The Moon Rise, Drift Fishing, & a Ton of Rainbow Trout

I knew I was going to have some time on Monday afternoon to get some fall trout fishing in, so I checked what time the moon was rising on that particular day and learned that the moon rise was taking place at 2:35 in the afternoon. "Perfect", I thought to myself, as that was about the time that I expected to be on the river. I pulled up to the parking area at about 11:45 AM, put on my waders, loaded my bait bag with live worms, and headed down the hill to the river to try to catch some trout.

I was drift fishing by 12:15 and within 10 minutes had my first rainbow trout hooked. She felt like a decent trout, and once landed her I found out that she indeed was a fifteen inch beauty. I fished the same hole for another half an hour or so, catching only a little seven or so inch rainbow, and I began to work my way downstream to the next nice area. I was a bit confused as to why I hadn't received more bites, but quickly forgot about this, as I cast my live worm into the next hole. Within three seconds I felt the familiar "tap" "tap" from a hungry trout. A minute or so later I had landed a nice 10 or so inch rainbow trout

This trend continued for the next hour or so until which time as I ran out of live worms. None of the trout were huge, with the fifteen incher being the largest, but it was nonetheless a wonderful afternoon on the water. Once I ran out of live worms I figured that I'd give a spinner a shot because spinners are usually an effective drift fishing choice as well. After a half an hour or so without as much as a bite, I abandoned the spinner fishing and headed back to my vehicle.

Even though the rainbows were biting like crazy on live worms, they simply weren't interested in anything else on this particular day. Such is the case with fishing for rainbow trout, you never know what they are going to prefer most on a particular day? What I do know is after an experience such as this, there is no way that you can convince me that the moon rise and/or set doesn't have an impact on fishing. I've simply experienced too many times that it does, but the fact that it is the fall certainly doesn't hurt the trout fishing either.