Moon Phases and Moonrise for Fishing in WA

Ask ten WA anglers about the moon and you’ll get eleven theories, at least two involving the bloke’s grandfather and a tide book from 1974. The moon does influence fishing — but not in the mystical, dial-it-in way the campfire crowd would have you believe. It works through tides, light and timing, and once you understand those three levers you can read a moon calendar instead of worshipping it.

This is the broad explainer: what moon phase actually does, what moonrise and moonset mean for a session, and how it plays out from the Perth metro to the big tides of the north.

Moon Phase: It’s About Tides First

The moon’s main influence on fishing is gravitational — it moves the ocean. The phase tells you where the sun and moon sit relative to each other, which sets the size of the tide.

• New moon and full moon — sun and moon pull in line, stacking their gravity. You get spring tides: the biggest highs, the lowest lows, the most water moving in between.
• First and last quarter — sun and moon pull at right angles, partly cancelling out. You get neap tides: smaller swings, gentler flow.

More tidal movement means more bait shifted around, more current through pinch points, and more reason for predators to feed. That’s the real mechanism behind “the fishing’s better on the new moon” — it’s the spring tide doing the work, not lunar magic. Around the quarters, the slower neaps suit estuary and flats species that don’t like a raging run.

New Moon vs Full Moon: The Light Trade-Off

Both new and full bring spring tides, so the water-movement argument is roughly a wash between them. The difference that actually matters is light at night.

A new moon means genuinely dark nights. That favours hunters that rely on stealth and vibration over eyesight — mulloway are the textbook example, working shallow gutters and structure when bait can’t see them coming. A dark run of new-moon nights is the classic jewie window for good reason.

A full moon floods the water with light. Shallow, light-shy fish often pull back deeper or get cagey, and a bright night can make for slow surf sessions. But that same light helps fish that ambush silhouetted bait from below, so deeper marks and drop-offs can fire. Full moon isn’t a write-off — it’s a reason to change spot or depth. The honest answer to “new or full?” is to pick the phase that suits how you fish, then fish a spot that plays to the light.

Where Daily Timing Comes In

Phase sets the size of the tide for the week, but the better bite windows still come down to what the moon is doing on the actual day you fish. The position of the moon as it rises, sets and passes overhead drifts later by roughly 50 minutes every day, so a timing you looked up last week is no use this week — you have to read it fresh each session.

This is the territory of solunar theory, and rather than re-tread the mechanics here, the solunar fishing times piece lays out the daily feeding windows in full and how much weight to give them. The short version for a phase-led plan: those windows are worth something only when they overlap a moving tide at dawn or dusk, and worth nothing when they land at midday in a flat calm.

See today’s windows on the BiteCompass solunar view, shown next to the tides so the overlaps are obvious at a glance.

The Big WA Caveat: North vs Metro

Here’s where most moon advice falls over — it assumes everyone fishes the same coast. WA’s tides vary wildly by latitude, which completely changes how much the moon matters.

In the Perth metro, the tide range is tiny — often 40 to 60cm on a mixed day, occasionally less. The moon is still moving the water, but it’s a small event. Wind shoves more water around the metro coast than the moon does, and a 20-knot sou-wester reorganises a beach faster than any spring tide. Down here the moon is one lever among several, and a smaller one than the forums claim.

Head north and it’s a different planet. Around Broome the tide can swing eight metres or more, and Eighty Mile Beach sees some of the biggest tides in the southern hemisphere. Up there the spring-tide difference between a new moon and a quarter moon is the difference between raging current and near-still water — vast flats flooding and draining, bait flushed through creek mouths, predators timed to the run. Moon phase up north isn’t superstition; it’s logistics.

Mandurah and the estuaries sit in between — small ocean tides, but the estuary fish key off whatever movement there is, so a spring run can matter more there than the bare numbers suggest.

How to Plan a Session Around the Moon

The workflow is simple:

1. Check the phase for tide size. Want big water movement? Fish near new or full for the springs. Want gentle flow for flats or estuary work? Aim for the quarters and neaps.
2. Match light to your target. Dark new-moon nights for mulloway and other light-shy shallow hunters; bright full-moon nights pushed deeper, or worked at the dawn and dusk edges. Roaming surf predators like tailor often fire at the low-light changeovers regardless of phase.
3. Find the daily window. Look up moonrise, moonset and the major transit times, then see which overlaps a tide change near dawn or dusk. That overlap is your session.
4. Sanity-check the conditions. A perfect moon stack means nothing in a howling onshore or dirty post-storm water. Wind, swell and bait presence still win on the day.

Species respond differently, too — pink snapper and Australian herring feed to their own rhythms, and no phase overrides not having bait around. Anglers will keep arguing about the moon long after the fish stop caring — but none of it beats a moving tide at dawn with bait in the water and the wind behind you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best moon phase for fishing?
There’s no single best phase. New and full moons produce the biggest tides, which means the most water movement and the most active bait — useful where tides are large. The quarter moons give smaller, gentler tides that some species prefer. In practice the strongest bite windows cluster around moonrise, moonset and the moon’s overhead and underfoot transits, on any phase, when they line up with a moving tide and low light.

Do fish bite more on a full moon?
Sometimes, but not always for the reasons people think. A full moon brings a big spring tide and strong night-time light. The bigger tide can switch fish on; the bright light can put shallow, light-shy species off and push them deeper. Some anglers find night fishing slower on a bright full moon and the following dawn quieter because fish fed overnight. It depends far more on the species and the tide than on the phase alone.

What is moonrise and why does it matter for fishing?
Moonrise is the time the moon climbs above your horizon, and moonset is when it drops below it — both shift by roughly 50 minutes each day. They flag short daily windows where fish often feed a little harder, which is the basis of solunar timing. The catch is they only earn their keep when they line up with a tide change at dawn or dusk; on their own they’re a weak signal.

Is new moon or full moon better for fishing?
Both bring spring tides and strong water movement, so both can fish well. The practical difference is light. New moon means dark nights, which suit light-shy hunters like mulloway working the shallows. Full moon means bright nights, which can push those fish deeper but help species that hunt silhouetted bait. Choose your spot and target to suit the phase rather than writing either off.

Does the moon affect fishing in Perth?
Less than it does up north. Perth’s tide range is small — often only 40 to 60cm on a mixed day — so the moon’s tidal effect is modest and easily outweighed by wind, swell and light. In the Kimberley, where tides can swing eight to ten metres, the moon’s grip on the water is enormous and phase matters far more. Treat the moon as one input among several in the metro, and a major driver in the north.

The moon is worth reading, not worshipping. Line up phase, light and a moving tide, then check wind and swell on BiteCompass before you commit. For one fish in depth, the best moon phase for mulloway in WA goes deeper, and the solunar fishing times piece breaks down the majors and minors.