Fishing by the Moon

Fishing by the moon phases began in 1936, when a man named John Alden Knight published the first solunar tables (Sol= Sun and Lunar= Moon).

The phases of the moon consists of 4 cycles that takes 29 days to complete.

Tides are caused by the gravitational force from the sun and moon. Some places in southern South America the tides can vary as much as 70 feet.

High tide occurs when the moon is directly overhead and low tide occurs 6 hours 12 minutes before and after high tide. There are a few other things that can effect the tides such as wind, sudden changes in barometric pressure and long periods of extreme high or low pressure.

Full and New Moon tides are called "Spring Tides", these occur twice a month producing the highest high tides and the lowest low tides of the lunar cycle.

The First Quarter and Last Quarter phases of the moon are called "Neap Tides", these tides produce the weakest tides of the lunar cycle.

In the month of June you can expect really big tides, as this month has the greatest solunar effect over any other month.

The sun has 2 million times the gravitational pull of the moon, but being the sun is 92,956,000 miles away from earth, it only exerts about 1/3rd as much as the moon (238,852 miles away). This makes the moons tide pulling force 2.5 times stronger than the sun.

You can use a moon chart and a solunar table to help you decide when the best moon and feeding times are, but many times you can catch fish throughout the day between the feeding times.

Another thing is if you are not around the fish when the feeding times in your area occur, you're not going to catch them anyway.

I take into consideration the solunar aspect when going fishing but I usually plan my day based more on the tide phase than on the feeding times from a solunar table.

The bottom line is don't just go fishing by the moon phases and when the chart says the fish are going to bite go fishing when you can!