Fishing and The Phases Of The Moon

Many anglers overlook the phases of the moon and the way that these phases affect the behavior of the fish. It's free and easy to pay a little bit of attention to the phases of the moon and then use this information to your advantage. In this article I'm going to discuss a little about this subject, so you have a better understanding of how you can use the moon to your advantage when it comes to fishing.

Understanding how fish adapt to changes in their environment allows an angler to better predict a fishes' movement and feeding. Finding out when a fish is feeding is what we're interested in, because that's when you have the best chance of catching said fish. You may know that almost all saltwater fishermen check the tides before they head out fishing. And it's a great strategy because the tides do impact fishing, especially saltwater fishing. You do realize what causes the tides to change, don't you? That's right, the moon. The gravitational pull of the moon not only impacts the changing tides but is also pushing against some part of the earth at all times. Since water is more easily moved than the ground, water is lifted up towards the moon causing the tides to change. How high the high tide will rise, and how low the low tide may go is largely determined by the position of the moon.

The actual period of this entire cycle is 29.5 days. The cause of the phases below relate to the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The problem with many of the moon phase charts, which can be found in any hunting and fishing magazine, is the fact that they overcomplicate all of this stuff and make you feel as if you have to have an engineering degree from Harvard to use them! Most anglers rarely find any consistent correlation to their success in these magazines. I'm going to show you how simple all of this information can really be, once you understand it.

The 2 phases of the moon that we as anglers really need to concern ourselves with is the New Moon and the Full Moon. The New Moon phase is when the moon isn't actually visible, and the Full Moon is well a full moon (when the moon is entirely visible). The most important times are the three to four day period that coincides with either the Full or New Moon. That is, the three to four day period around which these two phases of the Moon occur. These are the 2 times during the month when the fish will be most active.

This article gives you a very basic understanding of the phases of the moon and how those phases affect fishing, although it's definitely enough information to get you started. Not only started, but catching more fish as well. Simply focusing your fishing efforts on the three or four days around which either a full or new moon occur will have a dramatic effect on your catch rate.