I was wondering if anyone could explain how the phases of the moon affect fishing. What are the best moons to fish under?

Generally, the brighter the moon the worse the daytime fishing. If it's bright at night, the fish like to feed at night because they've got the cover of darkness, but can still see well enough to locate prey. So, they'll feed at night and not during the day which can make for some tough fishing during the daytime. During dark nights it's generally the opposite, and the fish will feed more during the day. This is all just stuff that people say, and I don't know if it's scientific fact, but fishing does usually suck when there's a full moon. Different fish are effected differently too. I think guys like to fish bluefin during a new moon or something, and other stuff like that, but for the most part bright moons equal bad fishing. If, say, hypothetically, I were to plan a seabass charter on the Stardust ;-) I'd just stay away from any type of moon and plan it for a regular part of the month. Seabass are too weird, and the moon would probably screw with them way too much.
-Brian

Personally, I have always had poor to bad fishing when fishing the day or night of a full moon. But, I have heard for some species, full moon is better. Now I'm confused. . .

A couple of links I found online regarding the subject:

http://www.primetimes2.com/pages/6-article.html
http://www.fishinfo.com/moon.htm

I was fishing in an area with a high concentration of bait during a full moon last summer and the fishing was pretty much wide open. In general however I dont do well during a full moon or no moon at all. Does anyone have any information on why they wouldn't bite when theres no moon?
Thanks,
Tommy

I'm going to have to disagree with Brian. As a matter of fact, fish bite a lote better the day before, on, and after the full moon. This is because the tidal changes are at their biggest during these days. When there is a full moon, the gravitational pull from the moon causes the tidal change to be at their maximum in the whole month. The fish love the big tidal change and come to the shallower water to feed. We may have mixed you up a little more. But just to let you know, I fish every full moon (I wait for this day all month as a matter of fact) and I do get more fish. Last full moon, actually, the day after the full moon, I caught 8 bat rays, 7 thornbacks, 2 leopard sharks, and a halibut. That was last months full moon. I fish about 3 nights a week (I'm a night fisher for sharks & rays) and that has got to be my best night fishin. I usually get about 3-5 rays and a thornback here and there, but that night, there were just hundreds of fish out there. Everyone around me fishin for other fish caught many too. I don't know what to say about the day fishin, but I believe it is the same thing.

I'm going to go with Brian on this one. In going over my journal from last year I had some killer fishing on a full moon at Cachuma but 6 days prior "not Dead on" and 3 days after. I did some Albacore trips last year and in July dead on the full moon out of Ciscos we nailed something like 265 30 pounders yet on the next full moon it was deader than a doornail as I was hot hand with 6 fish. The difference was no light the night before on the July trip as it was very,very foggy. My last Albacore trip was a two day out of San Diego and there where many Vetrans there who swore that the Bluefin would attack us yet only One was taken...Hurricane was to blame for the Bluefin as we wiped out the YellowTail and Albacore. From my observations the Lunar influx seems to make much more of a difference Period. Wheather it's negitive or positive I think is specie specific and also a time of year thing.

my 02.
Kelly

Sharkgirl...do you eat thornbacks? I've heard that skates and rays can be diced into scallop sized chunks. How are they cleaned? What is a 'keeper' size?

I personally have never tried thornbacks, neither has anyone I know. But as for rays, skates, sharks and shovelnoses, yeah you can eat those. Some people like it, some don't. I've never tried skates and shovelnoses but I know people who like em. I give em to them when I catch em. Rays, I have tried, not bad, but not great either. Now sharks are good. I keep all my sharks. For the rays and skates, you only keep the wings. Cut off the wings, skin it, and cut it to whatever size you want, fillet or steak and just throw it over the grill. And for the sharks, shovelnoses and other shark shaped fish, those are best steaked and grilled or broiled. I usually steak em, stick em in foil with whatever I wanna marinate with and stick it in the oven or over a grill. Thornbacks by the way don't get that big, and with those kinds of fish, you can only cook the tail ends, so those don't specifically get big enough. Thornbacks only grow to about 3 feet anyway, if you're lucky to even catch one that big.

Thanks for the response, Sharkgirl. I see that Epicurious.com lists skate wings poached in a peppered court bouillon (fish stock) for two minutes and sliced onto a baby lettuce and cilantro salad with sherry vinaigrette dressing poured over. Maybe they're worth keeping, afterall.

The only 100% SURE bet is that if ya don't go out there you won't catch ANYTHING! :D I've had good & bad fishing at all phases. Hey, the worst day fishing still beats the best day working!

Fishslayer

Hey sharkgirl, yes you can eat skates. In fact, my company paid for a really expensive dinner at this posh restaurant in SF, and they were serving skate wings. The meat is very fiberous, but not tough, it was soft like california halibut.

Another thing you can do with skates and similar fish is cut the wings into smaller pieces and saute them like you would shrimp or scallops. In fact, a guy at the fish market told me most "scallops" that you buy in the grocery stores are really skate wings, punched into perfect round pieces using a cookie-cutter type of device. The only real scallops are usually only found in nicer restaurants.

Happy eating :-)

Yeah, i heard about scallop/ray switch thing too. But you know what, I decided to compare em the last time I took a ray home. You know how scallops have this soft slippery texture? Well I seemed to notice that a ray has more of a fishy texture to its meat. I don't know, maybe when I actually buy scallops at the store, I actually DO buy the real scallops. The textures are way different so I think that may just be a rumor. Although I don't know cause I've heard that from a lot of people. And also, I looooooove scallops, and the ray taste doesn't appeal to me all that much. I dunno, maybe I just didn't cook the ray all too properly. *shrug*

I caught a 25 pounder from shore last summer, I normally let them go, but kept this one since there was a lot of meat on the tail of it. I had a firm flaky white meat and tasted very good. The big ones fight good also! Never tried to eat a bat-ray though...sounds like they can be ok if prepared right.

three days before the full moon (really good for the threshers to)