# full moon and pelagics



## SUNDAY-FUNDAY (Apr 17, 2008)

plan on heading out for the Re- maiden voyage after months of work on the ride on april 10th. that is if the mother nature will cooperate. im sure with these monsoons we've been having it'll be a long run: but im dying to get back offshore. anyhoo i see we'll have a full moon; and the past trips we've done on full moons have been pretty slow. any advice on how the moon affects pelagics??? i know it stands to reason that they can feed better at night, obviously because its eaier to see. we have also backed way out away from the rig. and tried open water. any info??


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

in my experiences it seems like the nighttime tuna bite around rigs is slow during a full moon. some would say that the fish are not as dependent on the rig lights for food and move farther away from the rig at night. mid morning to lunchtime bite seems to turn on though.


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## bellafishing (Oct 1, 2007)

Alot of people swear that the pelagic bite fires off during a full moon, but the dolphin, tuna,and wahoo bite slows. I have found that if we fish during the full moon, we don't catch squat. Every time has been a skunk for pelagics. Maybe your luck will be different from ours!

Bob


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## bigone (Jan 2, 2008)

offshore + full moon =:boo


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## andyyar (Nov 4, 2007)

We tuna fished during the daytime on the last full moon, and the bite was great. We fished two weeks laterat the same place with a smaller moon and the bite was exactly the same. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about whatthe moondoes to the bite, be it night or day. I fished with a captain in Venice a few weeks ago who swears that the full moon triggers to wahoo bite over there, and I've heard others say that the full moon shuts down the wahoo bite down, so who knows. I'll defer to people with more knowledge, and better fishing logs, butI cant remember the last time I got hungry and stopped to check what the moon was doing beforeI went in search of a meal, and on some level I would like to believe that pelagics are even more primitive eaters than I am. Moon be damned; trying to find fish and put a bait in front of them is better than working.

I do look forward to hearing what others have to say about moon cycles and the NGOM. Everyone in the Carribean seems to be a moonatic, and I for one would be interested to know if and why moon cycles may have a greater impact on their fishery than ours.


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## SUNDAY-FUNDAY (Apr 17, 2008)

ive also heard from numerous venice captains that the wahoo bite is best around a full moon..... it just seems everytime we go and you can run at night from the tower and see 2 miles, we dont catch $hit...... but we are normally fishing the rigs at night for tuna..... we might try and get a lil more sleep and fish more during the daylight hours. anyway, it will be great to just get outta cell phone range for awhile.


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## Capt. Delynn (Oct 4, 2007)

I call it the full moon effect. If you catch them, itsbecause of the full moon. If you don't catch them, its because of the full moon. I know some top notch captains, half love the full moon, half hate it. I've had some of my best and worst catches on the full moon. I think if you get a chance to go fishing, then go. But, I do love the full moon for sword fishing. Some do some don't!! Just my 2 cents.


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## Joey_d133 (Feb 16, 2009)

What are you referring to as pelagics? Cuz im perrrty positive tuna, dolphin, and wahoo are pelagic fish along with mr. stickman.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

> *Joey_d133 (3/31/2009)*What are you referring to as pelagics? Cuz im perrrty positive tuna, dolphin, and wahoo are pelagic fish along with mr. stickman.



tuna, dolphin, mackerels, billfish, wahoo, sharks, etc. etc. etc. pelagic literally means open water. usually highly migratory fish.

basically non-bottom fish.


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## SUNDAY-FUNDAY (Apr 17, 2008)

pelagic is defined by webster as an open ocean fish..... in my opinion in our area i'd call a pelagic anything that 99% of the time resides out past the continental shelf. billfish, tuna, wahoo, dolphin, etc im not sure i'd call a mackeral pelagic?? but they've been having to weed thru thousands to get any yellows out of venice right now, and where they are fishing is over the shelf. so i guess im contradicting myself.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

mackerels are pelagics. ask karon (marine biologist) for confirmation


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## SuperSpook (Oct 1, 2007)

Dont forget epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

yup. gotta love wikipedia


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## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

Fish when you can. But I try to avoid the full moon in the Gulf and everywhere else I go. I've had trouble on the full and right behind the full offshore and bottomfishing. Yes, St. Thomas and Venezuela live and die by the moon, but Idon't think the Bahamas or Hawaii consider the moon. The guy I fish with in Guatemala doesn't think the moonaffects the sailfish bite but slows the marlin bite. Go figure. There's a reason why lunatic means crazy..........my heart sinks everytime a fishing day falls on the full or right behind the moon, but I go and make the best of it......


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