Moon phase split, Rotary (Bite times and why they can differ from water to water)

[chillfactor]

Some good reading gents 😎

But not one of you has mentioned the moon....... 🎣🌚

This could well account for bite times changing ??? I'm still studying the effects of the moon , it's a shame I haven't been able to fish much the last year or so,  as I probably would of had some info / findings on the whole moon debate by now . 

[greekskii]

For me I don’t go by it. Or much really. I don’t get to pick and choose when I’m fishing hardly at all. I take what’s given to me on the day. 

No doubt the moon has more of an effect we will ever understand but sadly it’s lost on me.

[chillfactor]

You keep a note of your bite times so it wouldn't be hard to cross reference them with the moon at that time . You never know it might shed some light on the matter for you & account for some of the bite times more so the out of sync ones .

[Gazlaaar]

28 minutes ago, chillfactor said:

Some good reading gents 😎

But not one of you has mentioned the moon....... 🎣🌚

This could well account for bite times changing ??? I'm still studying the effects of the moon , it's a shame I haven't been able to fish much the last year or so,  as I probably would of had some info / findings on the whole moon debate by now . 

There's a fair amount of literature on moon phases and it's affects on bass. It stands to reason if the moon has the gravitational pull to move seas and tectonic plates there has to be some kind of affect on smaller fresh water pools and ponds, even if it is in minature. I don't know enough about it to warrant a comment but if anyone else knows more please fill us in.

If I remember rightly @chillfactor hannon

and aldon ring a bell.

[chillfactor]

On  the moon charts this week its getting better by the day building towards the full moon towards the end of the week. Each day will have it's peaks which relate directly to the moon rise / zenith & set .  

Edited July 24, 2018 by chillfactor

[greekskii]

14 minutes ago, chillfactor said:

On  the moon charts this week its getting better by the day building towards the full moon towards the end of the week. Each day will have it's peaks which relate directly to the moon rise / zenith & set .  

Set to coincide with a storm where I am! Probably the once a year must be on the bank weather. Shame I’m moving house! 

[greekskii]

1 hour ago, chillfactor said:

You keep a note of your bite times so it wouldn't be hard to cross reference them with the moon at that time . You never know it might shed some light on the matter for you & account for some of the bite times more so the out of sync ones .

I will plot the moon phases at some point. Probably when I get a few hours in the office on my own and work doesn’t seem like the best thing to be doing. Be interesting to see. Date and time stamps on photos are a Godsend. Otherwise I only take general notice of catch times. Dates are logged religiously. 

[emmcee]

I thought I had found the recipe for success on my old lake regarding moon phase. I had the majority of my fish especially from September onwards on or around  ( 3-4 days) either side of a new moon. I recall one autumn/winter on there when 9 out of 10 bites came on a new moon and always in the hours of darkness.  I found out another angler was also getting a few bites so asked him whether they had been on the new moon. He said all his had come on or around a full moon and yet I couldn't buy a bite on that moon phase.  Whether that was due to me fishing shallowish water and he the deeper water.  

At the end of the day I've found that being on the fish is the biggest influence on getting a bite, what time that bite comes is anyone's guess but you certainly won't get one if you're not on them. That is stating the obvious but it's shocking how many anglers blame everything other than themselves for blanking. 

Another thing that helps with getting bites is confidence.  You go fishing lacking confidence and chances are you've blanked before you've even got to the lake. I know I've been there in the past. 

[greekskii]

1 minute ago, emmcee said:

it's shocking how many anglers blame everything other than themselves for blanking. 

Never a truer word said. I feel the exact same. Never their own fault. I’ve been there and blanked out of stubbornness or laziness.

locating and finding the fish is the single most important thing when fishing, having confidence in bait, rigs, tackle means there’s less of the jigsaw to worry about. 

I see anglers set up where is easiest and spend an hour deciding which rigs and hookbaits to use. In reality the fish are on the other side of the lake, which they’d have realised if they spent more time looking and less time faffing! 

[B.C.]

25 minutes ago, greekskii said:

blanked out of stubbornness or laziness.

Think we all have at some point...

[buzzbomb]

41 minutes ago, B.C. said:

Think we all have at some point...

...and/or also lost what could be a once in a lifetime fish through a brain fart or not being alert enough.  John Alden Knight is credited with starting the solunar thing [(I've bought the booklet his family still publishes)at least I think they still do] but market hunters and fishermen had long known that the juxtaposition of sun and moon affects game and fish.  I've seen it work perfectly on cue and not work at all.  There are quite a few factors involved in why and when fish bite, and the solunar table is just one of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solunar_theory

 

[chillfactor]

1 hour ago, greekskii said:

I will plot the moon phases at some point. Probably when I get a few hours in the office on my own and work doesn’t seem like the best thing to be doing. Be interesting to see. Date and time stamps on photos are a Godsend. Otherwise I only take general notice of catch times. Dates are logged religiously. 

Just out of interest post a list of capture dates & I will go through the charts . Even dating back previous years would be cool . 

[yonny]

There's an app called Fishing Calendar that tracks moon phases and calculates bite time for you. It is very interesting that bites often come during periods that the app says they should.

I stopped using it as I can't plan my fishing round moon phases and found it would just do my head in when the app told me the weekend ahead was no good for bites lol.

9 hours ago, emmcee said:

At the end of the day I've found that being on the fish is the biggest influence on getting a bite

Amen.

[greekskii]

8 hours ago, chillfactor said:

Just out of interest post a list of capture dates & I will go through the charts . Even dating back previous years would be cool . 

The estate lake fish, with rough timings too if I know them. Be interesting to see what you find. 

25lb - island 1 (23/05) 19:20
18lb - island 1 (24/05)  07:30 
26.08lb - shallows (18/06) 13:55
21lb - shallows (18/06) 19:30
10lb - shallows (18/06) 
19.12lb - shallows (18/06)  21:50
19.09lb - shallows (19/06) 00:35
13.10lb - shallows (19/06)
23.08lb - shallows (19/06)  08:40
20lb - shallows (19/06)
19.10lb - shallows (19/06)
16lb - shallows (19/06)
15lb - shallows (19/06) 
17lb - shallows (19/06)
15lb - shallows stalked (19/06) 19:00
14lb - shallows stalked (07/07) 16:00
11lb - deeps (13/07)
17.04lb - deeps (19/07) 18:00
21.06lb - deeps (20/07) 01:15
13.07lb - deeps (29/07)
10lb - shallows (11/08) 18:40
20lb - shallows (12/08) 09:00
20lb - shallows (01/09) 14:45
12lb - shallows (02/09)  03:50
19.04lb - shallows (02/09)  08:00
16.12lb - deeps (08/09) 23:00
17.06lb - deeps (09/09) 03:20
Low double - island 1 (15/09) 19:00
23.03lb - island 1 (15/09) 20:20
12.07lb - island 1 (16/09) 01:30
24.08lb - island 1 (22/09)  14:10
17.11lb - island 1 (22/09) 16:05
18.06lb - island 1 (22/09) 18:55
18.09lb - island 1 (23/09) 07:15
19.12lb - island 1 (05/10) 20:00
20.09lb - island 1 (14/10) 01:20
19.11lb - island 1 (21/10) 19:15
12.10lb - suicides (28/10) 15:40
20.03lb - suicides (28/10) 17:45
26.04lb - suicides (03/11) 18:30
21.03lb - suicides (03/11) 20:45
Low double - suicides (03/11) 23:00
24.02lb - suicides (10/11) 19:45
30.01lb - suicides (24/11) 19:00
Mid double - left dam (13/01) 12:00
17.06lb - deeps (26/01) 16:00
17lb - deeps (26/01) 17:10
15.13lb - deeps (16/03) 17:15
17.09lb - deeps (16/03) 18:30
23.14lb - deeps (29/03) 19:50
24.05lb - deeps (29/03) 21:30
15.04lb - deeps (30/03) 09:00
Barely double - island 1 (20/04)
26.02lb - island 1 (21/04) 01:10
23.06lb - island 1 (21/04) 07:10
21.04lb - island 1 (21/04) 09:15
23.04lb - island 2 (05/05) 16:20
21.06lb - island 2 (06/05) 02:30
20.10lb - deeps (11/05) 17:25
21.08lb - deeps (11/05) 21:00
23.04lb - deeps (11/05) 22:40
16.10lb - shallows (18/05) 03:00
Unweighed stocky - island 1 (18/05) 18:10
21.04lb - island 1 (18/05) 22:00
17lb - island 1 (19/05) 06:20

You can factor in my friend's captures too:

05/05 05:05

05/05 06:20

05/05 20:30

05/05 21:25

06/05 07:45

[AndyCh]

A few years back a friend of mine turned up at the lake all excited because he'd bought some moonphase charts which pinpointed the best times for a bite. What interested me the most was that he had the charts for the previous ten years as well. I asked him to watch my rods while I hot footed it to the syndicate shed to grab the log book. So, being the sad git that I am, I worked my way back through the whole ten years.

Now don't get me wrong fish did get caught around the 'peak days', but most captures just happened at random points on the charts. My mate wasn't quite so chirpy when I showed him my findings.

Personally I think there is a whole raft of factors that affect feeding times but that one of, if not the, most important thing is dissolved oxygen levels. Although I doubt that is the case during the depths of winter.

Edited July 25, 2018 by AndyCh

[yonny]

27 minutes ago, greekskii said:

The estate lake fish, with rough timings too

"HE CATCHES WHEN HE WANTS" lol

[greekskii]

42 minutes ago, yonny said:

"HE CATCHES WHEN HE WANTS" lol

not anymore I dont! 

[yonny]

11 minutes ago, greekskii said:

not anymore I dont! 

So tricky at the mo with this heat - bite times are short, very short. First morning is spent spotting where they're prepared to feed. Second morning you have an hour or two window to catch them. If they've moved there's no second chances - that's it for the day unless you can get something going on the top.

[B.C.]

12 hours ago, The_Viking_Angler said:

Thanks @greekskii for the nomination.

I'm going to try and focus on more on how bite times can differ from water to water, even on the same complex and how some lakes will have the exact same bite times. And how we can actually influence times ourselves.

On the majority of the lakes i fish, There are 3 bite times, First Light, Last Light and late afternoon. The first two have been covered in detail in above posts so i don't need to elaborate. The late afternoon time i feel can be explained in a few reasons and i believe it's actually a man induced feeding spell.

From research of the waters i fish, i found that when the owners created the lakes, they would throw the feed in late afternoon and they find the fish learn to expect food at that particular time. Watching Mark Pitchers with his lake, you can see the fish ready and waiting for him when he brings the feed to the stock pond so it is likely cause of that the fish will feed late afternoon a bit more.

Another reason it could be that on the lakes i fish, majority of day time anglers will pack up around 3pm and the night anglers don't usually turn up till about 5-6pm so they could of learnt that the late period of the afternoon is a "safer time" for them to feed. Majority of my fishing is days with an longer session maybe once a month so i'll always try and stay from first light to last light to try and maximize my chances.

Something that really catches my imagination is when you have two lakes right next door to each other yet the feeding times are completely different. I think part of the different bite times between lakes must be of how the lake is under the surface, ie: how much weed, oxygen levels and possibly how much naturals are in the lake. Each water is like each house, similar yet decorated slightly different and it is the same for lakes. 

I know I've only really spoken about lakes, however i don't fish the river that much for carp so i'm probably not the best to speak about them.

Moon phases is something I've known about since i started carping, however I've never taken much notice of it but after reading what Chill has said, i'm defiantly going to be researching it a bit more. 

I'll pass the baton over to @chillfactor as i'm interested in hearing more about moon phases in his experience.

 

 

Some good points there mate. The man induced, learning by association, is one that had slipped my mind..... Just add, I think the type of bait being put in plays a big part too. An easily digestible food source, would imo, lead to a quicker recovery and perhaps an extra feeding spell on a lake..... Too much stinky winky bait going in, could lead to longer digestion periods and perhaps fewer and less vigorous munch ups. Your post has certainly given me food for thought (oooh dodgy joke in there somewhere)…….🙂

[chillfactor]

Lads apologies for such a late response. Been working all hours trying to get jobs done before the French social . I will put something together at some point but please carry on the thread .

Really good read 😎

[emmcee]

I've just been chatting to a fella on my "no publicity " water and we got on to bite times and moon phases, especially after last night's blood moon and he said he was told to look at the tides.  I did look at him strangely but he said it's surprising how many fish he caught were during the high tide. Now obviously high tide is the best time to sea fish, and hour before and an hour after being the most productive.  Now I said about the fact we are miles from the sea and just along the south coast alone the tide varies a lot, in some cases hours different between the various ports/ beaches etc but he said as the lake was just outside London relative speaking he took the thames tide as his gauge and over the coarse of a few years he saw that he had many more bites around high tide than any other time. Now the moon affects the tides with its gravitational pull so would it have any affect on any lake? The bloke has certainly got me thinking.  

[cloud9]

That's a interesting theory, I grew up just down the river from London , and my understanding is that fishing either side of high tide was the slack water, when the tides were not running hard made it easier to fish, the same was said for low tide , I'm sure that the gravitational force of the sun and moon do have some effect on the lakes but how it could be measured I would have no idea ....

[yonny]

On 28/07/2018 at 13:47, emmcee said:

the moon affects the tides with its gravitational pull so would it have any affect on any lake?

The moon does more than just affect the tides, it causes them buddy!

Very interesting theory mate and something I've not really thought about.

[yonny]

Interesting that this weekend I saw nothing on each morning despite getting up at 4 am every day. There was no feeding activity at all until the hot conditions subsided. Then when the winds got up and rain started falling they started showing like clockwork. Just goes to show that no matter what we think of bite times sometimes it just won't happen if conditions aint right.

[greekskii]

14 minutes ago, yonny said:

Interesting that this weekend I saw nothing on each morning despite getting up at 4 am every day. There was no feeding activity at all until the hot conditions subsided. Then when the winds got up and rain started falling they started showing like clockwork. Just goes to show that no matter what we think of bite times sometimes it just won't happen if conditions aint right.

Agreed