When you think of fisherman’s tales, you tend to imagine someone settled in the local hostelry with their arms outstretched recalling the ‘Onethatgotaway’. The Onethatgotaway is a very rare fish, incredibly large and only ever seen by the angler who is recounting the tale whilst occasioning disbelieving mirth amongst their friends.
Now it seems the Onethatgotaway, is soon to become an endangered species due to some research by Mark Vinson and Ted Angrandi from the US Environment Protection Agency. According to Mark and Ted, there is a correlation between the phase of the moon and the willingness of Muskellunge (a very large member of the Pike family) to take bait. By comparing records of Muskellunge catches with the phase of the moon, they discovered that fishermen are 5% more likely to catch a fish when the moon is either full or new. Furthermore, this is most noticeable when the fish are larger, at higher latitudes and during midsummer. No-one is entirely sure why the fish feed more veraciously according to the moon, although many anglers have suspected this to be the case for years. Mark said;
“Our findings give statistical support to what many anglers have believed for a long time, that the moon matters - we are not sure exactly why, but it matters”.
Muskellunge have a reputation for being difficult fish to catch, yet thanks to Mark and Ted’s research, Muskellunge fishermen will be less likely to come face to fin with the legendary Onethatgotaway!
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