Thread: Full Moon Blues

Originally Posted by Alphahawk

I did a test I think it was two years ago on the general rules that bluegill will spawn every full moon once water temps get to low 70's all the way up to September. I tested the theory on 5 bodies of water.....Pickwick Lake....Center Hill Lake......Laurel Hill Lake......VFW Lake......and the Williamsport Lakes. I had about 40 beds marked on my sonar for each lake. I started fishing each lake about one to two weeks before the full moon and continued to fish for a week after. Some of the lakes I fished same day as Laurel Hill Lake...VFW Lake were on the way home from Pickwick Lake. The results were same on all lakes. The first spawn in May the beds were overflowing with fish. The next full moon each bed would have only 4-9 fish on it in June. I found no fish on the beds in July and August. This so called test cost me about 600 bucks in gas and a lot of miles on my vehicle too.....plus it flat wore me out. I had read so many times that they would spawn all through the summer. My results are only for those bodies of water and while I did not do the same extensive test last year it was the same on bodies of water I fish. I caught Gills all through summer but they were not on beds. I think it is different each year according to weather...water temps and so on. Many fish biologist seem to think you have a real big spawn the first time and then throughout summer less and less will spawn. So what does all that mean? Well in the end not much....except I spent a lot of money just to see for myself....LOL.

Regards

I bet they spawned in April this year as warm as it was.


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Originally Posted by tcounty

I bet they spawned in April this year as warm as it was.


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Could have...but water temps at Dale Hollow on April 19th were 64 degrees. It didn't get much warmer the next few weeks. Just this past Monday it was 68 degrees after a night time low of 48 degrees. It has warmed to 72 degrees the past few days due to sunshine.....I will just keep looking.

Regards

My first time bream fishing this season was on April 7th at Choctaw lake (ms) it's two lakes a larger 100 acre one and a smaller one or two acre one. I fish the smaller one when I'm bream fishing (less pressure) and when I went on April 7th I left with the limit (25) and I caught all my fish close to the bank. I thought they were maybe in a prespawn feeding pattern, the bite was nonstop. But I went this past Friday and the water is low and I could see beds in the exact spot I caught all my fish on April 7th. The water was high then and it always has a semi dark brown tone so I'm assuming those fish were in there spawning on April 7th I just couldn't see the beds. All were males I caught with one or two females in the mix. I've gone back 3 or 4 times since April 7th and it hasn't been fast action like that since!! I've had days that I've done good but the bite rate has been slower for sure. and if I recall correctly April 7th was a full moon

Interesting... I had a very similar experience this past weekend on Dale Hollow over a 3 day weekend (for me). I could find a bed, but that was not were the gills were. Matter fact, in several cases they were not even close to any beds that I could see. And even more weird, while it had been cooler during the week, Saturday was fairly warm and Sunday and Monday were nearly identical days. The gills of size were to be found in different places each day, except one place they showed up both Sunday and Monday. It was so extremely weird. I did find more then enough bigger then my hand size then I wanted clean so I was content, but just weird....

I should have also noted, all the ones I caught were 90% males and they were 90% wearing big time spawning colors.

Actually, April 7 was the new moon. The last 2 years here in Central Arkansas the bluegill in the old river oxbow I mainly fish have been on their beds on new moon phase instead of the full moon. We regularly catch limits 2-3 days before and after the new moon. Have not caught them bedded up yet this year but I am anxiously waiting for the new moon on June 4.

I will keep that in mind. Going to try Reelfoot Sunday.


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Thanks for your work!!!