When a Full Moon hurts, not helps!

[lizardsrule]

Well as some of you already know, the tidal issue is new to me, since moving down to Florida from Indiana. I'm learning as I go . One of the rivers me and my fishing buddy will fish, especially during these hot months, is the Tomoka River, which is very tidal. We usually will have decent luck going way up the river hunting for those bass, the farther you go the less tanic the water is. Well we went out Sunday with our usual ideal for a decent day of bassin. The river area had received some rain the last couple of days, so had a little bit of a rise to it. Coupled with the full moon raising the tide to it's highest level during the month you would think the bass are shallow feeding, wrong LOL. The problem that we ran into is that the higher tides, combined with the rain created the water to be higher than usual, and washed a lot of the debris/crap that usually never gets to the water into it, due to the extra high level. The water that is usually slightly stained, was now muddy. We realized this of course and really concentrated working our baits tight to the cover, with bigger profile baits and water movement baits. We really struggled to catch any fish, let alone bass. There are always tons of mudfish and gar willing to bite along with some bass LOL. We traveled quite a bit all day, only managing to catch 4 bass, 2 of which were keepers. The other 2 were 13". Now we also caught 3 of the 4 fish farther into the tanic water than normal due to the water clearing up. We did fish the muddy water hard, and heavy for the majority of the day, with little success. So the pattern that we expected, and tried didn't work. As a matter of fact the opposite of what we expected was better bassing, more tanic water. Now as we are fishing and trying to figure this out, my buddy said that the last time he fished this river at full moon, he had struggled to catch bass then also. But he exclusively that day hit the higher reaches of the creek. So the only thing I can think of is the full moon is not helping the fishing only hurting it, due to the nature of it being tanic and tidal. We did mange a few mudfish(bowfin for those who don't know) and a flounder(YUM), and my buddy hooked into a nice snook at the very end of the day for us around 6pm, but had it break him off. All of this while bassin LOL. Now again I'm new to this tidal stuff, but these were my observations, and reasoning behind why we had a tougher day than normal. Now any of you that have any other insights of thoughts would be welcome. But I doubt we will be hitting the river during full moon cycles anymore unless we are fishing for food instead of bass. I also believe that muddy water has less oxygen in it due to the mud taking up some of the space in the water, anyone know this for a fact, or at least reasonable knowledge?

Lizards

[flbassman]

Sounds like a good day! I believe that about mud too, not sure it's a fact. One thing to remember is that during a full moon yoou are experiencing two things in a tidal river, an influx of salt water and an unusually bright night. You can have a mighty good night with bass up a fresh tributary of a tidal creek on a spring tide, but you gotta go way up.... If you aren't interested in fishing a small creek at night, fish the main river with live crab, as the tide rushes in, it floats them out of their burrows in the mud and every fish that can stand the salt has a bonanza. BTW, around here, tannic usually refers to the staining that dying cypress leaves gives the water, and has nothing to do with the salinity. Glad to hear your having a good time now that you're here in fl.

[ironman]

Sorry I did'nt get to make it out there with you that day!!
But we had some house problem's to deal with.

[zooker]

lizzy
you heard bill dance talk about an ph meter gauge. ever wonder why?? the bass can with stand a certain amount of ph -which is the amount of salt in a set amount of fresh water.. tidal rivers are where this applies the most..bass will up and head up stream away from a high ph water.. yes at times i have caught bass and puppy drum off the same tree but salt water fish can and do travel in fresh water..bass will lose the ability to breath at a certain ph level.. this is why after a cane bass that did not out run the storm surge are found DEAD..

zooker

[bassnman30]

Where the cows standing ?

[WTL]

PH is the level of acidity in the water. I don't think it is the salt.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by bassnman30

Where the cows standing ?

Really not sure, not a lot of Cattle around there rotfl. I know why you asked, but I really have no idea, but the river was pretty dead for a sunday. Overcast skies, and rain on and off.

Lizards

[JB]

Sunday was deader than hell* here too lizards

[Captmikestarrett]

You have tough conditions for bass alright but they can be overcome. First take your hand and place it in the water pull it up and cup it in front of your mouth and nose. Breath in with mouth open and tongue slightly out. The tip of your tongie has a million salt receptors in it. The humidity from water between your fingers and action of the air moving in will trigger those receptors. You will taste salt with out drinking the water. Try this at the beach then the lake. You can quickly detect if you have a salt wedge working.

Now I have fished those conditions a thousand times and each time I find fish deep in cover as far up as the boat will go. Small ring worms and light weights will have you catching 20 plus fish. They are there but will move way back to swamps to take advantage of the extra sweet water.

Capt Mike

[JB]

that sounds like a good way to get Montezuma's revenge

[Captmikestarrett]

Originally Posted by JB

that sounds like a good way to get Montezuma's revenge

You need a full bottle of Tequela or even two for true revenge..

Trust me I know..

Capt Mike

[JB]

Mike,
I used to fish the River Rats Circuit on the ohio river, and one summer some kid cut his leg real bad while jumping in the river, and the bacteria caused a infection that damn* near killed him...visiability on the river on a good day is under 1 foot ...

[flbassman]

Last year some bacteria actually ate a woman's flesh and killed her while she was jet skiing on the ST. Johns