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full moon night fishing is usually the best night fishing of all, because fish (especially crappie with their superior night vision) tend to stay active throughout the night looking for food. if you're not seeing fish on your sonar, then you need to change your location, day or night. end of story. you can't catch fish that aren't underneath you.
I do a lot of night crappie fishing and I catch consistent limits in multiple lakes that I have fished for years. The ONE factor that affects my success rate more than anything is the moon phase. The new moon and the four or five nights before and after are almost guaranteed hot bites. During the full moon (and several days before/after) it is like the lake has no crappie in it. Black crappie eat lots of zooplankton and the dark moon nights promote a much bigger "rise" of them. The zooplankton still appear on the showdown but not nearly as many. I fished many Oct,Nov,Dec Lake Erie western basin late fall nights trolling shad raps on the off shore reefs and the opposite scenario held true. The full moon, day before and day after were always special times to be on the reefs from sunset until dawn.
Kinda new to crappie fishing but did pretty well 4 trips in a row. Last 2 trips i got skunked one night and only 3 the next night with both bad nights being a full moon and night after full moon. First bad night didn't see any on the flasher and the next night very few. To you experienced fellas is this just the way it goes or maybe something to do with the full moon? Thanks in advance
I will guarantee you on certain bodies of water,a full moon will completely shut cfrappie down at night.i fish 100% at night.and I can tell you (where I fish at anyways)the day it will slow down,the day it will stop,and the day it will pick back up.i still fish during the full moon cycle..but guess what..i haven't marked a fish in 3 nights.and normally every night we either catch them..or mark them..tonite is the night after..i bet I catch nothing.