First trip of the new year. Left out of MI at 4:15 AM headed to some live bottom around 48nm offshore. Made about 25 knots with a gorgeous full moon setting behind us. Reached fishing grounds to find the lower 20ft of the water column stacked. Couldn’t buy a bite. After two hours of that frustrating hell we began moving back in due to increased wind/waves. Finally found the fish in 80-85ft. Handfull of decent seabass, vermillions, no shortage on the sharks and rocked up on one grouper that I couldn’t stop. Used everything short of the kitchen sink for bait. Live cigar minnows picked up one or two nice sea bass but that was it. Maybe the full moon had something to do with the lock jaw? Or maybe thats just fishing…
Im sure this will gen a lot of talk, I never go on the day of the full moon & two to three days after! I can’t explain it but a few days before the full the fishing is great. There are exceptions but even trolling in the spring and summer on the full moon fishing has always been tough! I used to fish a lot of bass tournaments & the same thing, lots of dinks but few keepers. My son fished out of Jax this last Sat. the weather was great but all they caught were short Bsb’s, lots of them but few keepers. The price of a fishing trip is so high I save my kitchen passes for other days.
One my best days for wahoo was on the full moon in February…went 4 for 5, all over 35 lbs.
I think bottom dwellers are more prone to lockjaw on the full and new moon phases…
“Never argue with an idiot…he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”
These fish were taken under the exact same conditions a year ago. Same moon phase, same bottom, same time of year. The only difference was the water temp was 72 and the air temp was 75+.
Try moving in closer to shore… Sounds dumb but in late winter they move on in. We’ve caught all of our fish this year inside of 70’. Anywhere that you are getting all small sea bass and no big ones, you can put your money down that there will LIKELY be no nice Gags. Move around. Once you get into the BIG seabass, put a livey rod out and hoooold on! Just a trend I’ve seen. Also, the pressure began to fall a few days before that. I think they feed right in the beginning of that pressure drop, sensing the weather, and the full moon def. changes our daytime success. Who knows, they are fish, but I sure wish they could talk sometimes.
Try moving in closer to shore… Sounds dumb but in late winter they move on in. We’ve caught all of our fish this year inside of 70’. Anywhere that you are getting all small sea bass and no big ones, you can put your money down that there will LIKELY be no nice Gags. Move around. Once you get into the BIG seabass, put a livey rod out and hoooold on! Just a trend I’ve seen. Also, the pressure began to fall a few days before that. I think they feed right in the beginning of that pressure drop, sensing the weather, and the full moon def. changes our daytime success. Who knows, they are fish, but I sure wish they could talk sometimes.
