Full Moon Approaching

[motalot]

What is your opinion on fishing prior to a full moon.

Do you think it affects Striper fishing on Lake C?

I am under the assumption night time with green lights is best for Walleye Fishing.

Bluegill fishing for big fish should be shallow as well.

What are your tactics and opinions?

[Moose1am]

Do you guys think about the position of the moon vs the Earth and Sun? Or do you just think about how much light the moon puts out on a full moon? Or do you try to consider both?

With a full moon the moon is one one side of the earth and the Sun is on the other side of the earth. Each body is pulling on the earth. The ocean tides will be smaller during full moons because the earth is being pulled on from both sides. The sun being bigger but farther away will not have as much pull as the smaller moon which is much closer.

Now when there is a new moon the Earth is being pulled on by both the moon and the sun. The moon and sun are in line and both on just one side of the earth. The Ocean tides will be greater during a new moon phase.

One geologist has a theory that the pull of the moon and sun on the earth helps to move not only the waters of the ocean by the entire earth. The crust of the earth can be shifted a bit which can increase the amount of earthquakes. Think of two crustal plates that are trying to slip past each other and with just a little more energy added to them they suddenly slip past each other thus creating an earth quake. All that force is released at one time as these huge crustal plates suddenly move. They may only move a few cm or a few meters but don't have to move far to release a lot of energy.

Now if you think about it a while you may come to the conclusion that the sun and moon's position relative our earth does have some influence on the life on this planet. What that effect is will be debated as long as we are hunting and fishing.

I purchased a Garmin eTrex Vista GPS unit a few years back. I discovered that it has a sun, moon and earth 2d picture that moves the positions of the sun and moon around the earth as the days progress. I found it interesting to view this page on the GPS screen ever once in a while. You can choose any day, month or year and it will show the positions of the sun and moon relative to earth. It also shows the sunrise and moon rise times as well as sunset and moon set times. Pretty neat little gadget.

Of course the gps unit will also display the solunar tables.

Now I have noticed that I catch a lot of fish when the solunar tables predict good fishing. I don't consult the tables until after I am out fishing so I don't use them to predict when it's time to go fishing. I go fishing when I get the chance and fell like it. But I do noticed that more times than not the solunar tables are predicting good fishing times. Not always but most of the time. Now you still have to be in a spot where there are fish. I can find those spots but I still can't make the fish bite.

What is your opinion on fishing prior to a full moon.

Do you think it affects Striper fishing on Lake C?

I am under the assumption night time with green lights is best for Walleye Fishing.

Bluegill fishing for big fish should be shallow as well.

What are your tactics and opinions?

[RoadToad]

This is a fascinating subject, but will all due respect, Moose, you've got one of your basic facts wrong:

With a full moon the moon is one one side of the earth and the Sun is on the other side of the earth. Each body is pulling on the earth. The ocean tides will be smaller during full moons because the earth is being pulled on from both sides. The sun being bigger but farther away will not have as much pull as the smaller moon which is much closer.

Now when there is a new moon the Earth is being pulled on by both the moon and the sun. The moon and sun are in line and both on just one side of the earth. The Ocean tides will be greater during a new moon phase.

Full moon and new moon tides, collectively known as Spring Tides (a term which has nothing to do with the season), are both higher than tides at the quarter moon (neap tide), but full moon tides are generally the highest. This is due to the fact that the moon is closest to the earth when it's full. Like you said, when the moon is full, it's on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. So the gravitational pull of the sun and earth are combined, and the moon is at its perigee (point in its orbit closest to the earth). Since, as you said, "The sun being bigger but farther away will not have as much pull as the smaller moon which is much closer," this results in generally the highest tides of the cycle. I say "generally" because other things, most notably wind and currents, also influence tides, so this doesn't always hold true. There's a good quick explanation of how it all works at http://astroprofspage.com/archives/247

Now if you think about it a while you may come to the conclusion that the sun and moon's position relative our earth does have some influence on the life on this planet. What that effect is will be debated as long as we are hunting and fishing.

On this I totally agree. I've never put much stock in solunar tables, though. I just think they overstate the case. But I do believe that the moon has a direct effect on living things. There was a really interesting study done that, I think, scientifically proves this. It's discussed at a website devoted to solunar theory: http://www.solunar.com/the_solunar_theory.aspx
but the gist of it is, Dr. Frank A. Brown, a biologist at Northwestern University, had some live oysters flown in from the east coast to his lab near Chicago. Oysters open their shells with each high tide, and Dr. Brown wanted to see if this was due to the change in ocean levels or to a force from the moon itself. He put them in water and removed them from all sunlight. For the first week they continued to open their shells with the high tides from their ocean home. But by the second week, they had adjusted their shell-openings to when the moon was directly overhead or underfoot in Chicago.

Exactly how this applies to freshwater fish, I don't think anybody knows. But many species do time their spawning around full moons, and I don't think that's just because moonlight makes for a romantic ambiance.

[motalot]

I wonder if it has to do with the bladder in fish. Frontal conditions also have major affects on fish.

I read somewhere that the bladder compresses during low front conditionsm which in turn is a theory why low fronts are usually a bad day fishing. Also with low fronts the wind is usually out of the east.

During Full moon conditions the sun and the moon are opposite it may keep the pressure off the bladder which in turns makes good fishing conditions.

This is what I am reading into what you guys are saying.

[Moose1am]

I was not aware that the moon was closer to the earth when it was a full moon. That would make the moon's gravity effect the earth more then.

Thanks for clarifiying that for me.

I guess nothing is really perfectly round even the moon's orbit around the earth.

This is a fascinating subject, but will all due respect, Moose, you've got one of your basic facts wrong:



Full moon and new moon tides, collectively known as Spring Tides (a term which has nothing to do with the season), are both higher than tides at the quarter moon (neap tide), but full moon tides are generally the highest. This is due to the fact that the moon is closest to the earth when it's full. Like you said, when the moon is full, it's on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. So the gravitational pull of the sun and earth are combined, and the moon is at its perigee (point in its orbit closest to the earth). Since, as you said, "The sun being bigger but farther away will not have as much pull as the smaller moon which is much closer," this results in generally the highest tides of the cycle. I say "generally" because other things, most notably wind and currents, also influence tides, so this doesn't always hold true. There's a good quick explanation of how it all works at http://astroprofspage.com/archives/247



On this I totally agree. I've never put much stock in solunar tables, though. I just think they overstate the case. But I do believe that the moon has a direct effect on living things. There was a really interesting study done that, I think, scientifically proves this. It's discussed at a website devoted to solunar theory: http://www.solunar.com/the_solunar_theory.aspx
but the gist of it is, Dr. Frank A. Brown, a biologist at Northwestern University, had some live oysters flown in from the east coast to his lab near Chicago. Oysters open their shells with each high tide, and Dr. Brown wanted to see if this was due to the change in ocean levels or to a force from the moon itself. He put them in water and removed them from all sunlight. For the first week they continued to open their shells with the high tides from their ocean home. But by the second week, they had adjusted their shell-openings to when the moon was directly overhead or underfoot in Chicago.

Exactly how this applies to freshwater fish, I don't think anybody knows. But many species do time their spawning around full moons, and I don't think that's just because moonlight makes for a romantic ambiance.