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Bonefish and moonphase

2K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  arubaman 
#1 ·
Hi
This is my first post here, so let me give a small intro of myself:
My name is Patrick and live in Denmark, Copenhagen. Most of my flyfishing are done from the beach all year round. We have good fishing for seatrout, rainbowtrout(steelhead), thicklipped mullet and other species The later years I also flyfish for pikes in the brackish waters of the swedish southcoast. My latest challenge is carpfishing on the fly - it's pretty fun.;)

My mates and I also have an annual trip to the tropics for bonefish, tarpon, cuda and other species. The mainattraction on theese trips are the bonefish, but the other years we didn't pay attention to the moonphase when planning the trips. Not that we had any bad trips at all, we all caught a lot of bones, but do anybody of you have any experience/recommandations about the moonphase before planning the trip?

My google search indicates that the period up to full moon is best and we are going to be away for two weeks. My own thought about this is to hit the location (Los Roques - not a DIY trip, we got a couple of good guides to take us to the flats) at newmoon and then fish the period of two weeks until fullmoon.

Strip - strike to everyone

http://www.bananfluerne.dk - personal website (in danish - sorry! it will be translated some day):Eyecrazy:
 
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#2 ·
Hi Patrick
Its good to have you on board.
Los Roques is normally full of people from Denmark doing DIY, it's interesting that you aill be guided. May I ask who the guides are?
I know most of the guides there.

In some respects the moon phase is important in LR as it affects the hight of the tide. This is very relevant if you are fishing the pancake flats. On very high tides the water on these flats makes it too deep to fish. However the beaches are not that affected.

The time of year also affects the tides in LR, being bigger in Autumn than earlier in the year.
When are you going?

Do you know Jan Kristensen?


Pete
 
#3 ·
Hi Pete

Yes, I know Jan, actually it was him (and his excellent photos) that convinced me years ago, that LR would be a good place to go for a firsttime bonefishtrip. Later I have fished with Jan for pikes on the southswedish coast and seatrout in our home saltwaters :)

I know there are a lot of danish DIY's on LR, I also prefer to have some days on own hand were main target are jacks, cuda, blue runners, etc, et at Crasqui or some of the other islands. And you can always cast a gummi minnow close to a pelicane or just blindfishing at Gran Roque, if you need the bonefix of the day :chuckle:

My first trip to LR was a "semi DIY", with some days with guide and other days on our own. Via the posada we lived in we got introduced to Filipe (Guareque) and he guided us some fantastic days at the pancakes, Rabusqui and other flats. Since then we always book Felipe as many days as possible when we're on LR.
The last trip we also fished with a guide named Akilles - he was also good, a real pancake flat freak.
Next time I'll go to LR will be approximately in the middle of march 2008 and as you mentioned it's because the higher waters in the autumn and that might not be good for the pancakes which is my favorite place to go:cool:


Me and a nice bone from a superday at Cayo Sal with Felipe.
 
#4 ·
my understanding of moon phases is that during a full moon, sometimes the fish will feed at night because the light brings out the baitfish. consequently, the fish won't be as hungry during the day.

however, i would suggest that tides are more important than the phase of the moon. try to go so that you get two rising tides during the day. i think that makes more of a difference than full moons, especially for bonefishing.
 
#5 ·
Horses mouth...

Hi,

I'm a bonefish guide on another small caribbean island and I can say without reservation that the person you should be talking to about this is your guide. Is there any way of contacting these guides before hand (email, phone, etc)? Never been that way myself, but tide can make a great difference to the quality of the fishing.

Of course, March is typically the season of neap tides (low tides) so you'll probably be ok. However, high tides combined with contrary wind can lead to poor results as well. For example, though this is only June we are experiencing very high tides, which would normally not be too bad of a thing. We'd see a few less bones, but bigger fish. However, combined with a stronger than usual wind these tides have muddied the flats. My point is your guide would be the best person to know something like that.

As for bones feeding during full moons, that's what all the old timers say. I can only vouch for the fact that they are definitely spookier, more apathetic, and generally harder to catch during full moon periods.

Good luck down there.

Bonehead
 
#6 ·
Hi Bonehead

My previuos trips to LR has allways been i march/april were neap tides are present. I just remember a couple of days on last trip were it was very hard to find any bones on the flats (maybe I should check a moonphase calendar for that period;) ). I also remember on thoose couple of days, in the afternoon bones were entering the flats in both huge and small shools - saving the day for us :)

We also saw a lot of milkywater when the bones were "off-flat" and casting the fly into the milky water released instant strike - but it is not as fun as chasing them on the flats :cool:

So I guess it's all about timing the tides for the actual day, when the differrence between high and low tide are biggest. I'm pretty sure our guide are into theese facts. And why spending time looking for bones on flats when chances are low? I'll just tell him to go for other species until the water on the flat are optimal:cool:

I think I'll plan our trip so we hit on the islands around new moon and then two weeks ahead.

By the way, Bonehead.....on which island are you guiding? I also look for a family friendly place to go with wife and kid, were I can go some days for bonefishing or other interessting species.

Strip - strike to every1:cool:
 
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