So, Do the Moon Phases Affect Bass Fishing?

Photo by Buddy Mays

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The short answer to that question probably is that it depends on whom you're talking to. However, it's likely that where people are fishing and what lures they are using also play a part.

It's a proven fact that our West Neck tournament stats from Saturday, June 26, were down dramatically--two days past the full moon on June 24. The same, however, could not be said for the two weekend tournaments at Bob's. Their stats fell into line with most of their other events.

While researching this subject matter on the Internet, I came across a fella who said he has experimented with the solunar theory, read all the books by the late Doug Hannon (popularly known as the Bass Professor), and followed moonrises and moonsets. With the exception of moonrise and moonset, where some patterns seemed to emerge, he never was able to hammer out any concrete lunar premises.

He went on to note, though, that the most pronounced correlation he discovered was negative.

"During full moon periods, daytime bass fishing tended to be poor," he said, "almost as bad as a post cold-front period.

"When I deer hunted with bow and arrow," he continued, "I noticed that full-moon nights always were followed by the worst hunting days. Deer would frolic all night in the moonlit fields and already were bedded down before legal hunting light, before I was able to get on my morning post. After setting up on my evening stand, nothing came down the mountain until after dark, when I was in my car driving home.

"In the same manner, I suspect that bass activity during a moonlit night can seriously downgrade daytime activity. Solution: During a full moon, bass fish at night," he concluded.

Another fella had this to say: "The bass always are biting somewhere. Your job is to find that somewhere. Not all bass do the same thing at the same time."

My research also turned up a piece written by avid angler, fishery biologist, and freelance writer Dr. Hal Schramm, who noted that while most anglers have an opinion about how moon phase affects bass catches, he usually discounts them, based on his many years of fishing. "With 20 million bass anglers in the U.S., every phase of the moon probably has some fans," he noted.

"To sort through this confusion," he continued, "it may help to divide fishing into day fishing and night fishing. I can more easily understand an attachment to a particular moon phase by night fishermen. Everything about fishing is more difficult at night. First and foremost, a full moon on a clear night provides sufficient light to navigate to fishing spots. Certainly, that was important 20 years ago, but now we have GPS. Nevertheless, a full moon still simplifies night fishing. Of course, none of these benefits accrue to 'dark moon' fans.

"For daytime anglers, support for the full moon or any other moon phase is less obvious. Not encumbered by the difficulty of navigating and fishing in the dark, I am more inclined to think that their favored lunar conditions are based solely on past catch rates.

"It would seem the moon, or more specifically the lunar cycle, would affect bass. The moon has a powerful effect on tides, and tides organize fish behavior. The dramatic spawning of the grunion that use the moon-influenced tides to deposit their eggs high on southern California beaches come to mind. Bass in tidal rivers position themselves at drains to gorge on the forage pulled from the marsh during falling tide. But there are no tides in inland freshwater systems. Does the moon affect bass in these vast inland acres where most bass anglers fish?

"The simple answer is that there is no direct scientific evidence to support a lunar effect on bass. Numerous studies have assessed largemouth and smallmouth bass movement. These studies have found that bass have home ranges, select certain habitats, and exhibit seasonal and even day-night changes in movement and habitat use. A few of these movement studies have looked for lunar effects and found none. But these are movement studies, and although feeding can be inferred from movement, these studies do not measure feeding behavior or angler catch rate.

"While there is no scientific evidence to support an effect of the moon on bass catch, I suggest there is strong evidence, at least for daytime fishing, that moon phase does not affect bass catch rate. Upper-tier bass tournaments fished by highly skilled bass anglers happen every week from early spring through late fall. Consistently, winning anglers catch limits of big fish. You don't need a calendar to verify that, collectively, these tournaments occur during every possible moon phase. Maybe someday some obsessed statistician will assemble all these tournament stats and relate them to moon conditions, but I can tell you that when catch rates vary little (which seems to be the case for the top-finishing tournament anglers), you are not going to find much of a relationship with a fluctuating variable like moon phase."

So it would seem we're left to consider that what happened in our tournament this last Saturday was just an anomaly, or perhaps the fishing gods deemed it necessary to take all of us down a notch or two. One thing is certain: We don't have very long to nurse our wounds, because our next event is this coming Saturday.