Moon Fishing
The lunar tides affect the behavior of fish. Whether there is some Universal communication going on between the Sun, Moon and Earth’s own gravity is left up to the imagination. However, during the full and new moons the lunar tides tend to be higher.
The effect this has on fishing has to do with their feeding, activity and in some cases breeding habits. Again, I am not sure whether fish can speak Universe or not but I do know that during high and low tides fish want to eat. And during a spring tide, which occurs with the New or Full moon the gravitational effect it has on Earth’s waters is amplified, or the tide is generally much higher on one side and much lower on the other.
From experience I know this is true. Although it is largely held by the fishing community that fish don’t bite during a full moon, just remember that a full moon to one side of the Earth is a new moon to the other and so it has been in my experiences, that full and new moons are the best time to fish. While I am not sure, it may also be possible that the temperature of the waters experience a nominal temperature change.
Like turtles, their optimum activity occurs when the water temperature is ideal around 78 degrees. During this time they eat more and literally “act” more aggressive. They want to eat more and they will eat just about anything. As humans are more prone to eat more during the winter and in a sense hibernate but become less hungry and more active in warmer weather. Cold blooded creatures are being stimulated by the effects of the lunar and solar tides or in short Solunar tides and currents of our waters.
Lunar cycles during a full and new moon have been thought to also have an affect on human behavior as well making some more aggressive and some women’s monthly cycles also correlate to the position or phase of the moon. No one really knows for sure what causes this phenomenon since the interactions very upon species and gender.
moon phase diagram from moonconnection.com
However, fishing can be good anytime during any phase of the lunar cycle; which last apx. 29-30 days days and one Moon day is 27 hours as opposed to ours which is 24 hours. So on Earth we have two low and high tides that occur everyday. And it is to my knowledge while observing the aquatic behavior and lunar cycles, that the best time to catch anything is roughly 45 min to an hour before and after sunrise and sunset and during the periods when the tides shift from low to high or vise versa.
Tidal shift occur about every six hours; so depending on where you live in the world you can actually calculate a species feeding times. For instance, nocturnal creatures such as lobster feed at night just after sunset and then again when the tide comes in; which so accurately coincides with the theory that the best times to fish are just before and after sunrise and sunset and more so during spring tides.