joe bucher moon secrets best fishing times

Joe bucher moon secrets best fishing times full#
Joe bucher moon secrets best fishing times free#

Landsman used implanted accelerometers to track the activity of muskellunge in an Ontario river.

Joe bucher moon secrets best fishing times full#

Donabauer, using angler-reported data, found that more trophy pike in the state of Indiana were caught around the full and new moons than otherwise. The effect of the moon phase on CPUE was less than the effect of time of day, fishing pressure, and water temperature, however. Catch per unit of effort (CPUE) of pike ( Esox lucius) in a German lake was elevated during the full and new moon. Accordingly, lore has accumulated around muskellunge behavior, a central theme of which is the role of moon phases on the species' feeding activity and catchability.Īnglers' beliefs about lunar-cycle effects on game fish feeding and catchability are sometimes corroborated by scientific study. Because it grows to a large size (documented to 30 kg and 140 cm ), fights hard, and is notoriously difficult to catch, there is a mystique, even a nobility to the species. The species supports a sport fishery worth billions of dollars to the economies of the United States and Canada. The muskellunge ( Esox masquinongy) is arguably the premier non-salmonid freshwater game fish in North America. The Solunar effect is due in part to the influences of the sun and moon, which are greatest when they are aligned, as at the time of the full and new moon. Solunar tables predict days and hours of increased fish and wildlife activity−times when the likelihood of fishing and hunting success is increased. The idea that fish-feeding behavior is related to the phases of the moon was popularized, if not quite quantified, by John Alden Knight in 1936 with the publication of his “Solunar” tables.

Studies of the effects of the moon on fish behavior have shown that fish spawning –, vertical and horizontal movement, , migration, , activity, feeding, , and vulnerability to commercial, or recreational fishing – may be synchronized to lunar cycles. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The views expressed in this paper are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect U.S. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.įunding: This work was supported by the U.S.

Joe bucher moon secrets best fishing times free#

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Received: JanuAccepted: ApPublished: May 28, 2014 This effect has been attributed to variation among moon phases in lunar illumination, but our results do not support that hypothesis for angler-caught muskellunge.Ĭitation: Vinson MR, Angradi TR (2014) Muskie Lunacy: Does the Lunar Cycle Influence Angler Catch of Muskellunge ( Esox masquinongy)? PLoS ONE 9(5):Įditor: Shin Yamazaki, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States of America We argue that this variation is evidence that the effect of the lunar cycle on catch is mediated by biological factors and is not due solely to angler effort and reflects lunar synchronization in feeding. There was no difference in the lunar effect between expert and novice muskellunge anglers. The lunar effect was stronger for larger muskellunge (>102 cm) than for smaller fish, stronger in midsummer than in June or October, and stronger for fish caught at high latitudes (>48°N) than for fish caught further south. Several factors affected the amount of variation explained by the lunar cycle.

We could therefore not conclude that the lunar effect on catch was due to an effect on fish behavior alone. For Lake Vermilion there was a significant effect of the lunar cycle on angler effort.

We obtained angler effort data for Wisconsin, Mille Lacs (MN), and Lake Vermilion (MN). On some lakes and at night, the maximum relative effect was higher. Anglers fishing exclusively on the peak lunar day would, on average, catch 5% more muskellunge than anglers fishing on random days. The predicted maximum relative effect was ≈5% overall. At night, more muskellunge were caught around the full moon than the new moon. More muskellunge were caught around the full and new moon than at other times. Using periodic regression, we showed that the number caught was strongly related to the 29-day lunar cycle, and the effect was consistent across most fisheries. We analyzed angling catch records for 341,959 muskellunge ( Esox masquinongy) from North America to test for a cyclic lunar influence on the catch.