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Full Moon Full
 Keith Lusher
There are tons of theories that fishermen have when it comes to moon phases. One of the most prevalent theory is the one that claims it isn’t good to fish after a full moon. The theory being that a full moon lights up the water all night so the fish are full by morning time. While the theory makes sense I’ve never really seen it pan out in reality in any of my fishing trips.
I recently made a fishing trip with Tim Bye of Folsom where we had a chance to put the theory to the test. We were fishing the Tchefuncte River and launched at the 4th St. launch near St. Pauls High School in Covington. Tim started with a warning “These fish might not be feeding right now due to the full moon last night.” I of course rolled my eyes and thought to myself “let’s just start fishing and everything will work out.” As we pulled up to the first spot just south of Interstate 12, Tim threw down the trolling motor and eased into a drop off of 8 feet that contained a submerged tree. I’ve been fishing with Tim before and knew what to look for on his electronics. Bye uses Panoptix LivesScope made by Garmin which makes it easy to find fish and even watch them bite the lure underneath the water. 
He pointed out a school of sac-a-lait hovering along the log. He then took put his 9-foot jigging pole made by Tangi Fishing Rods and lowered down the lure. Tim was using a blue and chartreuse tube Scale Head tub jig. It was the same as every trip I’ve made with Tim; I watched the jig sink and as usual the sac-a-lait looked up at the lure and approached. Then something happened that I’ve never seen before. the fish turned away and went back to the school. Bye tried again. He lowered the jig, got the attention of another crappie, then came up empty as the fish rejected the jig.
A crappie closes on on Tim's jig
It was about this time that the full moon theory started to be a reality. We moved to other spots and the same thing happened. Total rejection from the sac-a-lait. The full moon theory lost the theory title and was becoming fact.
 Bye catches the first of many sac-a-lait after the day wore on
Tim recommended we switch our game plan over to a mid-day trip which would give the fish time to work up an appetite from feeding overnight. Around 10:00 a.m. we stopped at a spot where we spotted fish on sonar earlier and once again the fish were there. Bye lowered his jig and a crappie turned his head up and approached. It was the moment of truth. Was the fish going to commit or turn back. We both looked into the monitor and the fish moved closer to the lure and swallowed the jig. Tim set the hook and reeled in a 10-inch sac-a-lait. In that one spot we went from 10 fish in the box to 35. It turned out to be a successful trip after all but more importantly I had first hand evidence that the full moon theory did have an affect on the fish that morning.
A stringer of fish is the pay-off for having patience
Tournament Results Twenty three (23) teams showed up to fish the second 2021 Liar's and Lunker's Fall / Winter Series tournament on the East Pearl River. The West Pearl was falling, the tide was falling and the temperature was falling. The only thing that didn't fall was the weights. Brandon Craft and Jason Lee took the win with 15.52 pounds of bass. They also had the days biggest bass which was 4.59 pounds. Second place went to the father and son team of Phil and Morgan Schutte with 15.36 pounds. Steve Hadley and Dwain Crumby took third place with 14.05 pounds. The Double Nickel bass club gathered at the East Pearl River. 22 anglers fished a falling tide on a partly cloudy day. In the end it was Ralph Dunn who came out on top with a 3-fish bag that weighed 5.96 pounds. Tommy Watkins finished in second place with 3 fish weighing 5.46 pounds. In third place was Mickey Bullard who weighed in 3 fish at 5.25 pounds. William Landrieu won the big bass division with a bass weighing 2.60 pounds |
 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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