I've been struggling
with the idea that moon phase affects fishing for quite some time. My wife
and I have an arrangement in which we each get one weekend per month to do
whatever we want, i.e., a break from the kids. My weekend, of course,
always consists of fishing. Normally our schedule is arranged such that my
fishing trip falls on a weekend on or about the moon's first quarter. I've
arranged it this way for fishing reasons as well as other estrogen-based reasons
that pertain to lunar cycles ;-)
On or about the
first quarter moon it is already high in the sky when the sun sets. This
extends my hours of fishing in the evening and it seems that the fish continue
to feed longer as a result of the continued brightness. Based on nothing
more than my experience, albeit somewhat limited, I also theorize that during
the first quarter and thru the full moon phase the fish are more active
throughout the day.
Occasionally our
schedule gets thrown off for various reasons - that's life... which has led me
to some of the observations that helped to form the theory that first quarter
and full moon are best. It seems that every time I am "forced" to fish on
or about the new moon phase that the fishing is just downright slow. I've
fished some of my favorite spots during the new moon and found that I have
generally caught far few, and generally smaller fish. I've also noticed,
although I'm even less sure on this, that the fishing around the first quarter
usually seems hot compared to the good fishing I experience closer to full
moon.
Now, I've heard that
a lot of people believe (or don't believe) that moon phases affect
fishing. I flyfished for several years as a teenager, and just got back
into it (got addicted to it) around 3 years ago or so I simply lack the
length of experience, the variation in data if you will, to trust my
conclusions. I'd like to know what all you list members think on the
subject. Perhaps between the lot of us we can draw some clearer
conclusions.
Thanks in advance
and
-tight
lines-
Jim
Speaker
