ive been trying to read up on understanding how the lunar cycles affect the fishing and it is just unclear to me how much of a difference it generally makes.  also some of the information seems to be counter what i now do and has been generally suggested on these boards.

for instance, most posters suggest night fishing later in the evening, and say that the fishing heats up around 3 am.  this has generally proved true in my experience with the slowest period coming about an hour after sunset.  what do you follow when the lunar chart suggests that the best time for night fishing is from 9-10 pm or some other time.  do most of you disregard that info or try to fit that into the night fishing schedule?

i guess im just curious how much you guys pay attention to these sort of things and how much it affects the fishing, and in what ways.  in the past ive just gone fishing when i wanted and if they were biting that was great and if not then oh well its still good.  all of my energy went into trying to figure out how to catch em in given conditions and not guess their mood before i got there.  im trying to make my trips more successful though and am wondering how much use the lunar calander is and if some other such products are worth buying.

matt

Like you, I check out the solunar tables to find out peak activity periods during the day. For years I have done this and I always compare the charts with my success(or lack of) on the water. Sometimes the charts prove to be pretty close and sometimes not. I liken it to reading my horoscope. I don't buy into it but it's kinda fun.

To be quiet serious though, I absolutely believe that the larger fish become MUCH more aggressive during full and new moon phases. This is especially true in my experience night fishing. I can't express just how much I believe this.

Getting back to the peak activity periods there's another theory you may want to read. I'm testing it out also but I need more analysis on it before I can comment on it. Here's the link

http://www.joebucher.com/Articles/Article_MoonPhases.asp

Lunar and solunar tables are going to be just as accurate as the Farmer's Almanac. Sometimes they will be right and sometimes they will be wrong.

Far more accurate a system is the flip a coin. If it comes up heads you may or may not catch, and if it comes up tails you may or may not catch. If you want to be even more accurate flip the coin after your day fishing - you can then say, "yep, that's why they weren't biting", or the inverse of that.

The moon phases affect all of us. Fish included. Gravitational pull.

matt,

     Since the old adage of "  a poor day of fishing is better than a good day at work" come to mind.     Go fishing any chance you get.

Those table don't take into effect, the current weather, droughts, lake levels, and cloud cover.

Moon tables are read more by saltwater or tidal water fishermen.    I will use them in the early spring and try to plan a vacation to coincide with the full moon and what most think is the first full wave of spawning activity if weather holds up.

LBH and friends came to Lake Fork when the charts were aligned, but mother nature gave them some cooler weather and clouds the whole time.

Best advice is to keep moon phase as part of your fishing log to compare in the future.

Matt

The moon phases affect all of us. Fish included. Gravitational pull.

There is no rise and fall of incoming tides on land locked lakes due to gravitational pull.     How does it effect bass where there are no tidal waters?

Regardless of wheather the water rises and falls the gravitional pull from the moon still exist. When the moon is at it zeniths on both sides of the planet animals are more active. Now this is not to say that lunar table are totally correct they are not by all means because they can not tell us about other conditions such fronts which mess the the barometric pressure or lake levels and things like that.

Lunar cicles fall under the same category of this: "Wind from the east fish bite the least, wind from the west fish bite the best."

Like Penn & Tellet say: BS !

I've been tracking lunar cycles to fishing success this year and haven't really seen any correlation yet.  There are so many factors involved in fishing: lunar, barometric pressure, water temp, wave action etc, etc that I think I've narrowed to down to "go fishing whenever you can" regardless.  Waiting for perfect conditions leaves you with very few opportunities to fish.  If wind/rain conditions allow me to go out, that's close enough.  Maybe we're getting a little too analytical in our approach.  

I have to disagree. I myself have seen how the Lunar cycles make a difference in fishing at night. If you all don't think the Lunar cycle doesn't affect how nature responds then I would like to know where you are getting your data from.

My data is hundreds of times fishing at night over the years and seeing how full moon and new moon phases do "typically" effect the fishing for the better. Of course there are anomalys where I don't do as well but typically the bigger fish do react to Lunar phases.

Moon cycles are for lunatics. ;D  One thing I know for sure is you can see better at night when there's a full moon.

I just want to say that I will never not go on a fishing trip because the moon is not right. I fish every chance I get. I would say however if you have to plan for one trip you might as well plan around the full or new moon what can it hurt right?  

If you waited for the perfect conditions you would never get to go fishing. I like to fish to much for that.

I agree with going when you can. Not everyone has the luxury of choosing when they can get out and fish. I just have witnessed better fishing over the years those few times a month during the Full and New moon phases.

Another thing I have noticed is certain days are better then others. This is primarily due to fishing and pleasure boating presure on the water. Typically I can expect to do better fishing at night on Friday then I can on Saturday or Sunday night. As mentioned already because during the week there was less pressure then on weekends and fish typically react to that.

Hey Stratos,

You still heading up this way at months end to watch the "jetfighters in a gymnasium" ??

Not much definitive study has come up yet to prove it one way or another, but I believe 4 days before and 3 days after full moon is a time you can expect more feeding activity. During the dark nights a few weeks back we couldn't hardly buy a bite all night, the lake surface dead still, the only sounds coming from frogs and an occasional beaver flop. As the moon brightened fish began flopping more and longer, the topwater bite improving. At full moon the shallow jig and T-rigged worm bite gets good, banging rocky bottoms. I work the lake until midnight, spending a lot of time around the ramps, getting a ton of information from anglers. As the nights grow darker they come in with less success, fewer going out. We've learned to catch up on sleep on the dark nights and be rested up for a fine week of fishing on bright nights once a month, except for catfishing. However, I am also a firm believer of GO ANYWAY, whenever you get a chance. Bass will be caught because bass feed all the time, whenever hungry and forage is found, but you must adjust to changing visibility conditions. A white worm on a jig on a high moon hight is replaced with a black one on a dark night. A white spinnerbait is replaced with a black bladed model. Quiet baits in full moonlight are replaced by noisier lures.

It's been like that all the way back for me, and for most folks I know that night fish.

Jim

A very good reason to keep your own personal fishing log.     But if you looked at the Texas Share lunker list.   It gives moon phases as part of the catch info.

422 plus entries, All 13 + fish,  most with moon phase listed might give strong evidence as to any correlation.

No lies on those numbers, because entries are picked up within 12 hours of catch.

Hookem

Matt

RollOnTwo, I PMed you.