn and summer nights, new moon pre spawn, summer days, leaving post spawn, fall and winter months where the moon phase has a minor affect. The bass may be feeding heavily during the full moon phase in pre spawn, our lakes are not open to fishing at night until April to September. Once the bass transition to the spawn.they no longer eat and caught off beds protecting them.

Tom

[Team9nine]

Couple of things that is being over looked. There is a difference in LMB behavior depending on the strain Florida or Northern and the regional factors, shallow low land reservoirs, deep structured highland reservoir and northern natural lakes. FLMB behave differently in a Florida, Texas and California due to habitat and prey sources.

Bill Murphy studied bass where he fished, the same lakes I fish and we were in the same bass club together, any questions you may have ask me, Bill passed away several years ago to skin cancer.

The statement that a basses bladder can't adjust to more than 15' is false, 30 feet is more accurate for short feeding periods. Giant bass prefer to be around 35' depth in deep near the thermocline structured lake the majority of the seasonal periods and only go shallow to spawn, preferring bed sites in about 8' deep. Pre spawn the giants are around the 20' depth zone.

The 5 or 6 day moon phase talked about doesn't occur monthly, it occurs seasonally, full moon during the spawn and summer nights, new moon pre spawn, summer days, leaving post spawn, fall and winter months where the moon phase has a minor affect. The bass may be feeding heavily during the full moon phase in pre spawn, our lakes are not open to fishing at night until April to September. Once the bass transition to the spawn.they no longer eat and caught off beds protecting them.

Tom

 

Thanks for the additional comments, Tom. Murphy's book is absolutely one of the favorites in my library, and it was a big loss when he left us several years back.

 

I did find a follow-up story by Ralph Mann's/In-Fisherman on his lunar study that is available online: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/largemouth-bass/moon-magic-largemouth-bass/ The original article was written back in 1992, I believe, but this update covers the 1992-2010 time period.

 

I'll give you difference in behavior and influence based on geography, species, etc., as that is the only way you could explain away all the discrepancies in opinion on lunar theory, depth positioning, etc., among experts like yourself, Hannon, Murphy, Hope, Mann's, etc.. As such, I won't bother to point all of them out. But that then has to come with the caveat that any explanation or opinion on such (bass) behavior applies only locally/regionally to the poster and waters in question, and may not (or even more likely, doesn't) apply everywhere, or even to anyone, else. As Murphy stated in his book, "Having too many concrete, scientific rules could hamper your fishing to a point where you won't go fishing if, for example, the moon isn't exactly right. I have always stated that there is a correlation between certain moon phases and big bass activity, and I believe that intently, but I don't want to influence anyone into thinking that just because the moon isn't 3-days-before or 3-days-after full, that fishing would be a waste of time. Bass are free spirits in their world, and too much cause and effect thinking takes the freedom out of fishing."

 

-T9

[tomustang]

So how does a full moon or new moon cycle differ from 1/4 moon cycles? Gravity, the moon affects gravity and gravity affects the ecosystem directly.

I don't know what you're getting at, the phase doesn't add or remove gravity

[Duster7466]

With all the science and statistics aside, everyone seems to agree "fish when you can". I may have more confidence during the prime times, but I would never not fish because of it.

[WRB]

I don't know what you're getting at, the phase doesn't add or remove gravity

The moon directly affects gravity; pull on water called tides for example, without the moon no tide.

Tom

[WRB]

WRB -- I obviously agree that the absolute heaviest fish will be caught around the spawn, for the obvious physical reasons.  I wonder, though, how the size corelation mixes in the rest of the season -- IF -- you look at size potential.  What I mean by that is, suppose a female LMB prespawn was 26" and weighs 15lbs, we know she wont way the same in August.  But, it's the same 26" fish.  I was wondering, if in your experience / logging if you ever noticed a length increase of fish caught during the spawn thereby showing a "bigger" fish being caught versus the same fish, just heavier.

 

I know I have caught some long fish mid summer that looked more like a trout than a bass, lol.  I wonder if you haven't really been able to catch giant fish all year, only they were lighter because of the season.  I know most of us tend to focus on the weight, not length, but if we consider length and look at the potential of that fish in spring we may see a slightly different picture.

I believe most of the growth potential occurs as a young adult bass when their feeding habits develop, this gives the bass an advantage over it's year class peers. It's been my experience that a giant bass stops growth in skeletal length about 80% of it's life spawn, then gains body mass, followed by loss of body mass as it nears death from old age.

The 26" bass could be max for that bass or it could continue growing depending on the individual bass. The bass takes a few months to recover lost weight from spawning, by August the bass should back to it's max weight with a full belly of food if still in a growth cycle. The problem being very few of the giant bass seen on beds are caught after they spawn, until they show up again the following spawn.

Tom

[tomustang]

The moon directly affects gravity; pull on water called tides for example, without the moon no tide.

Tom

But it doesn't change with the cycle.

[WRB]

But it doesn't change with the cycle.

I suggest that you go online and look at "moon tides" good animated illustration of how the new and full moon tidal effect.

Tom

[tomustang]

Have to factor the sun too since it's causing an indirect change.

[WRB]

Have to factor the sun too since it's causing an indirect change.

That is correct, the sun lights up the moon, the earth shadow creates the phases, it's about the alignment creating gravitation forces that affect the tides and creatures like fish on earth.

Anyway, we can only catch bass if we are on the water fishing.

Good luck.

Tom

[deep]

Interesting- or maybe not so interesting if you study the cosmic clock- stuff from Mike Long (read the complete article on bassmaster website):

 

"It's probably no surprise that my favorite moon phases are full and new," he says. "They're the most extreme, and they have the most impact on the bass' world. For me, the best times to go fishing are from two days before to two days after the full and new moons. When I look at my records for big bass catches, a disproportionate number of fish were taken during those periods."

[Slade House]

Astro tables are an aid to help plan future fishing trips. Bass are easier to catch when they are actively feeding, the Astro table predicts those times. You can ague the merits but it's hard to argue fact that the moon phase influences animal behavior in general.

I have planned my pre spawn bass fishing around the full and new moon phases, 2 days before to 2 days after. Astro table times are just another factor to keep in mind. You can't catch bass without fishing for them, go fishing when you can.

Tom

 

 

TOm just consistently nails it . i prefer to use www.usprimetimes.com for my tables as they have really cool daily bar graphs that are much more detailed and useful than the stuff ive found on other sites.