Full moon troubles!?

How does the full moon affect your fishing?

Blood moon, super moon, full moon, ain’t never done anything good to my fishing.

We have made trips to Mexico on every moon imaginable. We usually catch 100 Bass per day out of each boat. With this high number of fish it makes for a great testing time. The only difference that I have noticed is 3 days before the Full Moon more fish begin to move in and stage in 10 to 15 ft. of water. This allows us to catch them at all levels from 2 ft. out to 15 foot. Out side of this period there are less deeper water fish staging. Nothing better is happening during the Full Moon week in the shallows; no more or no less fish.

There are always two flights of fish; the shallow water fish, and another flight waiting to move into the shallows at 8 ft.. Many of those second flight deeper fish are spawning in the tops of the deeper bushes. During the Full Moon week this third flight appears and are feeding up on the staging areas in 15 ft..

Once I figured this out, we work our trips during those weeks of the Full Moon so we have good fish at all levels. This also gives us an excellent opportunity to catch several over 10 lbs. out a little deeper as the females have not been beat up by the huge males. The males will push the Big Females to the beds in a few days and not allow them to bite. I really see no difference otherwise.

Makes no difference what so ever in relation to largemouth bass. Ask anyone who claims it does to produce a scientific study to validate their position. What they'll find and you'll find is there are in fact studies out there, but they all show no coloration between movement or catch rates and the moon phase.

The one possible exception here could be around the spawn. I know a lot of guys absolutely swear the first wave of big fish typically moves up around the first full moon. I have not seen a study that specifically looks at this phenomena. I'm intensely skeptical myself, but I can't say for certain here.

What I can say with statistical certainty is that more bass are not caught around any particular moon phase across the course of a year. If you are so motivated you can quickly confirm this yourself by downloading the sharelunker data and comparing it to the moon phases. Not convinced? Move on to the Toledo Bend Lunker Club data. Just those two data sets alone will give you access to a few thousand data points.

night fished RR Saturday from 9-1:30 because of the full moon and didn't get a bite. Ray Roberts sucks!!

I think its fascinating that it doesnt seem to effect bass in a good or bad way, but with muskie, its night and day! muskie guys really focus on lunar conditions, and it pays off. why do you yall think that is?

I do a lot of musky fishing. I think the musky guys are out of their minds also. I've looked at enormous reams of data here as well and there is no correlation. People are very susceptible to confirmation bias. They remember the data points that coincide with their mental models they believe in, but forget all the times they didn't get bit when they were "supposed to." If there is a correlation there, it's that musky fisherman love to fish moonrise and moonset of new and full moons, which of course always coincide with sunrise and sunset. They are just good old fashioned low light conditions, which yeah... those tend to be the best times of day.

I have no idea if there is a physiological effect on the actual fish or not. That's way above my pay grade. However, I know for a fact that a bright full moon will absolutely change the location and movement of shad in the lake. Certain times of the year it has more of an effect than others. If it changes the pattern of the forage species it has to have at least some effect on the bass. Seems to me that the early morning bite is not as good for me during a full moon and the night bite is certainly worse during a full moon. Probably because the shad are more scattered out. With that said, I fish when I can and rarely look at the moon phase when fishing freshwater. I personally believe that the impact on freshwater fishing is minimal and mainly a light issue rather than physiological. In tidal waters the moon has a huge effect on the fish because it changes the tides. Completely different story in saltwater.

I have absolutely no empirical data to back me up, but I am fully convinced that for whatever reason, I have always caught more bass during the day during the darker moon phases than when the moon is full. At night, it doesn't seem to have mattered, whether fishing topwater lures, spinnerbaits, or soft plastics. Then again, my aging brain might be failing to remember well. For all I know, I could be dead wrong. I think I'd listen to Mr. Purdue.

I don’t concern myself with the full moon moving the fish except during pre spawn. I am a big believer in the moons position in the sky having an affect on the major feeding periods. If you look at a solunar table you will see that the major feeds are when the moon is straight overhead or directly below you. What that means is on or near a full moon there will be major feeds in the middle of the day and the middle of the night. Minor feeds will be shorter and near sunrise and sunset. If I go to the lake I will probably be on the water for around 10 hours. Many times the better fishing seems to coincide with these times. If I was night fishing now there is no way I am quitting at 1am because the fish haven’t been biting. I’ve had too many times where a spot we hit at 10pm produced nothing but were munching at 2:30am when we came back. I try to keep up with all the moon phases and where it will be in the sky when I am at the lake. If nothing else it may give me the confidence to hit a proven spot again 4 or 5 hours after fishing it earlier.

Never noticed any affect

I have been musky fishing for a good 20 years, but the last 10-12 have been just an annual trip to Canada. I can say this, over the years the Full or new moon phase seems to be much less effective for me. I actually hate those phases. Moon rise and set are more important, in my opinion, for activating musky, especially the bigger fish. I am not saying that people don't catch big fish during those phases, but not me.

not again...lol

[quote=Jpurdue]Makes no difference what so ever in relation to largemouth bass. Ask anyone who claims it does to produce a scientific study to validate their position. What they'll find and you'll find is there are in fact studies out there, but they all show no coloration between movement or catch rates and the moon phase.

The one possible exception here could be around the spawn. I know a lot of guys absolutely swear the first wave of big fish typically moves up around the first full moon. I have not seen a study that specifically looks at this phenomena. I'm intensely skeptical myself, but I can't say for certain here.

What I can say with statistical certainty is that more bass are not caught around any particular moon phase across the course of a year. If you are so motivated you can quickly confirm this yourself by downloading the sharelunker data and comparing it to the moon phases. Not convinced? Move on to the Toledo Bend Lunker Club data. Just those two data sets alone will give you access to a few thousand data points. [/quot

There was a thread posted by Garett earlier this year that clearly showed Share-a Lunker data for big bass. It showed the best time was 2 days before until 2 days after the full moon. Also the new moon +2 or two days after new moon. Hard to read but thats what it showed. I do all of my big bass fishing durring that time, and always plan trips accordingly.

If someone can find the link I'd like to see it. I did this analysis at great length about 2 years ago, and there was nothing there of statistical significance. Sure if you widen the whole thing up to some large window of days MAYBE. Even at +/- 2 days for full and new moons you've now accounted for a full 1/3 of the month. Yeah some fish are going to be caught in that big of a window! I also updated Doug Hanson's graph from his book Big Bass Magic with more current data and the trend he had found at the time he published had vanished with another 20 years of data.

I would say that my past experience is the fishing is slower on a full moon. But I have had a few great days on a full moon also. I don't let it affect my fishing. Still better than working.

I like whatever moon phase is happening whenever I get a chance to go to the lake and fish!

Shout out to the musky guys out there! It takes a different time of angler to excel at that!

I love it and hate it all at the same time!

Musky fishing is maddening sometimes. You go hours trying to raise fish and then out of nowhere a 4 footer is following your bait to the boat. It is when you can convert the fish at boat side with a figure 8, oval, l or whatever method is what keeps you coming back for more punishment.

I don't know about bass but it has a great affect on crappie fishing. It usually makes the morning bite slow and the afternoon bite better.

I used to keep a journal and I had years of documented results from trips on and off of full moons. The main thing to remember is that is does effect the TIME of the day the fish feed. To say the fish will or will not bite on any one given day based solely on the moon isn't a clear cut deal. One thing I noticed is the find tend to bite later in the day on a bright full moon. If you're fishing a tournament that isn't an ideal scenario.

I do think the Bass are a little slower and the Sand Bass a lot slower. They can see the shad and are feeding like crazy in the night with the moon light. No data .. Just how I see it.

I know a lake, that in early June, you have to reel your bait AWAY from the 40" fish. Or suffer from getting tired of catching them. Full moon or not. You can see 50"+ subs everywhere.

I've noticed that sometimes on the full moon that the bass don't bite well once the sun gets up until around noon or later.

I prefer fishing on the new moon.

When I fished saltwater the full moon was always best for us when we had a super low tide and were able to reach off shore holes and cuts while surf fishing.

I fish it all the time and it will make you question your ability to catch PERCH! LOL . But then there is that one day just like all the others same weather same everything and BOOOM!! Best Day ever... Then over for next years....

We've always had better success night fishing when it is a new moon. Proven over and over. The only thing full moon does is allow you see a little better at night.

That must be a hidden gem in Canada. I've boated 22 musky in a single day, but it was on a VERY remote lake with an enormous population of 30"-40" class fish and few if any 50
inchers.