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Posts: 8778
| We all know about changes in light, fronts moving in, periods before a storm, etc. Favorable conditions. But does anybody have any theories on why it is, for no apparent reason, that all the fish seem to eat at the same time? Hot flat day, no wind, no weather, 5 hours of nothing and all of a sudden it's like somebody turned on the "eat" sign. It's like they're all over the place for an hour or two and then just as quickly they shut right down. Why? |
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Posts: 358
| Well my 2 cents is not at all scientific and very simple, however its what I know " When they are hungry they eat " Somewhat like all creatures including ourselves :)) |
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| Moon Magic!! |
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| There are things that go on under the surface that we as humans may never understand. Sure the moon has a lot to do with it, but how do you explain these flurries of feeding windows when there's no moon phase near the time of action? My best guess is there's something happining in the fishes environment that's turning them on and making them feed that we as humans above the surface would never detect. Lets face it, it's a whole different world down there and as we can stack the odds in our favor fishing at peak times of day/year for a particular body of water and to follow the moon and barometer closely we've only uncovered a fraction of the equation. That's wat keeps me coming back with these crazy things, the thrill of the hunt the adrenaline rush and most of all trying to put the puzzle togather. When u think u got em dialed in they'll thro ya a curve, when u think there's no fish in the lake anymore..... A fifty comes out of no where and goes destroyer on ur bait....all a part of the sport and the things that make us some of the elite as anglers.... Bass guys would t do half the crazy #*#* we do for our species. |
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Posts: 174
Location: Ontario | The uncertainty of the fish is what attracts a group of fishermen to the species. Why,where,when or what I think is the answer.
I took a friends son fishing last week and after catching tons of pike and bass all he talked about was the muskie my son lost beside the boat. 9 year old kid went out and bought an issue of Musky Hunter when he got home. Perhaps the muskie are asking the same question about us ?? |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | Same to human, animals and fish. We don't feel it but research said that high crime is on full moon! I don't know but I know that the weather look the same for a few days until weather changer to turn fish on! |
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Posts: 358
| I guess I'm not superstitious and definitely not scientific. having worked in emergency services in a metropolitan area dealing with knuckleheads the only time there was a predictable increase in call volume was during a heat wave. Rain, cold, snow and wind kept the criminal element off our radar for the most part, however all living forms of life need to eat and most will eat when they are hungry. I used to chuckle when my coworkers or partner got tense when full moon period and we would have a quiet night, some were so superstitious that they would get upset if your tour was over and they were coming on and you said " Hey have a quiet shift " they would believe you were putting a jinks on them or something. I shot my biggest Buck, my biggest Bear and caught my biggest Muskie and Pike during high pressure, bluebird skies and have no idea what phase the moon was in or really cared, had to hunt and fish when time permitted me to. I guess what I believe is when a fish is hungry they will eat regardless of the weather conditions, I know my family and all my critters do ! :)) Just my 2 cents. |
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Posts: 32885
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Jim Cairnes and I tracked the majors and minors from several years and matched them to my detailed guiding logs and his fishing logs when he was fishing in Oneida Co, and then correlated them both to local barograph records. Majors and minors were pronounced when negative factors were not a huge influence, so I 'believe'.
Another obvious influence were little spikes up and down in barometric pressure on a stable pattern ( a small change in wind direction/speed/ sky cover will most of the time be evident, not a major change, and fleeting...as little as a few minutes), and the predictable activity on falling/rising patterns. Available light had an effect of course, so cloudy days with a major and an active barometer racked up some impressive totals.
The earlier and later in the year a major cold front went through, the less influence there was once the skies went bluebird and winds dropped off. Theory is that's because of the lower light levels.
Moving water, especially dark water rivers, were the place to fish on a strong high-cold-clear NW wind pattern.
Might explain some of it.
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | What has been described above dose in fact happen, congratulations you are correct, they all get active at the same time! In fact it happens quite regularly, most every day. However this subject is nothing new, Buck Perry and others experienced it thousands of times and talked about it more than 60 years. One correction must be made, it has nothing to do with "eating", though eating may and does in most cases take place but its NOT the trigger. Q) How can as has been correctly described "all the fish get hungry at the same time"? Its really an "active period" triggerd by a light condition, something they're all exposed to... The Moon? Not Happening! Why does it happen? We have no idea nor does it matter why. The fisherman should except this activity period as a fishing fact and look for it each and every day he's on the water.
It's interesting to have other fishermen who understand fish movements on the same body of water, or sometimes even hundreds of miles away experience a big or limited catch at the exact same time. Lake or reservoir water colors may cause the depth of the catch to be different. The darker the water the shallower the catch, the clearer the water the deeper the catch.
This activity period occurs once or twice on every average fishing day, it can last many hours but not likely and generally throughout a season we think of it more in terms of only lasting "minutes". An activity period can occur in sanctuary depths, in the case of the bass 30-35', the Muskie, 45'-55'. They may never make a move towards the shallows under a bad condition. Under a excellent weather and water condition an entire school of adult Muskie could move to the 8-10' area but this would have to be under only the best of conditions and is not likely to happen hardly ever....
As you can see the problem is if the fisherman places "limits" on his presentation of lures or bait regarding "depth" he will never see this activity period happen most days. The days when he says, "He casted 24 different lures and never saw a fish"..... The good spoonplugger/ fisherman is not only a where of the movements of fish but aggressively presuses it.
How did Buck catch 33 bass in 33 cast with the Chicago Tribune writer in the boat on the Fox Chain? How do you catch 54 muskies off one spot? By placing a lure or bait at the right "depth", moving it and the right "speed" and doing so at the right "TIME"!
Edited by jerryb 8/3/2013 8:05 PM
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Posts: 32885
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 'The Moon? Not Happening! Why does it happen? We have no idea nor does it matter why. '
Who's 'we'? Don't you me 'I'?
One doesn't need to be a 'spoonplugger' to understand and adapt to fish movements. Spoonplugging is effective, but so are all the other 'disciplines', and all need to be examined for limitations.
And it does matter 'why' to me. But then, I am a little OCD about that sort of thing. 
Up here, no one CAN be a soonplugger.
What happens when the deepest water in the lake is 24' and a thermocline is set up at 18'? How about if the deepest water in the lake is 11', and most of the lake is under 9', and light penetration stops dead at 4.5'? There's current in this one, too.
Side imaging has been an interesting addition to my ride.
And so on.
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Posts: 8778
| I'm not talking about the activity you can attribute to changes in light, wind speed/direction, weather, moonrise/set, majors/minors. I've tracked all of that since I started keeping a fishing log back in the early 90's.
I'm talking about those "other times", where there's just no apparent reason for it.
I used to think it was being on a good spot where there were a lot of fish, or doing something "right" that was what the fish "wanted". When I started talking to other anglers about the times where they saw and caught fish, that all went out the window. EVERYBODY saw fish around 1:00. No major, no minor, same weather as the last three days, no change in wind, NOTHING. It happened on different ends of the lake, or different lakes.
There is something else going on in their environment that I have missed. I've never looked into changes in barometric pressure, so that may be it. |
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Posts: 252
| Couple of years ago I was fishing a cove at Cave Run lake and watched a guy across the cove land a musky, then all of the sudden I landed a few muskies after four days of fishing with nothing to show for it. I called my son who was at Green River lake probably 150 miles away and he and his buddy were hooping and hollering because they had just landed a big musky. I thought that was kinda crazy having a feeding windown open up at different lakes at the same time. |
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Posts: 567
| For the same reason i starve all day before all you can eat shrimp at red lobster. Because they had what i wanted, i was there, and i saw it. Its possible to overthink anything. The magic is putting in the time to hit " shrimpfest" on your water the most. Ever wonder why top name guides catch fish, i heard muskie breath tell dahlberg on a show last season it was his 73rd day straight, for me, that will be known as retirement. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | is there a Church that teaches and celebrates the lessons of Buck Perry? ... if-so, i'd like to attend services or their Sunday school. |
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Posts: 32885
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | esoxaddict - 8/4/2013 2:05 AM
I'm not talking about the activity you can attribute to changes in light, wind speed/direction, weather, moonrise/set, majors/minors. I've tracked all of that since I started keeping a fishing log back in the early 90's.
I'm talking about those "other times", where there's just no apparent reason for it.
I used to think it was being on a good spot where there were a lot of fish, or doing something "right" that was what the fish "wanted". When I started talking to other anglers about the times where they saw and caught fish, that all went out the window. EVERYBODY saw fish around 1:00. No major, no minor, same weather as the last three days, no change in wind, NOTHING. It happened on different ends of the lake, or different lakes.
There is something else going on in their environment that I have missed. I've never looked into changes in barometric pressure, so that may be it.
Read my post again, that's exactly what I was trying address; might not have been aggressive enough, last time we discussed this I had a couple folks lose it and get all crazy with the concept.
It's near impossible to detect small changes if you don't know what to look for. Calm winds especially offer a challenge to detect the little up and down peaks and valleys, but the little puffs of wind will definitely change direction a bit and stay consistent for a while.
One way to 'see' it, if there's leafy trees available on the shoreline...if there's a little peak up, the top side of the leaves will display a bit more, creating a darker green profile, falling will show underside a bit more, creating a lighter green profile. The shoreline will literally change color.
Baitfish will begin to dimple the surface and rise in the water column a bit earlier than the window will open. Gulls will begin flying instead of sitting tight. A definite indication will be insect eating birds hitting the air where they were not a few minutes agJimmy and I may not have it figured out, but it works for me. We lost Jimmy last year to cancer, heck of an angler and a crazy dedicated thinker. he also was a spoonplugger when appropriate for his day on the water, and a darned good one at that. |
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Posts: 399
Location: WI | I always heard this happened at the same time I put my boat on the trailer. Seriously though: I learned a lot about woodland critters while sitting in a treestand waiting for venison to wander by. It took me years to be able to detect slight changes in weather &/or animal activity that might signal the upcoming arrival of deer, or predators. the underwater world is very similar in this regard. We just need to hone our ability to detect these seemingly insignificant changes ALOT better. Then again, the muskies might just be screwin' with us.... |
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