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werewolf and vampire are n’t the only wight likelier to sting during the full lunar month .
The good sentence to catch a muskie , one of the body politic ’s largest andmost savage Pisces , is during a full or Modern synodic month , novel enquiry has found . The new study provides scientific backing to decades of fishing traditional knowledge . [ 6 Wild Ways the Moon Affects Animals ]
Muskellenges are the biggest freshwater fishes in North America.
Big fish
The Esox masquinongy ( Esox masquinongy ) is the largest fresh water fish in North America and can grow as long as 6 foundation ( 1.8 meters ) and count up to 70 lbs . ( 32 kilograms ) .
Yet these " muskies , " though common in thelakes of North America , are implausibly tough to catch .
" They say it take , on average , 10,000 casts to catch a muskie , " enjoin study co - author Mark Vinson , a Pisces biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Ashland , Wisconsin , referring to disgorge a fishing line . " For a lot of people it ’s a once - in - a - lifetime catch . "
Angling wisdom is filled with ideas about how to improve the odds of capture a muskie .
" Everyone avow by their hidden proficiency , and if you go to a openhanded sporting commodity store in northern Wisconsin , there ’s a giant , extensive wall of lures that are the sure matter , " Vinson said .
Many anglers consider that muskies are likelier to burn duringthe full moonand new moonlight ( the first form of the Sun Myung Moon ) . newspaper publisher publish solar and lunar tables based on that assumption . For other Pisces species , some grounds suggest that their feeding habits wax and wane withthe moon ’s cycle , which could in round impact how easygoing the fish are to catch , Vinson enounce . But for muskies , the idea had never been tested .
Full moon effect
To see whether science endorse up fishing lore , Vinson and his confrere Theodore Angradi , a research worker at the Environmental Protection Agency in Duluth , Minnesota , rivet over information from 341,959 muskie catch between 1970 and 2013 . The data was collect by Muskies Inc. , a sportfishing and preservation organization that log the data . The researchers focused on fishermen who spent most of their time trying to overtake muskies .
Muskie catches were more likely during the full and new moons . An goosefish who only angle on the full and fresh moonlight would increase his chances of land the Pisces by 5 percent , the study find .
Manyavid anglersalready fervently believe in sportfishing during the full and new moons , so it ’s still possible that more fish are catch during those times because more allmouth are out there calculate for them .
But the lunar effect was even solid at higher latitudes , for bigger fish and for fish caught in summer solstice . Taken together , the determination evoke that anglers are n’t catch more Pisces simply because more of them are out there . Instead , muskies may actually be feeding more during the full and new moons , making them easier to catch , Vinson said .
To test that theory , Vinson and Angradi trust to look at the belly contents of muskies to measure whether they eat on more during the full and young moons .
The findings published today ( May 28 ) in the journalPLOS ONE .
