Thread: Bream question

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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It sounds like the fish in your lake did their business in April. That would line up to be true given your southern location in Mississippi. The further south, the earlier in the year they tend to spawn simply because of the temperature being correct.

All of that said, I do have notes going back to 2013 which is the first year I fished Lake Barkley. My crude notes show a definite connection with decent messes of shellcrackers being caught very near the April/May new moon and full moon.

This year, we caught better numbers of redear the past few days...meaning May 23rd and 24th. I thought they were finished spawning and was shocked to stumble upon a nice bed of redear that i found while walking on a dock at a local marina. The excitement of seeing big shellcracker from the bank standing a few feet away is tremendous.

It seems like they will nest when the water is between 70-80 degrees. Perhaps this is more important than the moon phase??

Like to hear Matt's input on this.
e1 - worse case, over harvest on the lake...
My observations are for Lake Perris only. Like Randy - I don't think the moon phase is the trigger for spawning and I don't believe that water temp is either. My theory is it's the length of day light that starts the spawn - after that it could be moon phases. The CNBGs will spawn more often then the other panfish - up to September.
The majority of my fishing is in the staging - or transition areas - where I find pre & post spawning fish. This year, didn't think the fish had started a spawn because of water fluctuation that severely changed water temperature. Think it was about 3 weeks ago that post spawn females started showing up and we are starting to see post spawn males in deeper water now.

Ditto on what Alphahawk said. I keep meticulous records on my sunfishing, which is about all I do except during real cold months.
NO correlation on success as per moon phase fishing on beds. And I'll fish beds in Texas from May 1 until end of August. This is in central Texas.
The population of fish on beds wanes as the summer goes on but still fishable sometimes into September.
I no longer keep records on moon phase in my journal. If the moon phase is involved it is a weak factor.

Along this line.....I saw a youtube video and a guy was bass fishing around blue gill beds. He commented that he caught big bass just outside blue bill spawning areas so he tracks the spawns closely. He claimed that blue gill spawned every 2 weeks for an 8 week period. News to me every 2 weeks?

I’ll be honest with y’all, I think that anglers have an advantage over biologists in answering this type of question. I could rattle off what I have learned in text books or what I have seen in my limited time of seriously chasing bluegill, but I think really experienced anglers can better answer behavior type questions. Anglers who consistently spend time on the water are a wealth of knowledge. I can only really speak on what I have observed around here, because I think the answer could be a little different geographically. In Arkansas we have bluegill spawn in March to September depending on the how early the water temps warm up and how late they stay warm. I agree that around here May seems to be the best month for fishing the spawn. As the summer goes on, the bedding fish seem to thin out (literally and figuratively). It also seems like the bigger ones are caught earlier in the summer. As for moon phase, I have heard the spawns peak with the full moons and new moons but I haven’t fished consistently enough during the duration of the summer to test this out myself. Ine of these years after I retire (God willing), I will do a thorough research project and report back to y’all. I only have about 15-20 years left to go. Ha ha ha!

In questions of fish behavior, I will lean on those who put the time in on the water to gain the knowledge. Books sometimes are only a good starting point.


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I do think moon phase effects fish behavior but not so much the time they spawn. For example about a month ago around the new moon i went two consecutive days after work and caught right at 300 bluegill with just a handful of redear mixed in. Never seen fish in one spot that thick. 3 days after this past full moon i went to the same spot and caught 65 shellcracker with hardly no bluegill. I think bluegill will spawn (with varying intensity)from about mid/late April till latter part of June. Redear seem to do their thing in a two to three week period and their done. This is just my observation in south ms.


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I saw large mouths , green sunfish , long ear sunfish and bluegill all on beds yesterday in a shallow creek in central Texas, I don't think they cared about the moon phase in that creek myself .I bet they bed in there all summer long and its likely just a timing factor aligned with when they feel like its time to do it .
there is likely a correlation to some degree in some spots on the moon phase contribution but to be sure it varies from water to water greatly in my opinion .
one of the things I do notice in many cases is what I saw in abundance yesterday . the real big sunfish just sat on the beds and chased away any other sunfish that came in the bed area . not a single one actually on the bed even looked at my offering and to be sure I was stealthy and even foul hooked a big bass on a bed as it ran off a sunfish that darted in from the side wanting my red worm .