Lately I’ve been comparing my fishing results to the predictions on Tides4fishing.com and I seem to do better on the days with more solar (sun) and lunar (moon) activity. In simple terms, the position of the sun and moon affect tides and, it’s believed, fish activity.
Opelu victim #1
Opelu victim #2
This past week I fished 4 days after the full moon and Tides4fishing had a dismal prediction. To compound matters I fished the mid-morning last half of the falling tide and the wind was blowing 10 – 14 mph. The bite was really slow and I just had three 8 inch frozen opelu stripped at the gills. This happened at 70ft and twice at 30 ft, and I suspected a big kaku. Note that both fish just missed the second hook. I suspect the didn’t hit the baits hard, and just pulled the back half away.
The wind was much lighter 3 days later, 7 days after the full moon, and the solar/lunar activity was predicted to be much higher. I was able to fish the first half of the falling tide, and the current was almost too slack. To get a better shot at landing the bait stealer, I lengthened the line between the two hooks and buried the second hook in the tail.
My left hand was getting ready to pull its teeth out of my shin!
Sure enough, there was much more bait activity spotted on the fish finder, and 3 fish were solidly hooked. Unfortunately, the culprits were big aha or needlefish. All were hooked on the back hook and the first one eventually bit through the 40lb fluoro leader, which was fine with me. The second unhooked itself, even better. I couldn’t shake the 3rd and smallest of the 3 so I had to unhook it. I kept my feet out of the water and still, the aha rammed into the side of the kayak and then hit my shin with the underneath of its jaw. Glad it didn’t jump into the yak with its mouth open.
I also missed a couple more drag pullers while trolling, and had my baits pulled off with hard jerks when I bottom fished but couldn’t hook what I hope were small uku. The two days varied in wind speed and tidal movement phase so it wasn’t an apples to apples comparison, but I believe that the fish bit much better on the second outing because the moon was smaller and I was able to fish right at the high tide drop.
How does the size of the moon affect your catches?