Carp Fishing - Moon Phases and Another Blank

It hasn’t escaped my notice that quite a few carp fishing forums have had moon phase discussions on them of late. Some people swear that the phases of the moon do effect carp fishing and some don’t. I’ve kept track of my own carp captures in relation to moon phases for many years and if I’m honest, my own results are inconclusive.
Writing down and summarising my own results against moon phases would be quite a large job and one I don’t have the time to do at the moment, the point of me bringing the subject up on my blog is to publish a list of moon phase peaks for 2008. Below is a list of all peak moon days in 2008, every one of them is a peak day, even the full moon days that a lot of people seem to rubbish.

Peak Moon Days for Carp Fishing in 2008


Whilst it’s not as accurate as charting moon rise, high point and setting times, checking your results past and present against these peak days might give you a very rough idea if the theory is working for you. Obviously you would expect to see slightly more captures recorded on peak days. To really check your captures thoroughly against the moon, you should visit the moonstrike website and delve much deeper into the specific times your carp have been caught. Remember, the moon rises and sets every single day so even a capture made on a poor day may coincide with the moon either rising, setting or reaching its high point, the only way to find out for sure is to check your capture times thoroughly and see if the moon phase theory works for you.

It’s funny how things change so quickly, last week I finally got access back to most of my waters that had been closed to me due to not doing work parties. After only one blank session I somehow managed to aggravate an old lower back injury which meant sleeping on a bedchair was out of the question for a week or two. Oh the best laid plans!, this left me a bit stuck for a choice of venue this week and after much deliberating I decided to spend a few hours back at the runs water I’ve been fishing during May.

I arrived about 1pm in the afternoon and after leaving the gear in the car I had a slow walk around the lake to see if I could spot some carp. I didn’t have to look very hard, I found them in the shallows, some were cruising round on the surface whist others were fizzing away happily feeding on natural food. I didn’t bother walking any further, I headed straight back to the car to collect my fishing gear then slowly began setting up on the same peg I’d moved into last time.

I figured I’d only get one chance to get a bait amongst these fish, I sat and watched them for 10-15 minutes before deciding were to cast, I aimed for a spot right in the middle of the fish, they were bubbling away in this area so even if they disappeared the natural food might see them return. I was confident of at least catching one fish so I dropped my rig and pva mesh bag right on the money and slackened off my line. A couple of fish swirled as the lead weight hit the water and previous experience of this happening suggested that it might be bad news.

I thought long and hard about the second rod and I finally decided to place it in an area I suspected they may move too if spooked. Again just the rig and a small pva mesh bag were all I used, my odyssey xxx baits weren’t round either, just a couple of barrels in the mesh bag and a barrel on the hair rig.

I sat back to watch things unfold, if things had gone well I would have expected a run pretty quickly but it never came, in fact half an hour after casting in most of the fish had left the swim and gone to another area. Funnily enough the carp passed by my second rod but where I’d expected them to possibly hold up, they carried on moving. Odd fish did stay around the shallows so I didn’t move swims when I probably should have. For whatever reason, the carp definitely weren’t up for being caught this time round and after watching them closely and moving my baits around to try and get a chance I finally called it a day at 8pm.

I don’t mind blanking, it comes with the territory when you fish for carp but I really thought I’d have one when I saw all those fish milling around. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to do an overnighter in search of some bigger fish again, in the meantime it’s gentle back exercises for me!.

Tight Lines
Mark.