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| I've been a believer in solunar activity triggering fish, but here is a tremendous example of correlation between feeding and solunar activity. Fished a tourney last weekend on Kinkaid. Saturday my dad and I lost 2 fish and had 1 follow. Tied for last place after day 1 with the leaders having 2 fish and 3 fish for the day. Sunday I had a follow early on top. Moonset was at 9:03 AM. Caught a 32 1/2 at 8:50. Great, on the board. Caught a 44 7/8 at 9:10. Sweet, good fish, good action, now we're cooking. Caught a 42 1/4 at 9:20. Holy cow, that's awesome, now we're in the running. Ended up winning the tourney as the top 2 teams blanked. From zero to hero in 30 minutes. That was the fastest action I've ever had. My dad was a bit bummed since he didn't catch anything. We also lost a Stowmaster net overboard in the excitement. But it all worked out. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | You always hear of guys saying they caught fish within 1 hour before or after moonset, moonrise, sunset, sunrise, moon underfoot, moon overhead, moon conjunct sun, moon sextile sun, moon square sun, moon trine sun, moon oposition sun, etc, etc, etc. Is there really a whole lot of time that doesn't have to do with any one of these times? Almost any time I catch a fish, I'm within 1 hour before or after 1 of these things.
*** Great job on the fish too, Kyle!
Edited by JimtenHaaf 5/7/2010 7:08 PM
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Location: The desert | I bet the two teams that blanked disagree with your tremendous correlation. |
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| Maybe those two teams weren't fishing around any fish during moonset. Solunar activity doesn't make fish magically appear, but there are times when there are spikes in activity surrounding it. Can't catch fish if they aren't there.
Kyle, you have to stop calling Fred, I am afraid you are going to drive him crazy. The guy called and was telling me stories about snakes. I'm worried about the dude. He needs to go fishing. HAHAHAHAHA |
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| I have no doubt that there is a lunar effect, but I sometimes wonder about the extent of it. We have it so built into our minds that the moon has such a huge effect that most of the times, we're fishing our best spots with our "confidence" baits. Like I said, I'm sure it makes a bit of different but I don't know how much. |
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Posts: 272
| My armchair, non-guide, Joe the Angler opinion is that moon phases can help out in the big fish category sometimes and definitely on when fish are in a funk. I can't count the number of times the one fish for the day came near a moon event, when the rest of the day yielded nothing and was just totally stagnant for action.
I agree with one of the above posters though, at what point do all the majors, minors, wind shifts, moon phases and whatever else tally up to consume every minute of the day? At what point does all this become a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I'll always be conscious of it because bites and moon events have overlapped too many times to be coincidence. But when I hear stories and read articles about how crowded Canadian lakes are around big moon events........there's that self-fulfilling thing again.
Of course you caught your big fish up on Eagle during a full moon in July...... you plan your trip there ever year around the moon.
-Eric
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Posts: 75
| If there is a trigger, for me and my mates its the barometric pressure. When a sudden drop occurs we head straight to the big fish spots. Ususally with good results.
Edited by northern 5/8/2010 5:49 AM
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Location: APPLETON, WI | muskie-addict - 5/7/2010 11:22 PM ...Of course you caught your big fish up on Eagle during a full moon in July...... you plan your trip there ever year around the moon. -Eric Exactly. Not really any different than any other situation we put ourselves in as musky fisherman. If you go to Lake-X and make a cast to Spot-X with your trusty musky crankbait at 9:15 a.m. and pull out your PB... chances are, we're going to attempt to duplicate that scenario several times throughout the season. I wonder how much we all look at the moon phase superstitiously... versus scientifically. Food for thought. |
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Location: 31 | The only moonphase that I pay any attention to is a full moon when night fishing... I hate it, and definitely prefer a dark moon at night! I'm in the "somewhat" skeptical corner myself otherwise...can't really say though because it don't pay attention to it. |
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Location: Warroad, Mn | What I'm wondering is when you where catching all these fish during "moonset" did all the other teams in the tournament head in for lunch? It would seem that if moonset had much to do with your success, someone else in the tourney would have also scored? They can't all be where there aren't any fish. Not a big believer in this stuff, based on nearly 50 years of fishing muskies! Doug Johnson
Edited by dougj 5/8/2010 6:24 PM
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Location: Kodiak, AK | Jerry Newman - 5/8/2010 5:19 PM
The only moonphase that I pay any attention to is a full moon when night fishing... I hate it, and definitely prefer a dark moon at night!
Why? |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Guest - 5/8/2010 12:08 AM
I have no doubt that there is a lunar effect, but I sometimes wonder about the extent of it. We have it so built into our minds that the moon has such a huge effect that most of the times, we're fishing our best spots with our "confidence" baits. Like I said, I'm sure it makes a bit of different but I don't know how much.
Exactly. That's kind of my point as well. If you're beating a good spot to death 1 hr before and after a moon phase, chances are pretty high that you'll have some action. If you don't, we normally just chalk it up to REALLY bad conditions. There's been times fishing during a full moon night when I've had great action, and landed a few fish. There's probably been more full moon nights where I've been skunked though.
I wasn't bashing on you at all, momuskies. I've just been thinking about this moon stuff for some time, and thought I would bring it up now. |
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Location: 31 | This is a pretty interesting discussion and I agree that we can be our own worst enemies when it comes to habits and beliefs. I found that a few fish being caught in a particular moonphase can and does influence most people's beliefs, my own included.
When I was a kid, I would have to sneak into some local gravel pits at night to get my "fishing fix". I had always heard that full moon night fishing was best for bass so being the good boy that I was (other than the trespassing) I did as I was told. I even used Doug Hannon's little rotating plastic moon phase thing. After a few years, I was finding myself out 3-4-5 nights a week fishing the same spots with the same lures, for the same fish, pretty much under the same conditions.
Long story short... after six or eight years of this, I concluded there was noticeably better action on dark moon versus full moon nights... a complete reversal to what I was told. This naturally carried over into my muskie fishing and it seemed to me that it was about the same deal... dark moon nights certainly seemed better to me anyway. I can't say for sure though because I was already so predisposed and there was not the same consistency and time on the water involved. However, I can definitely report that the bass fishing in those gravel pits was noticeably better for me on dark moon nights and that muskies have no problem finding a bait on the rainiest of dark moon nights.
I remember arguing with a good friend who basically only went fishing in the gravel pits on full moon nights, he had heard the same thing plus said he could see better and didn't care because he caught plenty of bass anyway. After a while, he was down there with me a couple nights a week and eventually was targeting dark moon nights too. BTW, my gravel pit "bass rig" was a street legal dirt bike with a homemade rack on the back so that I could drive my fully equipped float tube right down to the water. I'm sure it was a sight to see going down the road at dusk every other night in the summer way back when. 
As an aside; I remember reading in Tony Rizzo's "Secrets of a Muskie Guide" not to give up when day fishing was slow because night fishing could be explosive. Try as I might... frankly, I never found that to be the case. When the day fishing was slow, the night fishing was slow and vice versa. Whenever I had a hot bite going at dusk I always stayed out after dark with good results.
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Location: Kodiak, AK | Thanks Jerry. I was just curious. |
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| I'm a firm believer in new moon phase. I do plan my vacations around them. Best we've done is 11 fish on new moon day - but you
need to watch feeding windows and be on good spots. We had 3 on at same time during feeding window. Color of lure important.
Prefer new moom to full moon. Really think there is something to it! |
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Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | I prefer the new moon also. I think more fish are caught on the full moon because more people fish that moon phase in general.
Dark nights will be more productive than calm clear full moon nights.
As for the power of moonset and moonrise: Just look at the phases every time you catch a fish this year. Do it all year and I bet you will be a believer in the power of moon rise and set.
I can tell you hours of examples of multiple fish caught during that half hour window. Days where it is soooo slow but at that special time we catch or move fish. Believe it or not it is a time that will help you get more action.
Use it to your advantage.
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Location: 31 | Mikes Extreme - 5/9/2010 11:34 AM
As for the power of moonset and moonrise: Just look at the phases every time you catch a fish this year. Do it all year and I bet you will be a believer in the power of moon rise and set.
Thanks Mike... I certainly can't say it doesn't work on muskies because I haven't kept track, back when I kept track of it bass fishing exclusively at night I never noticed a difference. However, I will keep an eye on it and see like you say because I'm always looking for that edge.
I'm confident we will get into some major muskie action this year without a having to rely on a moonphase so it will be a good test. One thing I'm sure we can all agree on is the unmatched power of "moonshine" 
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| Mikes Extreme - 5/9/2010 11:34 AM
As for the power of moonset and moonrise: Just look at the phases every time you catch a fish this year. Do it all year and I bet you will be a believer in the power of moon rise and set.
I can tell you hours of examples of multiple fish caught during that half hour window. Days where it is soooo slow but at that special time we catch or move fish. Believe it or not it is a time that will help you get more action.
Several years ago, I went back through all of my old fishing records and logs (I've always recorded time of catch) and then used an online almanac to try and correlate catches to moonsets, moonrises, etc. I figured that the data might be skewed a bit in favor of the moonevents, since I was a big believer and tried to maximize my time around these events, so I assumed that, given a disproportionate amount of my fishing time on my best spots around the time of these events, there'd be a disproportionate number of catches as well.
But what my data (which included ~350 or so muskies logged, at that time) actually showed was the opposite....especially up on LOTW, where our very best days (multiple fish >45"), and biggest fish (>47") never correlated to moon events.
Made me rethink my "belief" in the moon.
On the other hand, there have certainly been times on the water where flurries of activity seem to correlate to a moon event, on an otherwise stagnant day.
But then again, I can think of a ton of examples where flurries of activity occur on an otherwise slow day, and not around a moonevent. (Usually seems to be weather-related or sunrise-sunset related...but sometimes there's nothing noticeable going on at all).
So my present thinking is that sometimes the moon can make a difference, but more often, it does not. But since it's a predictable variance during the day (unlike the weather) which might make a difference, it seems like the smartest thing to do is to try and use it to your advantage.
My $0.02... |
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| I had to laugh this weekend I was watching an episode of Joe Bucher and they went back to a spot for the third time during moon set and got the fish to bite. Then when Bucher mentioned the moonset, Spence Petros was like "whatever" as if he didn't believe in it. Like others said, what percentage of the time on the water can you attribute to within 1 hour of moon phases? Probably 40% of the time in a day. Could it just be a myth? We'll never know.
I'm not saying I don't believe it, but there are too many other variables. |
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Location: Kodiak, AK | Matt DeVos - 5/10/2010 12:13 PM
So my present thinking is that sometimes the moon can make a difference, but more often, it does not. But since it's a predictable variance during the day (unlike the weather) which might make a difference, it seems like the smartest thing to do is to try and use it to your advantage.
My $0.02...
I think you said it just about perfectly. I've seen the same things you mention where I've had three fish in an hour around moonrise, and then fish the next five moonrises and not see crap, but then see fish when supposedly nothing was happening. I think it's a variance like you said that you can predict and might as well fish but also that muskies are animals and don't wear watches and at the end of the day are wholely unpredictable creatures. |
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Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | UPDATE! News from the team that blanked,
Kyle, first congrats on the win. Second knowing what I know now, I still would have had the boat in the exact spot we were at when the action kicked off.
I think Doug J said it best (which he tends to do quite often), that stuff really doesn’t matter. We tend to over analyze musky fishing. Sure I do think there are windows; I'll make sure I'm in a productive spot during those windows. It's musky fishing, un-predictable and exciting. That's why the sport is so great.
Looking forward to the competition down the road, make sure you use some of those funds to buy a new net Might just need it during moonrise, sunset, sunrise, moon underfoot, moon overhead, moon conjunct sun, moon sextile sun, moon square sun, moon trine sun, moon opposition sun, etc, etc, etc.
Chris
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Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | I strongly believe in bite windows. Rizzo wrote about identifying a bite window if you are fishing consecutive days in a row. We had a week on LOTW where everyone in our group had peak activity at 7pm almost every day. This did not correlate to the moon.
When ice fishing I see bite windows all the time. Certain times of the day when many guys on the lake run for flags and then nothing for a while. This happens for all fishing.
I have seen great bites or the only bite of the day occur at a moon occurance. Rise, set, overhead, underfoot.
I find it strange that majors and minor in the Knight book and other calendars are different then each other and not many of them correlate to the actual moon occurances.
I am a very firm believer in weather triggers. Nobody is very good at predicting weather though and the moon occurances are easy to know at any day in the future.
I have seen a great bite when the sun sets and then like an hour after dark the full moon rises. Fishing was very good, then the moon came up and they shut off. Actually best fishing I ever had on that lake. |
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| Whatever the correlation between solunar activity and feeding windows, I am working hard at keeping accurate, detailed records of all fish activity so I can form my own slightly more informed opinions. I can tell you that I fished the spot where I caught those fish at least 3 times that weekend before the the time I had the action.
Chris-It was about time you guys blanked. We should get together over on Kinkaid sometime. I do have a picture taken that shows the net in my dad's hand hanging over the edge of the boat. Last time the net was ever seen. Pretty #*^@ funny that now he has no recollection of that.
Matt-I keep trying to talk Fred into going fishing. He was telling me stories about snakes and then he had to go because chores were calling his name or something. He's getting a little weird. Maybe inhaling too much sheet rock. |
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Location: Lake of The Woods | Musky Madman - 5/10/2010 12:13 PM
I had to laugh this weekend I was watching an episode of Joe Bucher and they went back to a spot for the third time during moon set and got the fish to bite. Then when Bucher mentioned the moonset, Spence Petros was like "whatever" as if he didn't believe in it. Like others said, what percentage of the time on the water can you attribute to within 1 hour of moon phases? Probably 40% of the time in a day. Could it just be a myth? We'll never know.
I'm not saying I don't believe it, but there are too many other variables.
That's one part of Spence's character i really appreciate! I was around Spence for a week at Monument bay in 07 and fished with him one morning. This guy tells it the way it is and is not afraid to speak his mind. I will disagree with him though on moonset and rise |
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Location: Uxbridge Ontario | I totally agree with weather triggers and bite windows, but I too disagree with only fishing moon phases of choice. I can personally vouch that changing your schedule to only fish certain phases will cost you fish. I do a lot of muskie related reading and research and have come to the realization that I have drastically reduced my productivity. I started to beleive more and more that there is no reason to fish without the desired moon phase and this has been a mistake. I account for most most of my fish and fish sightings while fishing including time date and time of day, and can now say moon phase only is less productive. Now that I fish 1/2 the time I used to (on the supposed PRIME days) I now record less than 65% of my annual numbers. This tells me that I am missing something.
I have a new found faith in going back to my old patterns of fishing the weather and feeding windows. The next best thing I can think of is fishing pressure. Less boats on the water and I feel way better in my chances. Try seeing that during a full/ new moon phase. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | I think it's interesting that if you talk to say 20 of the best guides/fishermen who boat large numbers of 50+ inch fish per year ...most if not all of them will say that moonrise/set is something to be on a big fish spot for... as they all have countless experiences to share when it was the trigger... or so they believe...we will never know if it is or isn't unless we ask the fish right? I am a firm believer as I too have lots of big fish stories where it can't be coincendence imo....
musky fishing is like going to vegas...the odds are stacked in the Houses favor and the moon to me is just one thing to increase our odds on the water if only slightly...I'll take every advantage I can get...for those that don't believe it is or don't use it...great...more big ones for those of us that do!
Edited by BNelson 5/11/2010 9:28 AM
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Sun-moon-earth relationships have alot to do with fish and game activity. There's literally thousands of variables that effect action windows on any given day, but properly applied knowledge can and will increase your overall success. I hunt the afternoon minors regularly, and deer activity is like clockwork if conditions and my set-up are right. I kept records correlated with the Solunar Tables and a barograph for years, and am completely convinced. |
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| There are a lot of variables that come into play when relying on solunar. The gravitational pull not only affects the ocean (tides), but also lakes too. Look up John Alden Knight and read up on his Solunar Theory. It's very interesting and makes sense. Especially how it affects smaller animals first. If someone says whatever to the moon and its phases, that's their priority. but I would not ignore it. It could help you score a giant. |
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Location: Uxbridge Ontario | Moon rise and moon set may indeed have something to do with the activation of prime feeding windows, I cannot deny that. But from my experience, not fishing because you figure the moon phase is not right, even though conditions are perfect will cost you fish. I know that from my personal experience with only trying to fish the supposed Prime moon phases... Full moon and new moon cycles. That where I was going with it. |
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| Moon.................smoon. You think the fish know when the moon is rising and when it is falling? You think they have an internal clock in their pea sized brain? There may be a tiny bit of correlation, but it is hardly that significant that I would plan my fishing around it. Weather has a little more impact, but even that is limited.
The key is to present a bait to a fish in a way that makes it want to react to it. You do that........and you increase your odds of catching it..........ten fold over any moon time for the day.
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