Does the moon hurt brownfishing?

[bassmanshawn]

i hurd the mood hurts brownfish they dont bite very good in moon??????????????????????????????????????????

[mhall]

This is usually the norm but not always. Sometimes when the crawfish are spawning and rustling around in the rocks near shore the moon can actually enhance the smallmouth bite. It's a timing thing and sometimes you just get lucky. I've had some banner nights with a moon you could have read paper by, and other moon lit nights I should have just stayed home with Momma.

[elnutsmalljaws]

The moon phase has more effect on "where" to find the smallies than does it effect the bite, IMO. I did a study on the moon phase of the top 25 smallies on record and posted it here and Smalljaw and of the ones with the dates listed, I looked up the moon phase at that time then seperated the month into 3 days before and after new moon, 3 days before and after full moon, and the 7 days in between both phases and it was almost identical as to the number of fish caught during the 4 "moon periods" of the month. Put a jig in front of a hungry smallie no matter the day of the month with the right presentation and they will eat it.

[Tim_T]

The moon phase has more effect on "where" to find the smallies than does it effect the bite, IMO. I did a study on the moon phase of the top 25 smallies on record and posted it here and Smalljaw and of the ones with the dates listed, I looked up the moon phase at that time then seperated the month into 3 days before and after new moon, 3 days before and after full moon, and the 7 days in between both phases and it was almost identical as to the number of fish caught during the 4 "moon periods" of the month. Put a jig in front of a hungry smallie no matter the day of the month with the right presentation and they will eat it.

Woody, I did an article with Stephen Headrick about night fishing for smallies on Dale and he said exactly what you said, the moon doesn't seem to affect the bite, but it did make a difference on where the fish were positioned.

[elnutsmalljaws]

Woody, I did an article with Stephen Headrick about night fishing for smallies on Dale and he said exactly what you said, the moon doesn't seem to affect the bite, but it did make a difference on where the fish were positioned.

I learned well from the GURU. The same GURU turned me on to the "SPECIAL" color spinnerbait to use around the Full Moon phase. Good to have good friends that are also The Smallmouth Guru that learned from Billy Westmoreland, THE BEST EVER!!!

Here is the analysis that I did:

I looked up the top 25 biggest Smallies ever caught on record according to BASS. They ranged from 9.0lbs in #25 to 11-15 world record of David Hayes. Billy Westmoreland has #6, #7 and #19 on the list, the only person with multiple entries and Dale Hollow has produced 6 of the top 9 of all time including the top 3. Only 7 fish over 10 have been recorded and what makes Hayes fish even more immpressive is it was caught in July and not in April or May which is prime big girl time. Of them I came to the following conclusion for I took the dates caught and looked up the moon phases back then as well. There were no months or dates on a few of the 25 but of those listed the following is what I came up with:

# of fish caught by month, Feb - 1, Mar - 5, April - 4, May-1, June-3, July-2, Sept-2, Oct-2. None in Jan, Aug, Nov or Dec.

Moon Phase - 2 caught 3 days before or after full moon, 2 caught 3 days before or after new moon, 6 caught from 4 days past full moon to 3 days prior to new moon, 7 caught from 4 days past new moon to 3 days prior to full moon.

Just my analogy but seems to me that the biggest fish will be caught in Mar/April (makes since due to the Smallies putting on eggs beginning in January so they are their biggest before they spawn) and the moon phase does not play any part in it for only 2 were caught around the new and full moon phases while 13 were caught in the middle of the full and new moon phases either coming in or going out.

When I looked this up, I really wanted to find some reasoning that said the full or new moon was MUCH better or certain months were so much better than others. I succeeded in that I will never have a shot at a 12 pounder on the fly since the FNF months have produced none in the past but did succeed in seeing that the moon phase does not play a role in it. I have caught more fish on the new moon and bigger fish on the new moon and thought I would see the same but did not. The earliest entries on the list were in 1925 and the latest was July 3, 2007. Hayes fish is over a pound bigger than second place and the 2 biggest fish Billy Westmorland recorded a 10.0625 and a 10.00 both were caught in March of 1970 and 1972. The third of Billy's fish did not have a caught date on it.

I have been chasing the 12 pounder for over 5 years now and thought I had a shot at it but now I begin to wonder if one ever gets that big anymore. When a 9 pounder puts you in the top 25 EVER and a 10 pounder puts you in the top 8 EVER and only 1 EVER has exceeded 11lbs then makes me wonder. I will still try and love all the 5's and 6's that I catch just as much but still hoping for the 12 to pull my bobber under. Don't have a clue what to do then but sure would like to find out. This is probably all useless information to most but to a Smallmouth nut like myself, sort of neat. Elnut