• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

Moon phase calender

I don't personally care what the moon is when i go fishing, All animals have to feed whenever the opportunity arises,(survival of the fittest).Having said that 'the moon' phase/size/brightness,may have some effect on rivers in regards of the tidal stretches.Or maybe even the brightness of the moon helping/hindering confidence in feeding on such nights?..
As Derek said 'if your not there you can't catch'.....
John
 
I'll be honest with you Neil, I found your initial comment slightly abbrassive. Shouting I am wrong and running off is a bit churlish, I felt sure that you had come to that conclusion out of noted experience and not just deciding from the off that it was all "BS". There also seems to be some misconception that anyone who takes note of the moon to be sitting by the door step waiting for the moon to be right before ever going fishing. I feel that it is a small percentage of a whole, like whether there is a big south westerly and low pressure,If the water is up and coloured or low and clear or even if you angled well or not. Of course you can catch out of ideal conditions and go fishing with confidence whenever.I am a big believer in the influence of the full and new moon and wanted to see how these calenders related to my observations.I am a carp angler in the main, so this is where most of my observations lie. It is not a black and white answer as I have found individual fish up to individual waters responding in different ways to different moons but patterns can be found.It is just something else to add to my armoury.

1/ My pb came on a full moon, a period that this fish seemed to be susceptible to capture by noting past captures
2/ Another large fish on a water I angled seemed to do an awful lot of captures within two days of a new moon.
3/A few waters I have angled have shown a lot of activity around moon rise and set times.
4/One water showed to be very productive on a full moon. Just recently we had been waiting a painfully long time for the fish to spawn on this particular water, leaving us scratching our heads as to why they had been going through the motions for so long. They finally did, on a full moon.
5/These periods can also coincide with unusual weather conditions in favour of good fishing.
6/Some insect hatches can occur around moon phases.
7/On a non fishing note, police have said a full moon can lead to a higher rate of incidents, especially violent ones.
8/If you ever drive down country lane regularly, you may notice that sometimes there are a spate of dead badgers on the road, take note of what moon has just occurred.
9/In regard to points 7 and 8, is it possible that when we act a little crazy, we slip up and make mistakes?


Just some reason on why I take note of what a moon might bring.
 
Stuart thank you for the detailed reply, however that merely reinforces my stance that we should pay no regard whatsoever in the moon phase and whether we have a better chance of catching a 'big un.

For centuries the moon has held some if not most humans in it's spell, even prompting a few of us to cough up billions to land on it, and prove it wasn't made of cheese, or is it..:rolleyes: and did we actually land on the thing?

The moon is attributed to 'madness' in humans and all sorts of weird behavior, even the police use the full moon as an excuse to explain surges in crime, I agree with that.

Dead Badgers? Some insect hatches occur around a full moon, won't challenge that.

An occasional pb on a full moon, does it have to be a full moon not just a day either way? Which really if you think it might influence you 'pb' capture is just plain daft.

And frankly Stuart you have not put up anything that I can take away with me as a another excuse in my long line of excuses to blank.:D

Sorry if you think I am being blunt, but I believe you deserve it ;)
 
I think anything other than an agnostic view (well, a non-view..or a view of "I don't know") on 'lunar influences' is unwise..as we just don't know for certain either way. But I think if it gives some anglers more confidence, then that's great. Now confidence..that's something I DO have a great belief in.
Re. badgers.. not all that are found dead on the road have died on the road. They are hunted/gassed/dug up when conditions are favourable (Hunter's Moon?)..then dumped on roads as 'road kill'.

Anyways.....I don't know, and I'm ok with that:):):)
 
I agree entirely Terry. Although I do lean towards Neil's verdict on this issue, there is no way to be certain, so it's a tad naughty of the rascal to be so aggressively dismissive :D However, Stuarts major mistake now has been in admitting that his supporting evidence is based on carp fishing....red rag to a bull or what :p Round four (or 5?) could be interesting :D:D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Yes David, I must say..the phase of the moon would never persuade me to go, or not go fishing. I'd be much more influenced by water temp (and increase/decrease in last 24hrs), water clarity/colour, air temp, cloud cover, wind (I hate strong winds..except sou'westerlies in winter:)) REPORTS!!, etc.. but mostly though by the sentiment: 'do I fancy fishing today or not??' THAT'S the biggy for me:)
ATVB
T
 
David Gauntlett said:
I agree entirely Terry. Although I do lean towards Neil's verdict on this issue, there is no way to be certain, so it's a tad naughty of the rascal to be so aggressively dismissive :D However, Stuarts major mistake now has been in admitting that his supporting evidence is based on carp fishing....red rag to a bull or what :p Round four (or 5?) could be interesting :D:D:D

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

He's out for the count!:rolleyes:
 
Terry Simner said:
Yes David, I must say..the phase of the moon would never persuade me to go, or not go fishing. I'd be much more influenced by water temp (and increase/decrease in last 254rs), water clarity/colour, air temp, cloud cover, wind (I hate strong winds..except sou'westerlies in winter:)) REPORTS!!, etc.. but mostly though by the sentiment: 'do I fancy fishing today or not??' THAT'S the biggy for me:)
ATVB
T
Click to expand...

Blimey Terry with all those variables I would stick to the moon.:)
 
Try fishing in an impending thunderstorm and a full moon , crackpots and fish certainly get livelier then ! As for badgers they have dreadful eyesight , you would think they would be less likely to get run over when there is a full moon to guide poor old brock on his way :)
 
Mike Hodgkiss said:
Try fishing in an impending thunderstorm and a full moon , crackpots and fish certainly get livelier then ! As for badgers they have dreadful eyesight , you would think they would be less likely to get run over when there is a full moon to guide poor old brock on his way :)
Click to expand...

Easy Mike, you might get banded into the yogurt knitting druid type camp.
 
Me and my fishing buddy do at least one overnighter on the river each week.....

We have never had any luck when the moon has been full (or 3 or 4 days either side) and the skies clear.

However, when it has been overcast we have had fish.
 
I am with Stuart on this, at least to a degree. I feel there is some influence. But it is not black and white. I would suggest somewhere between what Chris Lyons himself suggests and the "bo**ox" :) stance taken by Neil! For years I have taken note of moon phases and while it never influenced whether I went or not it made for interesting reading. But not always how I thought. The most alarming point I noted was how often the supposed "Excellent" days were blanks. "Grim" days could be grim but the most reliable were "Good" days. Now I realise this is all a bit ambiguous and would overall support Neils b.s. theory but over a period of time patterns do emerge. In my fishing, a day or two either side of a first quarter shows good returns. Possibly a coincidence and not necessarily conclusive enough for me to plan my trips around these particular days, but I found it an interesting observation.

More reliable I found, have been moon rise and set times. These produce fish at regular enough intervals to suggest some lunar influence at that time of the day or night.
 
Alex Gowney said:
I am with Stuart on this, at least to a degree. I feel there is some influence. But it is not black and white. I would suggest somewhere between what Chris Lyons himself suggests and the "bo**ox" :) stance taken by Neil! For years I have taken note of moon phases and while it never influenced whether I went or not it made for interesting reading. But not always how I thought. The most alarming point I noted was how often the supposed "Excellent" days were blanks. "Grim" days could be grim but the most reliable were "Good" days. Now I realise this is all a bit ambiguous and would overall support Neils b.s. theory but over a period of time patterns do emerge. In my fishing, a day or two either side of a first quarter shows good returns. Possibly a coincidence and not necessarily conclusive enough for me to plan my trips around these particular days, but I found it an interesting observation.

More reliable I found, have been moon rise and set times. These produce fish at regular enough intervals to suggest some lunar influence at that time of the day or night.
Click to expand...


Praise be! The problem is that it is not black or white. Understandably some people want yes or no answers and I'm not sure there will ever be with this topic . In the scheme of things it's as black and white as the best bait, most productive time or even the flow of a river. The variance is great but patterns can be found. I really didn't want to bang on about what's right and wrong and it was inevitable the subject would be poo pooed.Although I gave some personal examples of moon linked captures, I know there was hell of a lot more to it then simply going out on a moon phase, again it is just something that is noted. Always nice to hear other peeps findings though.
 
Well nothing has been proved at all really, as I suspected, and nothing will, except what we need to do is trust what we already know, in that water temperatures, levels colour and air pressure all play a role in fish behaviour.

Of course moon phases might, but to suggest there is something actually in that theory is in my opinion just a bit far fetched and is probably a bit of a reason to not go fishing as opposed to going and catching despite what the moon phase tells us.

Give me an overcast mild evening with a bit of colour after some rain, couldn't care a less about the moon, and neither should you.:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top