Fellow night fisherpeople,

Looking for a quick survey + comments on the effects of the full moon and fishing at night..My personal experiences in a nutshell are that the full moon decreases the bite. I would appreciate inputs on this subject..Thanks

I do best on a new moon personally. That or a sickle. But then again, I am talking in catfish terms too. I know when I get on a body of water on a full moon - there will be plenty of bayliners on the water. What's even worse is watching them come into the dock at night or better yet the launch ramp itself ! Someone needs to get a webcam on some of the ramps out here - comical. As for the fishing, I have heard some rumor about the feeding times are during the day on a full moon ? I'm not sure. My biggest catfish are always in the fall on a new moon or close to it.

Plan on doing what ever you've been putting off on the to do list during the full moon so when it's gone you can get right back to fishing. It seems to create a condition in fish both fresh and salt that can only be described as lockjaw. I've heard a lot of theories based on why they react this way. I listed a couple things I've heard over the years and why they are false rumors.

The effect it has on tides- Ok this only applies to salt and holds no wieght in fresh so why does it suck there? Hello!

It spreads the bait out- Ok that can still be an issue for freshwater and but I have whitnessed huge bait balls during the full moon and as a matter of fact I saw some over the weekend. So that doesn't flow.

They don't bite because they eat night when it's full moon- That one has been proven wrong everytime I was out fishing at night during a full moon.

What have you guys heard as far as reasoning goes. I'm sure there's some good ones out there.

JerryG

For about 2 years I fished primarily at night for bucket mouth bass in local water that are closed to the public. I also found that fishing during a full moon was not as good as other times of the month. In fact, my best nights were during the first quarter of the new moon about 2-3 hours after dark. I could never explain it.

Tight Lines,

Terry G.

The darker the better for me!

Go night SURFING on the full moon instead!!

In general I find that the best time for me to fish during the day is on a 1/4 and 3/4 moon. 1/4 moon I can easily get numbers and 3/4 I end up getting larger fish but not as many dinks.

Given this past weekend I fished with Mike in SJ on Fri (prefish), Sat for Gilroy Bassmasters club tournament (with Bob G from NCBF) and Sun with Mike in SJ for the Hook Tournament with a Full moon officially on Monday all on the delta between Orrwood, Holland Track and Victoria Canal.

Friday we noticed that the fish were really active and hitting just about every crankbait thrown if it was Red, Red w/ orange belly or Chart w/ Blue back off the rocks in or near points and current. Jig and worm bite wasn't working for us, however there were a number of big fish missed from both of us on Senkos. We ran into Bob Santora (a.k.a. Dropshot from NCBF) and he had an 8+lb and a 5+lb toad that I took a pic for him on senkos -- yes he predicted that Fri was going to be a great fishing day on ncbf that morning as it was 3 days prior to the full moon.

Sat while fishing the gilroy bassmaster club tournament I fished the same areas with Bob G throwing cranks, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits all day with very little action. Scent seemed to make a big difference with the crankbaits and I weighed in only 1 legal fish for 2.71lbs, but had at least 15-20 10"-12.5" fish all day. Bob blanked as did 3 other guys in the club and only one person had a limit from Disco Bay. Weights in general were pretty small and the fish were scarce.

Sun rolls around and it was even worse. Mike and I tried cranking, jigs, buzzbaits, senkos, spinnerbaits, etc and had maybe 3-5 dinks all day. Around noon I landed the first legal fish and around 2:15pm I landed a second fish for a 2 fish total of 3.77lbs. That put us tied for 61/87 boats with Sheldon Bright and Rodney Green who were fishing out of the Fish Sniffer boat and took 2nd place at the last Hook tournamnent. These guys are awesome fishermen and had the same luck as us that day.

Analyzing the data from 25+ hrs of fishing this weekend (yes Mike I'm overanalyzing the siutation again ha!) I'm tempted to believe that a number of the toads started feeding heavily several days before the full moon and continue to feed during the night with the bright moon. This may make for an awesome night fishing experience if you can schedule a trip 3-4 days prior to a full moon and weather permitting. The fish should be more active and feeding heavily at night and simply resting/hanging out during the day or in an inactive mode.

Now that we're entering the fall season, the weather is going to play a much bigger role on the fish activity along with the moon phase and the tides in the delta. If you really want to a draw a conclusion as to solunar tables and night fishing, I would mark on your calendars for next summer (after Post-spawn has finished and the weather stablizes a bit in CA) and fish during or just before the moon phase in question. This should give you a better understanding as to what the fish are doing at night vs. day and have less factors to deal with. BTW, according to Larry Hemphill the hot dog days of summer with can produce some huge toads from Clear Lake. If you're looking for an experienced night fishing angler to bounce this question off of I suggest emailing him or trying to get in contact with him on NCBF.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

PS - Bill Murphy's book has a chapter on Moon phase as it relates to big bass, however you will need to draw your own conclusions to bass in general. Check it out it's definately a good source of information.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

I'll chime in :)

Moon phase - yes it influences the fish. I believe this 100% How it influences the fish is harder to pinpoint. I like the 3/4 phase as does Bill Murphy and other noted trophy guys. I believe that is why Fish Chris got a 13.0, Phil an 8.8, and these other good fish Vince reported on Friday of last week. All those fish were big fish for the water that they were in, and they all bit on or around the 3/4 phase. If you pay attention to when big fish are caught, this is often the case.

On the full moon itself, can be tough! I did get that 12-2 at Rancho on the night of the full moon, but those big fish became active only for a very short period that night. I would say the window where we observed activity and caught fish was no more than 30 minutes, and it was at 3am. Let's face it, not many people are night fishing at 3am. Could have been just a fluke, hard to tell.

New moon has a strong influence on the fish and like Cameron says, I think the darkest nights are the best for night fishing.

By keeping logs and being observant over the years, I think that it will eventually be possible to put together patterns of fish behavior at different lakes under different moon phases and conditions. There are so many factors that influence bass behavior that it is very difficult to do this though. Even if you fished every day for a year, the next year could be completely different. BUT, after 20 years of fishing regularly, I think you could get on to some really interesting patterns. That's what makes it fun ;)

Here are some thoughts from a person who enjoys chasing brown trout and stripers. Three days before to three days after a new moon is a good time for browns, three days before to three days after a full moon is a good time for stripers. I like the three days before each moon phase myself. There have also been some big browns caught, especially this year, seven to ten days after a new moon. I log every fish I catch and note the moon phase but I have done well in a wide variety of moon phases. I would never go so far as to cancel a trip because of an alleged poor moon phase. If you made me choose I would go for the last couple hours of legal fishing in the second and third days preceding a full moon. By now there have been so many large fish caught everywhere of all species that someone can always prove another's statement about moon phases incorrect, but it is a fun topic to dicuss.

I think it just depends on the fish. I had the best fishing day of the summer at Success on topwaters after a full moon.

Hey fish24, how is Lake Success these days? There was that one 19 from there and since then I haven't heard much at all from that place. I have heard from time to time that there are some big bass in there, but I never hear anyone talking about the place.

-Rob

I've only been "serious" bass fishing for about a year. So I probably wouldn't be a very accurate source for info. But, I have had days where I was doing better than the guys with the big boats (I'm a float tuber). Summer time was pretty tough. I had a couple of real good days there though. The few times I've been there, i haven't seen any big ones. Last spring, people were reportedly having 30 to 40 fish days. I guess the water's so low now that a lot of people can't get their boats in the water. Sounds like a float tuber heaven to me. Where have you been fishing lately? Are you catching any? I tubed a small local lake last week for a couple of hours and caught two. One was around three and one was for sure a five plus. Anyways, Ill let you go for now.

I've experienced an increase in action 3-4 days before a full moon, then the bite tends to slow down a bit until the phase passes.
Then, it seems like the bite becomes more agressive for a bit.
I too think the darker the better, but the Full moon has never kept
me from fishin.

Occasionally I fish Chesbro resevoir, it's generally a tuff bite, but has very little pressure and you can fish it at night without being hassled. Over the last 5-6 years, I'd usually be happy to leave that hole landing 3-4 keepers. One night I can't sleep, so I decide to
go fish Chesbro. By chance, it was a full moon. I got to the lake around 1:30 am and it was bright as hell out. Around 2:30, no bites
as a fog rolls in and dims the moonlight. About a half hour after the fog rolled in I landed 8 fish (from 4-6lbs) in a 45 minute window.........then it shut off. (awesome on light tackle)
Some buddies and I hit this lake the next two full moons without
a bite to show for it. Neither of these two trips had fog to
dim the moon.

For me, Dark good, Bright bad

Don