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Posts: 7
| Which is better and why? I do a great deal of late night fishing with great results however, I have never kept track of what moon phase these fish were all taken. I have caught nearly a 100 fish after dark and want to start keeping track. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on which is better the new moon or full moon?
THanks everyone. |
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | Give me good lake conditions and sunrise and sunset any time. If the lake is in good shape I will catch fish. I think it matters more than anything. |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | 1st I will say I think the moon phases affect both night and day for fishing..
Now that that is out of the way, I prefer the New Moon myself. For me the fishing has been more active during that phase. This year I have caught 3 Musky, 1st was caught 1/2 way between the Full Moon and the last quarter. The second was caught about two days after Full, the third caught 2 days after 1st quarter. The biggest caught by me this year was the one around the full moon. |
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| new moon=night fishing
full moon=day fishing |
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| From my years of night fishing both phases,I've done well under both new and full.
The difference is weather effects, I've caught more under the new moon,but I've caught bigger fish under full moon.Also surface baits work better under new moon and bucktail or crankbaits worked a little faster during full moon worked for me. |
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| 15 years of logs while I was guiding taught me that my friend Steve Van Lieshout is right, the best time to go muskie fishing is when you can. |
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Posts: 42
Location: Madison, WI | If you have date records for your catches there are ways to get moon phase, rise, & set info on the web. I have a program called Sol! II on my Visor handheld computer that will give this information for any date entered for any location entered.
For most of us, it is difficult to pattern moon info with fish catching since fishing occurs as time permits. But for those in the business it may be a worthwhile exercise. Check out Boucher's moon article in the latest Wisconsin Outdoor News. He is the expert on patterning using the moon. |
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | Seems like every year I fish some prime fall days when I have sunset and full moon rise happening at the same time. You would think that would be perfect but I have never seen or caught a fish during that time. |
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| Both full moon and new moon seem to have some affect, but weather patterns and local lake conditions are more important. Supposedly there are three days of influence around the full moon and new moon. I think a big change in barometric pressure is what really gets the fish going.  |
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Posts: 22
Location: Twin Cities | I've given this moon thing some pondering. Read Joe B's writings, looked at my own logs, talked to some great guides and have come back to that old saying: "The best time to fish is when you can."
The problem I have with the moon theory is this, there has not been a study with a control group. Think of this, they say there is a 3 day window before and after a full and new moon. So that is 6 days for each phase. Lets just round that to a week. OK, the synodic period is ~1 month, so you have a full and a new every month (maybe not in a calendar month, but a 30 day span). So, now you have 2 weeks or half the month that should be "better" fishing. That really doesn't narrow things down too much. 
Next thing I really want to study, and I've just been too lazy to do it is this: How many of these "peak" fishing periods fall on a weekend? Or even a Friday-Monday span. Weekend warriors are hitting the water hard Friday-Monday (extended weekends, etc). If a larger percentage of fish are caught on weekends (which would stand to reason, more people out, more fish caught) *and* the windows of the lunar cycle fall on that same period we have a big skew on the data.
I see it just like the old "Black bucktail, orange blade, fished over cabbage" theroy. If you look a the stats, you'll see a huge number of fish caught on the above pattern. Is it because it is the best way to catch fish? No, it is because more people use that pattern than most others. What we need is a reference -- how many man-hours per fish for a given technique? I'll even add that the black bucktail pattern catches more fish betweern 9am-12, and 1pm - 9pm. (Gotta each lunch you know! LOL)
Just go fish! If the lunar stuff gives you a confidence boost, use it! It sure can't hurt!
-Dean
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Full moon or new moon