Bass and moon phase

[Catt]

23 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Bass living in fresh water are not affected by tides. Freshwater lakes even the Great Lakes, are too small to have tides. Also, even during the new moon, the pull exhibited by the moon is so weak that your boat has more gravitational pull on a bass than the moon does. 

Exactly my point

[Scott F]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Exactly my point

I was just sharpening that point a bit.

[wnspain]

There are numerous environmental influences that make fish behave in a certain way. The moon phase, at least in my experience, doesn't seem to matter much.

[WRB]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

Sorry Tom

The gravitational pull of the sun and moon is three times greater on the new moon than the full moon. At the time of the new moon the earth has the moon and the sun in a straight line pulling together.

The only effect the moon has on fishing is it controls the tide which in turns positions the bait.

 

59 minutes ago, Josh Smith said:

As a teenager, I had two fishing predictors: A homemade barometer and a solunar calendar.

They worked well enough.

Regards,

Josh

Catt, thank you for the correction; new moon gravity effects, full moon light effects activity.

Bait activity certainly has no affect on predator feeding activity and I know you don't believe that. By the this week we are having a major spawn movement of course nothing to do with the moon phase that fishing is very good.

Tom

[Raul]

The influence of the moon on bass behavior has been greatly exagerated, but it's still a good excuse to have something/someone to blame for a lousy day on the water.

[Lendiesel22]

Better night bite is about all I notice. The thread is hella funny though.

[WRB]

1 hour ago, Raul said:

The influence of the moon on bass behavior has been greatly exagerated, but it's still a good excuse to have something/someone to blame for a lousy day on the water.

The majority of my DD bass were caught around full moon during pre spawn so I am going to give credit for having some of my best pre spawn days and summer nights on the water.

Tom

[Catt]

During the late 60s & into early 70s I believed in moon phases.

But from then until now I have logged thousands hours night fishing when the moon's influence is supposed to be at it's strongest.

What night fishing has taught me was the moon phases didn't matter cause I did extremely well during all phases.

If one spends their time fishing the full moon then their results will be biased towards the full moon.

When I first started night fishing I fished the new moon mostly & believed it to be the best with results to back it.

Until you fish all moon phases equally you have incomplete data!

[Raul]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

The majority of my DD bass were caught around full moon during pre spawn so I am going to give credit for having some of my best pre spawn days and summer nights on the water.

Tom

Good for you Tom, the majority of my DDs were also caught during the pre spawn but that's because it was the pre spawn.

[Josh Smith]

I don't question what works. Solunar tables seem to work, paired with other factors.

The whole wind direction thing could be called crap, too, because what does wind direction have to do with whether bass bite, right? Just follow the wind to the plankton, and the bite should be on.

It's the weather pattern that the wind direction represents that determines the bite.

I would guess something similar happens with the moon phases.

Josh

[WI_Angler1989]

The moon has an effect on nature. Plain and simple. Even something as simple as watching a nature show can be enlightening. Animals don't have calendars or schedules so they use moon phases, along with temperature, barometric pressure, and a host of other environment factors to time their biological "happenings." 

My understanding of it is far from knowledgeable, but that basic thought process of it is interesting and makes a lot of sense. 

Understanding and applying it all to fishing.....well that's a different story. Good luck!

[Fishing Rhino]

Since we are on animal behaviors, and the impact of the seasons, temps, tides, currents, etc., here's an interesting tidbit.

Emus and ostriches.  Birds in the same family.

A friend of mine had both, and for a few years made much money breeding emus in the early 1990s.  A breeding pair of emus was worth over fifty thousand dollars at their peak.  Then the developing market crashed, and they became nearly worthless. 

There is a big difference in their breeding habits. 

Bring them to the Northern Hemisphere from Australia and/or New Zealand, and the Ostriches will adapt their breeding patterns.  They will change to breed in our summer.  The Emus on the other hand, breed according to the calendar and continue to breed in what was their summer months, our winters.

The Emus that are born here will continue the breeding pattern of their parents and ignore the seasons in favor of the calendar.

They would build a nest and breed in freezing weather.  My friend had to go out a couple of times every night while they were breeding to gather the eggs before they cooled too much, and put them in an incubator.

 

 

[Zsolt Rebek-Nagy]

The phases of the moon can have a large effect on the feeding habits of fish because of the movement of tides and the ability of fish to feed throughout the night. If you admit or not.  Lakes not really effected by tides, especially smaller size lakes.

On the other hand, night feeding can be very successful or not so, which could determend the bass daily feeding behaving.

People, who believes that,  know the best time in each month to fish based on the four phases of the Moon, which are full Moon, last quarter, new Moon and first quarter.

Many people who fish follow the phases of the Moon to judge when the best and worst times are for fishing. Some people claim fish can be caught with greater ease when fishing the four days either side of the New Moon is often successful because fish are more active during these times.

It is also thought that during periods of a full Moon fish are active during nighttimes because of the greater amount of light making feed in the water more visible for fish. Some fishermen also believe fishing during the day four days around the full Moon it  may not be so great, because  the fish are less likely to bite at bait because they have been feeding throughout the night.

Hope it helped.

 

[Tucson]

On March 10, 2016 at 8:09 PM, tomustang said:

I knew a guy who also believed the moon controlled women's cycles too LOL

There may be some truth in that.  Not necessarily control, but lunar phases do affect it.

["hamma"]

a short answer?     ummm,...ahhh,    oh, sometimes they bite , and sometimes they dont  

nightfishing to me has always seemed to have the ability to dumbfounded the wariest angler when it chooses to .,..its a fickle thing......... hence the above reply

[Zsolt Rebek-Nagy]

Yeah, they sometimes bite and sometimes don't,  but it is not that simple. A lots of  information between, and it is a big advantage to know about it. But I get it, we are all different.

[Nitrofreak]

On March 9, 2016 at 0:43 PM, Dypsis said:

Bill Murphy think's it does.  I personally haven't been fishing long enough and or been paying attention long enough to form an opinion. 

Yes he did think it to be true and actually recorded his catches in different phases, I think all of his recordings were that of "Trophy cycles" good, fair, better and best, best was the waxing cycle and second best being the waning cycle, 3 or 4 moons before the full and 3 or 4 moons after.

These were recordings of position as well as activity, but, he did make note that the fish he recorded were 8lbs plus and 10lbs plus, in general getting pretty specific with his documented catches.

 

[tomustang]

No, and no. If you believe that then there's unicorns and leprechauns hiding in your house.

[Catt]

14 hours ago, Nitrofreak said:

best was the waxing cycle and second best being the waning cycle, 3 or 4 moons before the full and 3 or 4 moons after.

 

If you include the day of the full moon that's 7 or 9 days

Was that every month?

Was that spring, summer, fall, & winter?

The reason I'm asking is I lost my book!

[Slade House]

usprimetimes.com 

 

[Nitrofreak]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

If you include the day of the full moon that's 7 or 9 days

Was that every month?

Was that spring, summer, fall, & winter?

The reason I'm asking is I lost my book!

I have mine somewhere Catt, I will find it and get the exact dates of his studies, I recalled reading about his studies in that chapter and thought about the specifics, if I recall correctly, his documentation began in the 70's and I am assuming it went through the time that he published his book which was in the 90's, I remember him also stating that the moon phases basically intensified the action that was already taking place, even noting anglers catches from other parts of the country including different species being larger during these phases.

[Catt]

I'm extremely irritated I can't find my book!

Since I night fish a lot I've read everything concerning moons and moon phases.

[Nitrofreak]

I found my book, he does not give an an exact date, only that "since 1970, the date I started keeping records"

 

[Nitrofreak]

His findings still incorporate the importance of key outside structure during these moon phases as well as pre-frontal conditions but also notes the two or three days around a 3/4 waxing and a 3/4 waning moon were the two most consistent times "each month" to intercept large bass on structural elements.

So yes, I would say that his records show that he studied this for a long or in depth period of time, I don't see where his writings show an end date, that's why I assume he kept records until he published the book.

[Catt]

I don't remember it being year round or what months.

i read another book by a guy from up north who only fished musky size Jitterbugs during new moons & he caught a lot of 10# northern bass.