In reply to Post #14
Quote: A big weather front could increase pressure by 30 millibars, which is approx. 0.0296 atm. What's more realistic (my guess, not fact!) is that with moody weather comes lower light, which may make carp more likely to feed as those conditions are less conducive to being preyed upon by predators
It's just the conditions that tend to come with pressure systems that do it imo. That big weather front you mention (winds and rain) brings with it oxygenation which leads to feeding. Especially after a period of high pressure which tends to bring calm/hot/humid conditions.
If you get big winds/rain under high pressure conditions you'll still see them having it.
That said, who knows how they experience the effects of atmospheric pressure? I have seen carp show up on the end of a new wind before it's even arrived plenty of times so they clearly sense things that we do not.
Ref moon phases. I do buy it (not necessarily a change to catchability, but defo a change in behaviour), and that's based on what I see during both the new and full moons. Nine times out of 10 you can literally see the increase in activity imo. I don't have the luxury of being able to plan my limited bank time around the moon phases but I'll always keep one eye on the calendar.
A carp I chased around for a few years only came out once a year, on the same moon (harvest moon), 4 years on the trot. Now I won't put my neck on the line and say it was defo the moon phase, but there was defo something about that short period that meant that carp was coming out.
Quote: A big weather front could increase pressure by 30 millibars, which is approx. 0.0296 atm. What's more realistic (my guess, not fact!) is that with moody weather comes lower light, which may make carp more likely to feed as those conditions are less conducive to being preyed upon by predators
It's just the conditions that tend to come with pressure systems that do it imo. That big weather front you mention (winds and rain) brings with it oxygenation which leads to feeding. Especially after a period of high pressure which tends to bring calm/hot/humid conditions.
If you get big winds/rain under high pressure conditions you'll still see them having it.
That said, who knows how they experience the effects of atmospheric pressure? I have seen carp show up on the end of a new wind before it's even arrived plenty of times so they clearly sense things that we do not.
Ref moon phases. I do buy it (not necessarily a change to catchability, but defo a change in behaviour), and that's based on what I see during both the new and full moons. Nine times out of 10 you can literally see the increase in activity imo. I don't have the luxury of being able to plan my limited bank time around the moon phases but I'll always keep one eye on the calendar.
A carp I chased around for a few years only came out once a year, on the same moon (harvest moon), 4 years on the trot. Now I won't put my neck on the line and say it was defo the moon phase, but there was defo something about that short period that meant that carp was coming out.
In reply to Post #1
I had a long lay off from fishing because of work but when I got back into it I had access to a little farm pond with some good fish. Like many I can only go when I have time so never deliberately coincided any of my trips with moon phases and that's still the case. The fishing wasn't difficult but I noticed if I did happen to be there on a full moon I never caught and that went on for a few years before I finally had one on a very bright full moonso I'm definitely not sold on the full moon thing for big fish.
I had a long lay off from fishing because of work but when I got back into it I had access to a little farm pond with some good fish. Like many I can only go when I have time so never deliberately coincided any of my trips with moon phases and that's still the case. The fishing wasn't difficult but I noticed if I did happen to be there on a full moon I never caught and that went on for a few years before I finally had one on a very bright full moonso I'm definitely not sold on the full moon thing for big fish.
As a weekend day angler I go back to Jim gibbinsons writing - I go when the waters wobbly, meaning it it ain’t frozen and he panned to go - he went.
I find it the most pointless of theories in my own personal fishing - air pressure I think we can make better choices at the lake, as with weather and wind speeds but moon phases - just don’t work for me and reminded me of my commuter days when everyone said get the train line app - my trains ran every 20 mins, so knowing I was gonna miss one by 5 mins or knowing I had a 20 min wait was actually useless information to me. I don’t want to run off 2 mins early or stay another 10 - I just want to do what I do. It’s not that I don’t believe in moon phases or other things it’s just that I can’t really optimise any learnings without filling my head it’s more confidence sapping stuff.
Fishing when the waters wobbly sounds good to me
I find it the most pointless of theories in my own personal fishing - air pressure I think we can make better choices at the lake, as with weather and wind speeds but moon phases - just don’t work for me and reminded me of my commuter days when everyone said get the train line app - my trains ran every 20 mins, so knowing I was gonna miss one by 5 mins or knowing I had a 20 min wait was actually useless information to me. I don’t want to run off 2 mins early or stay another 10 - I just want to do what I do. It’s not that I don’t believe in moon phases or other things it’s just that I can’t really optimise any learnings without filling my head it’s more confidence sapping stuff.
Fishing when the waters wobbly sounds good to me
In reply to Post #15
😂😂
😂😂
In reply to Post #18
I always interpreted Jim’s “go when the water’s wobbly” as meaning it’s best to fish when there is wind and waves, ie not when it’s flat calm, rather than referring to going when it’s not frozen with a lid on it lol 😂
I always interpreted Jim’s “go when the water’s wobbly” as meaning it’s best to fish when there is wind and waves, ie not when it’s flat calm, rather than referring to going when it’s not frozen with a lid on it lol 😂
In the very early days of my Carp fishing I used to fish a water that was good for runs, lots of runs, give it a full clear moon and you'd be lucky to get a bite, so that always stuck in my mind. Over the years I've not found them kind, in France I found Grass Carp to bite when others wouldn't. Guess it's just ingrained in my head now.
On a U.K water in the depths of winter with a full moon & frost, lit up like daylight, I had Chub after Chub, but no Carp, the next day with a bit of sun numerous Carp...hmm
Just grateful for the bites.
On a U.K water in the depths of winter with a full moon & frost, lit up like daylight, I had Chub after Chub, but no Carp, the next day with a bit of sun numerous Carp...hmm
Just grateful for the bites.
Go fishing when you can go fishing, lots of us don't need much of an excuse to knock it on the head. In the past I've been as guilty as anyone to find an excuse not to go. Nowadays I'm disabled with not as many days ahead of me as behind me and I intend to get out whenever I can. I've caught nice fish on full moons but just as many in dark nights. With a bait in the water you always have a chance sat Infront of the Tele no chance.
In reply to Post #22
Hear hear. On one of my syndicates, people will hear through the grapevine and group chats that "it's not fishing very well" and stay home. That is exactly when I want to go fishing. I might be there when it inevitably does begin fishing well and it means less pressure. Not to mention there's a good chance it's total waffle. Strange to me that people stay home because of that, but perhaps they're looking for an excuse to not feel bad.
As for weather conditions, I regularly check the weather... so I know what to expect and what to pack. I am probably more confident if the weather is moody for the reasons I described in the earlier post, but I don't let that decide if I'm going. As you say, you definitely won't catch sat in front of the telly...
Hear hear. On one of my syndicates, people will hear through the grapevine and group chats that "it's not fishing very well" and stay home. That is exactly when I want to go fishing. I might be there when it inevitably does begin fishing well and it means less pressure. Not to mention there's a good chance it's total waffle. Strange to me that people stay home because of that, but perhaps they're looking for an excuse to not feel bad.
As for weather conditions, I regularly check the weather... so I know what to expect and what to pack. I am probably more confident if the weather is moody for the reasons I described in the earlier post, but I don't let that decide if I'm going. As you say, you definitely won't catch sat in front of the telly...
Over 50 years ago (when I was very keen) I did some "research work" to get some "Statistics" using all the fishing papers I could get my hands on, mainly angling times and anglers mail etc and wrote down all the carp captures in a book and made a list of any size, and "big ones" etc along with the dates or as near as I could get it.
Then checked the dates of the captures with Moon phases and after a good few months and I kept adding more captures to the results, one thing was notable, it did not make any difference what the Moon phase was, or if the bigger fish came out at a particular phase of the Moon, carp were caught just as regualry on any day. No specific Moon phase was any better than the other
Air pressure did make a difference though, but, with doing the captures of the whole country It was too much hard work to do, air pressure could be low in the North and higher in the South or vice versa, so basically, I had to just look for captures that was pretty local about 50 miles away.
Years later. when "Carp Talk" was on the go, it made life easier so I repeated the exercise, and I got the same results, the evidence showed, it made no difference what the Moon Phase was.
I have had a pond in the garden with some carp in for over 25 years which I raised from spawn from one of the lakes I fish, I can never fathom their behavour out, they do the strangest things and go against the logic of what we think they should be doing.
Then checked the dates of the captures with Moon phases and after a good few months and I kept adding more captures to the results, one thing was notable, it did not make any difference what the Moon phase was, or if the bigger fish came out at a particular phase of the Moon, carp were caught just as regualry on any day. No specific Moon phase was any better than the other
Air pressure did make a difference though, but, with doing the captures of the whole country It was too much hard work to do, air pressure could be low in the North and higher in the South or vice versa, so basically, I had to just look for captures that was pretty local about 50 miles away.
Years later. when "Carp Talk" was on the go, it made life easier so I repeated the exercise, and I got the same results, the evidence showed, it made no difference what the Moon Phase was.
I have had a pond in the garden with some carp in for over 25 years which I raised from spawn from one of the lakes I fish, I can never fathom their behavour out, they do the strangest things and go against the logic of what we think they should be doing.
In reply to Post #20
Interesting, I always thought he just meant go when you can and the water isn't frozen. Back then lakes were frozen way more often than nowadays.
Interesting, I always thought he just meant go when you can and the water isn't frozen. Back then lakes were frozen way more often than nowadays.
In reply to Post #24
That's interesting Zack because Simon Crow always said that he used data from Carp Talk and it was obvious the full moon had a positive effect. Go figure.....
That's interesting Zack because Simon Crow always said that he used data from Carp Talk and it was obvious the full moon had a positive effect. Go figure.....
In reply to Post #26
Not from personal experience but from what I've read it's a new moon rather than a full moon that makes a difference
Not from personal experience but from what I've read it's a new moon rather than a full moon that makes a difference
In reply to Post #26
I can recall that, long time ago, but what makes it interesting is, despite that, he has a video on Youtube discussing it, and he claims he is not sure the Moon does affect carp captures, this video was released in November 2025...Carp Talk stopped being printed in 2018. Plenty of time to change your mind!
And because he caught his big English "49" and it coincided with a "New Moon" he thinks their is more to it now. But the question to ask is, when did other anglers catch it, did those captures coincide with a "New Moon". if not, it puts the theory of a single catch out of the window. And what about all the other big ones in the lake, when was they caught.
If you Google it, you will find: -
"Catch Data: Large-scale analysis of carp capture data (such as UK studies evaluating thousands of fish over 30lb) shows an even, random distribution across all four moon quarters with no peak productivity tied strictly to a new or full moon"
Which is basically what I found.
I can recall that, long time ago, but what makes it interesting is, despite that, he has a video on Youtube discussing it, and he claims he is not sure the Moon does affect carp captures, this video was released in November 2025...Carp Talk stopped being printed in 2018. Plenty of time to change your mind!
And because he caught his big English "49" and it coincided with a "New Moon" he thinks their is more to it now. But the question to ask is, when did other anglers catch it, did those captures coincide with a "New Moon". if not, it puts the theory of a single catch out of the window. And what about all the other big ones in the lake, when was they caught.
If you Google it, you will find: -
"Catch Data: Large-scale analysis of carp capture data (such as UK studies evaluating thousands of fish over 30lb) shows an even, random distribution across all four moon quarters with no peak productivity tied strictly to a new or full moon"
Which is basically what I found.
I've personally found on 1 lake out of everywhere I fished there was a noticeable difference and that was the new moon period.
I think the whole big moon big common is just more people go fishing so more carp will be caught and obviously big carp
I think the whole big moon big common is just more people go fishing so more carp will be caught and obviously big carp