When I do a lot of night fishing I'm constantly paying attention to the moon phase. Partly due to convenience, since a little moonlight makes it easier for us humans to see. But I it also can be treated like the sun. Moonrise and moonset create shadows fish can use to ambush prey, and a full moon on a clear lake can shut down some aggressive fish, especially if there's no wind.

On the other hand during the day I admit I've long ago stopped paying attention to the moon. But maybe I shouldn't. I queried some old fish records and this is what came out.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/7125-moon.gif

I like to look at the "Pounds of fish" row, since it leans more towards fish over 10 pounds. (FWIW, 1,134 fish, avg. weight 9.3lbs)

Is it a coincidence that the two best days are the first and third quarters, and that the full is tied for third? What's going on with the new moon. It's almost half as bad as the second worst day.

It's certainly possible that the quarter moons are best. Bill Murphy listed the two quarters as the best time to fish in his book. What do you think?

A few years ago I used to fish at night alot. I have read your night time article and we fish very similar. For the first couple years I kept a log of the fish I caught at night and the moon phases. Now I was mostly fishing in ponds and small lakes so maybe my results were effected by this.
After 2 years worth and about 50-75 log pages I came to the conclusion that the moon was totaly irelevant to my results. I caught big fish 6-12 lbs durring every phase and I also had good numbers on every phase along with bad days. I was very disapointed when I comparred all my notes. water temps were a lot more helpfull.
A few things that I noticed.
#1 full moons you have to be verry stealthy. You cant see the fish but they can see/hear/feel you and spook easily. The will take off from the shore line when you get too close. I would always stay back away from the shore while I made cast along the shorelines. Then I would walk close to throw out deeper.
#2 Timing was evrything. There always seemed to be a window of about 1-2 hours that the fish would go on a feed and then it would turn off like a light. This happened more often then not. Yes sometimes you could catch fish all night but usualy it was hot for 1-2 hours.
#3 you could condition fish to a bait quickly in these small bodies of water. I could kill them on a buzzer for a few nights and then hardley get bit. They still wanted topwater but not a buzzer. I would go to a wake bait or spook or popper. This was most aperant on topwater. The trusty old big power worm or power hawg(brush hog) would almost always get bit.
Now maybe the moon wasnt important because I wasnt fishing in real lakes, that is a possability I am not sure.
My basic stratagy was to start on top with a big bait and then go to smaller one. No bites I would then go to the bottom with a big bait and then a smaller one. Last I would fish the middle with a big bait first and then a small one. If I got that far and coulnt get bit I would either go home because it was late or I would break out my emergency pack of nightcrawlers. If I couldnt get bit on those there were no fish in the lake

www.mattlures.com