by Bruce Middleton, April 10, 2006

Plan your fishing trip using every tool at your disposal…


By Joe Bucher

Every fisherman wants to come home after a fishing trip with as mush success as possible and with as little problems as possible. This is why we plan so hard and try to account for every contingency. After all, we want to catch as many fish as possible and as large a fish as possible on these trips. Many people will agree that the best time to go fishing is anytime you can get out of the house of worksite and get on the water. I too believe this but some times are better than others.

When I first heard about the solar theory, I have to admit I was more than a bit skeptical. Sounds like old wife’s tales to me, I told myself. Yet I used the tide tables all the time for Salmon fishing and saltwater fish. Mmmmm, maybe, there could be some thing to this, so I dug a little deeper.

In 1926 John Knight collected a lot of folk lore from the south about fishing by the moon His study was named Soluner which is short stood for sol, sun and lunar. He started out with a list of 33 factors and over time eliminated them one by one except for 3. Most were dismissed as just plain folklore with no foundation. But it is well understood that tides influence saltwater species of fish and the question arose as to whether or not these same tidal effects influence fresh-water fish as well.

Studies were performed and data collected from a vast area and the same conclusions reappeared over and over. 1- the weather is the single largest influential force on a day-to-day meaning that affects fishing activity. 2- Watch the barometer, if it is steady for a long time or even rising you can expect an active response from the fish. 3- The Full and New Moon are the best times to fish especially the three days before and after such an event.

Full Moon or Dark Moon? Major and minor solunar periods? Which is best? Does not any of this moon mumbo jumbo make any real sense or does it actually work? These are legitimate questions asked by thousands of anglers each year, and they deserve concrete answers backed up by some bonafide data. Yet as much as pro anglers endorse the effectiveness of moon charts and outdoor publications of every niche' continue to print them, rarely does either source validate these solunar claims with data.

It's not hard to find a solunar table of some kind. Nearly every fishing publication today publishes some kind of monthly solunar table, moon chart, activity calendar, action graph, or other similar version. All of these tables, charts, and calendars claim to predict daily feeding activity of fish with accordance to moon and solar influences. Yet, I, like so many other anglers, rarely find any consistent correlation with most of these references.

Finally, I really made it a point to compare my fishing catches to a number of solunar charts. Once I started logging my catches on a daily basis I developed a good database. This finally put me in a position to compare hundreds of bass on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis to any printed solar/lunar reference. One of my key entries was the time of day. I figured a daily entry of fish activity would finally give me a mound of fishing data to compare with the various solar/lunar references on a given day-to-day basis. What followed convinced me that certain solar/lunar criteria simply had little or no daily influence.

Basically, I became so frustrated and disappointed with the lack of any real consistent correlation to most of the popular magazine charts today that I gave up on them completely. They simply did not work. I actually caught far more fish when they weren't supposed to bite. And when good fish and game activity did coincide, which was less than 10% of the time, it was plainly obvious that it actually had much more to do with the local weather changes than any predicted major or minor solunar period.

You would have thought that my accumulated research would have cured me from ever looking at a solunar chart again, but it did just the opposite. Why? Because I ended up discovering a certain solar/lunar influence that really did work. In fact, it worked so well that it was hard to believe at first. My daily fishing logs had surely disputed the commonly accepted correlations, but they just as surely pointed to indisputable evidence that a "certain" solar/lunar factor was really important.

Yes, I had flipped 180 degrees on the entire solar/lunar deal. I went from totally disbelieving to being totally convinced. The real secret, I discovered, to solar/lunar influences on a daily basis was nothing more than knowing when the sun and moon rose and set on a 24-hour basis. That's right, it was simply a matter of knowing, to the minute, when the sun came up and went down, and when the moon came up and went down each and every day. My fishing log revealed without question that fish were active during a 90-minute window surrounding each one of these four daily influences.

Now, I realize this sounds overly obvious, but I told you it would. Most of the solar/lunar charts, tables and graphs you see depicted in today's publications do not reveal nor coincide with these four vital factors. 1) Sun rise, 2) sun set, 3) moon rise, and 4) moon set. Yet it doesn't take an astrologist to figure out how important the rise and set of the sun and moon has to be.

It's certainly no secret that feeding movements of both fish and game have been traditionally accepted as key during dawn and dusk -- this correlates with sun rise and sun set. Moonrise and set is a bit more tricky to key in on though since they can often occur at mid day or mid night. Overcast weather can also make it impossible to see a moonrise or set, and of course a dark/new moon is not visible to begin with.

Backing up a bit, the four daily factors previously discussed (the rise and set of both the sun and moon) inside each one of these predictable monthly moon peaks (four days on the back side of the full or new moon) further nails it down. In other words, you want to plan your fishing trips to hit the peak of the full or new moon. Then you want to be on your favorite big fish spots during the daily rise and set of both the sun and the moon.

Finally, my logs revealed a third factor that really adds impact to this entire solunar secret. That unpredictable third influence is local weather. Whenever a local weather change coincides with the daily rise or set of either the sun or the moon, during a peak monthly moon period, big things happen in bunches. Big things meaning big fish. For example, give me a severe summer T-storm right at sunset, and just before moon rise during the new moon period and it's almost a sure bet that that I'm going to bag big fish.

Could there be a fourth factor? Absolutely. In fact, there might even be a 5thor 6th. However, an easy-to-detect 4th factor of influence that adds even more impact to an already good situation is a change in the photoperiod, or laymen's terms -- a change in season. Photoperiodism is actually the measured ratio of daylight to darkness. The most drastic changes in the photoperiod occur in the spring and fall, but mini-differences are detected inside all seasons, which are quickly detected thru their eyes and transmitted to their pituitary gland. The responses to these changes in the photoperiod trigger sexual responses such as reproduction and the development of eggs. This, in turn, also triggers increased movement and feeding binges by normally less active trophy fish.

I do realize how controversial my comments on solunar table validity may seem to some, but the facts speak for themselves. My data clearly points to sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moon set as the most important factors. The simple rise and set of both the sun and moon has far more impact than any other daily sun or moon position. That is, bar none, the single most important daily triggering factor of both fish and game.

Monthly peaks in both the full and new moon are a second factor definitely worth considering. When fish of all sizes are feeding infrequently due to a prolonged streak of bad local weather conditions, that small "window" of three to four days right after the actual moon peaks, full or new, may be the
only time that the largest fish of any species is truly cacheable. Fishing during the daily rise or set of the sun and moon during these key monthly moon phases is paramount.

Weather is also a legitimate third factor, and helps to elevate the impact of the daily rise and set of the sun or moon. It further elevates the entire realm of big fish possibilities when all three factors happen at relatively the same time. A changing weather pattern combined with a good monthly moon phase and rise or set of either sun or moon can activate some major movement from big fish.


If all of these things happen during a good photoperiod, look out! This is when the biggest fish of the year are generally caught. If your serious about taking such a fish, I'd suggest you start really paying attention to the real scoop on moon phases! Trust me -- thousands of entries in my fishing logs
can't be wrong. This stuff really works!

*To use the power of moon phase information, you can now access a link under WashingtonLakes.com Essential Links that will take you to a monthly Moon Phase chart. Give it a try before your next bass trip! Here's the Link:

Moon Phase Chart

By Bruce Middleton


bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com