I’m gonna tell you something about the moon business that I’m sure will elicit a lot of comments. You can’t count on sunfish to do their business by the phases of the moon. I am aware of all the talk about bluegill spawning on the full moon. I watch it myself.....but it is certainly not written in stone....and more often than not it does not happen then. This year.....and I have tracked it other years also.....I started catching bedding shellcracker on 8 May on Nickajack Lake. I killed them up until 16 May on the beds......after that day they were done and gone. Our full moon was on the the 18th. I found beds on Center Hill Lake on the 19th but they only had small bluegill on them. The bigger fish had already spawned.....I have no clue when they did this. Last year on Nickajack Lake bedding fish were found on 8 May. I caught a lot of shellcracker....redbreast on beds up until about 15 May....the full moon last year was on 29 May.....so they weren’t even close to the full moon. I burnt up a lot of gas and put a ton of miles on my vehicle one year hitting several lakes on the week before each full moon and a week after starting in April through I think it was August to see how many times bluegill would bed.....and I hit those spots every day until the week after the full moon. Long story short....in the lakes I fished, which I think were 4.....there was one big spawn and then a very small spawn and that was it. I made a lot of 200 mile round trips one year all based on the full moon looking for spawning bluegill on Dale Hollow. On account of putting too much faith in the full moon I missed the spawn. They had spawned 2 weeks before the May full moon that year and were done. I know several TWRA fish biologist that I stay in contact with. In talking with them and doing my own research there is no scientific evidence that supports the full moon spawn. I have also read articles where bluegill gurus caught all their bedding fish in a window of 1 or 2 days either way of the full moon. So I say to them what about all the years I’ve found them on beds not even close to a full moon? I’ll continue to check and see when the full moon is each year but in my experience if you put your stock in that you more than likely could miss the big spawn.
Regards
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