Full moon?

[stubborn1]

Today had all the ingredients for a good day of fishing, but the last few days have been slow for me and others.  Does anyone have a theory on the role the full (and close to full) moon has on fish in the winter?  Just curious. 

[franklin fisher]

I asked the same question last week and posted it in the Maine section. Take a look there if you want to see what those guys had to say. It's under: best fishing days.

[ICE_HOOK]

Been a full moon all season! Where's the fish?

[CHAMP04]

Maybe there like ducks and feed at night during the full moon. I've always had good luck when fishing smelt on bright moons.

[ICE_HOOK]

Not even the smelt are biting on Bomoseen! All fished out I think! Moon or no moon!

[jbritch]

I'll respond fully expecting derision from some quarters (I'm getting used to it) with traditional knowledge found in the Farmer's Almanac (which has been right on the weather this year).  The best fishing is always during the waxing of the moon, the period from no (new) moon to full moon, that's two weeks.  Last moon before this past weekend was Feb 3 and I had my first full pail then and not so much during the waning of the moon which is what we are in right now which jives with the recent reports of poor bites on this site.  It'll be best again from Mar 20 to Apr 4 which will be too late for the walleye fishermen as the season ends on Mar 15.  It might be a really good time because the fierce winds and cold may have kept some fishermen off the ice for the early part of this winter.  Before the critics respond, of course, there are other factors besides the fishing pressure like the bait availability and migration and the weather; like the late maple season, the nutrients entering the lakes from the inlets is delayed because of the lack of rain or snow melt upstream.  And, as I intimated in my last post, the price paid for some species affects fishermen's attitudes and choices as to which fish to target.  And, as we focus on the lines in our holes, we tend to forget the past; the data that is available clearly shows that previous years' harvests can affect present bites.  In case you're wondering, even after 4 requests to the F&W dept., I have yet to receive 2013 data for the panfish harvest.  The excuse given has been that the fishmongers (Oh, boy, hear the reeds rustling!) have not turned in the data.  The regulations as explained to me require a fishmonger to turn in his previous years' data before being issued a license to buy and resell fish; happens each quarter of the year.  You'd think that in order to buy and resell fish in the current first quarter of this year, the data for the first quarter of 2014 would have to have been reported by now and so the state must have the data for all of 2013 unless we've had a rash of fishmongers going out of business.  I'm not a gambler at all, but the statistical model I calculated last year predicts a yellow perch harvest of 174,215 lbs for 2013.  Write that number down and see just how close it is when the numbers do finally become public.  Remember the confidence level was only 83% and so the margin of error is significant; but I'll call any 2013 yellow perch harvest between 144,598 lbs and 203,831 lbs as evidence of sound modeling.  The sugarers with southwestern-facing slopes will see some sap running this week so keep your fingers crossed that we have sound ice for our last great hurrah of the ice fishing season.

[pikeaddict]

Bite was good for me this weekend from sun up to about 11 both days on Champlain.  Sundays bite was furious the first two hours, couldn't get the jig down the hole fast enough.

[Smelty88]

fished from noon on Saturday to 1 on Sunday and we had 28 lines in the water and had pretty much none stop flags the whole time! and don't think we had more than 1 or 2 that were not 8" or better with about a half dozen 12" perch. We caught and released about half dozen NICE size small mouth bass in the 18 to 21 inch range. Caught about half dozen to a dozen pike ranging from small to a couple 29-30" ones. caught a very small hybrid, and a 28.5 inch eel. We had some friends come out on Sunday and they set up another 30 or so tip ups and could not sit down. One of them actually had to leave to go get more bait at about noon as they had run clean out! If there was a issue with the moon this weekend we did not notice it!

[CrappieVermonter]

I fish mostly for bluegill crappie and perch and I have to say its been a slow year for me all together. I have had a few really good days but lately not at all not sure if its the moon thinking its the high pressure more than anything. Oh and I have yet to notice the smelt bite slow down any day stopped trying to catch perch out of bomo because they eat every thing dissent matter what the weather is like or time of day

[ICE_HOOK]

It is slow now! Think they are getting ready to spawn!

[troutcrazy]

Yeah man it's been funny.  I don't know if it's the moon or the pressure, or what, and I don't know if it's possible to know
Went out for a couple hours today, totally sunny and warm, and it seemed like I would be skunked.  Suddenly around 2:30 I got into a wicked crappie bite!  Killed me because I had to leave at 3 to get to work!

jbrich, interesting post.  I can't argue with the Farmer's Almanac.

[Icemanvt]

got my biggest brown on sunday! 7 lb 8 oz male w/ a kype!

[buckfordave]

dont forget the best fishing days and times , when the Moon is between new and full the exact date are easily found online or in the old farmers almanac 

[Icemanvt]

Caught my two big ones this year exactly a month apart on the exact same moon phase and time! 

[Lord_of_the_Perch]

dont forget the best fishing days and times , when the Moon is between new and full the exact date are easily found online or in the old farmers almanac 

The best fishing days and times for me is when my boots are on the ice and my ass is on a pail!

[bootstrap]

best time to fish?

any time you can.

[stubborn1]

Thanks for the replies.  I was just curious about other people's observations.  Fished 12 of the last 14 days, but noticed a real drop-off in my catching around the full moon.  Besides that, it had been surprisingly consistent. Been after panfish, and from what I can tell, they act a whole lot different than predator fish like pike, browns, lakers etc.  Just my opinion.