The Moon’s Effect on Bass

Before the invention of clocks humans used a much different and natural way of telling time. The positions of the sun and the moon have been relied upon for centuries and it is the only way that the animal world possesses in order to determine time of day. There are two ways you can track time with the sun and the moon. The first is by observing the sun and the moon at its placement in the sky. By simply using sight we can determine what time it is, this is an obvious a well known method. The second way used to track time is by gravity and the effect it has on our tides. The moon is much closer to the earth than the sun and therefore has a much greater gravitational influence on our planet. We see this influence by watching the tides which can sometimes vary as much as 50 feet in some of the world’s bays.

Even though both the sun and the moon play a part in the gravitational pull, it is primarily the moon and its position in the sky that has influence over the tides. When the moon is directly above in the sky, which is when we see high tide occur. Six hours and twelve minutes after high tide we experience low tide and when the moon is on the horizon. We see they cycle repeat every twelve hours as the moon moves around the earth. The tides have always had a great effect on the oceans animals and influenced how they live in their environment. Black bass live in waters not influenced by the tides. However, since bass have evolved from ocean fish, there is evidence that suggests that they still have the ability to feel the effects of gravity and the movement of the tides, and their behavior reflects that.

Doug Hannon has been studying black bass for the past 25 years. He uses scientific principles and has become known in bass fishing circles as a Professor of Bass. Hannon studies the bass and their behavior in a variety of ways. By fishing for them daily and keeping detailed accounts of each trip which provide him with records of when they are most actively biting. He also studies their behavior in a controlled environment where he keeps them in an aquarium, as well as in their natural habitat.

In a study conducted by Hannon, he attempted to prove the correlation between the moon's position to the bass bite. For ten years he plotted the moon's position against the success of his fishing. He found that the fishing was two and a half times better when the moon was directly above or directly below. When it was located at the horizon it was one and a half times better than average. Yet when the moon was located an hour and half away from either of the horizons or above and below, the fishing was half the average.

Hannon also notes that late spring and summer are when the moon's phase is in full effect. Bass tend to feed in the middle of the day from late fall until spawn the following year. This is regardless of the moon's cycle or position and seem to be more influenced by the amount of light than by the phase of the moon. The condition is reversed however and they feed heavily on the dark of the moon and on the full moon from spawn until fall.

It is important to point out that the placement and phase of the moon and the weather conditions can never keep an experienced fisherman from catching a fish. When a bass is presented with a lure within a foot of its nose, nice times out of ten it will bite. However, the weather and the moon can have a strong effect on where the bass will be and how active they will be.