Post by sam on Dec 27, 2008 17:49:28 GMT -5
Beginng in late Feburary, above all others, the two things that affect fishing are:
1. Increasing daylight hours.
2. Local weather patterns.
Records have pretty well proven that five days on either side of both the Full and New Moons are your best chances of catching a trophy size fish.
Having said that, lets proceed to all the " mumble jumble" of the Solar tables.
Yes, I think Solar tables do work to a degree, but they aren't the absolute gospel. Nor are they the determing factor as to whether or not and I go fishing. So do I use them? You bet, and probably in some ways that you would have never thought of using them.
I have never had much luck in proving the validity of the 4 fishing periods listed in the tables that are included in most outdoor type magazines. However, from personal observations over the past 20 years or so, I have notice that there are four periods during the day that fish seem to bite the most. Its a 1 1/2 hour time periods surronding the:
1. Sunrise
2. Sunset
3. Moon rise
4. Moon set
Its important to realize that the moon rise and set, can happed during the daylight hours, as well as during the darkness. This can easily be hidden by cloud cover...etc, but even if we may not be able to see it, its still taking place. Of course, we all know that the new moon isn't visible, regardless of what the weather conditions might be.
To make a long story short, I don't think all those lunar/solar tables listed in the magazine are very effective. But as I stated earlier, yes, I do think solar tables work, and that I do use them. I might mention, that I use the charts around the house about as much as I do while fishing.
Here is an example of the type chart that I use. (Provided by the U.S. Naval Observatory:
aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html
The following information is provided for Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana (longitude W87.4, latitude N39.5):
Tuesday
10 February 2004 Eastern Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight 7:20 a.m.
Sunrise 7:48 a.m.
Sun transit 1:04 p.m.
Sunset 6:20 p.m.
End civil twilight 6:48 p.m.
MOON
Moonrise 10:01 p.m. on preceding day
Moon transit 4:12 a.m.
Moonset 10:13 a.m.
Moonrise 11:09 p.m.
Moonset 10:38 a.m. on following day
Phase of the Moon on 10 February: waning gibbous with 80% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.
Last quarter Moon on 13 February 2004 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Looking at this table, probably the first thing you will notice, is that its for a specific area (self choosen). I don't have to figure out what two lines on a chart that my desired area is located in, nor do I have to add/substract a certain amount of hours and/or minutes to come up with the times I am concerned about.
Second, notice how easy it is to figure out just exactally how much daylight you can expect for that day.
But since we are more interested in fishing at this time lets see what it looks like according the the above data. Sunrise at 7:48-- put a hour on either side of that (you can figure it precisely if you want to, I just always mentally use an hour on either side) fish should really be turned on from 6:48 to 8:48. Ok lets check out the moon data. Moon set at 10:13 am. with a little mental figuring thats 9:13 to 11:13... I don't know Dave, maybe I should stop here and send this to you real fast, you may want to go fishing in the morning.
Now all I need to do is figure out what I am going to throw at the fish.(I think we all have at least a limited knowledge of the winter and summer solstice, meaning that the sun isn't always over head, so I am not going to get into that for now. Right now, the sun is still to the South of us.) Red is my favorite color, however, its the last color to show up in the mornings, and the first to fade out in the evenings (remember my color chart?) Billebaits "Bomber" looks like a good color to start off with.
Well, I think this is probably enough for you to get the jist of the tables, so play with them abit, I think you will find they work out pretty darn good, and you will be surprised in just how many ways you can come up with to utilize the data.
"RING" "RING" "RING" Hey Dave it looks like in the morning is the day we have been looking for. Meet me at the boat ramp on lake La Te Do at the crack of dawn (7:20am) it takes you two hours to get there from you house, so you need to leave by 5:20.
See you there, Don
1. Increasing daylight hours.
2. Local weather patterns.
Records have pretty well proven that five days on either side of both the Full and New Moons are your best chances of catching a trophy size fish.
Having said that, lets proceed to all the " mumble jumble" of the Solar tables.
Yes, I think Solar tables do work to a degree, but they aren't the absolute gospel. Nor are they the determing factor as to whether or not and I go fishing. So do I use them? You bet, and probably in some ways that you would have never thought of using them.
I have never had much luck in proving the validity of the 4 fishing periods listed in the tables that are included in most outdoor type magazines. However, from personal observations over the past 20 years or so, I have notice that there are four periods during the day that fish seem to bite the most. Its a 1 1/2 hour time periods surronding the:
1. Sunrise
2. Sunset
3. Moon rise
4. Moon set
Its important to realize that the moon rise and set, can happed during the daylight hours, as well as during the darkness. This can easily be hidden by cloud cover...etc, but even if we may not be able to see it, its still taking place. Of course, we all know that the new moon isn't visible, regardless of what the weather conditions might be.
To make a long story short, I don't think all those lunar/solar tables listed in the magazine are very effective. But as I stated earlier, yes, I do think solar tables work, and that I do use them. I might mention, that I use the charts around the house about as much as I do while fishing.
Here is an example of the type chart that I use. (Provided by the U.S. Naval Observatory:
aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html
The following information is provided for Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana (longitude W87.4, latitude N39.5):
Tuesday
10 February 2004 Eastern Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight 7:20 a.m.
Sunrise 7:48 a.m.
Sun transit 1:04 p.m.
Sunset 6:20 p.m.
End civil twilight 6:48 p.m.
MOON
Moonrise 10:01 p.m. on preceding day
Moon transit 4:12 a.m.
Moonset 10:13 a.m.
Moonrise 11:09 p.m.
Moonset 10:38 a.m. on following day
Phase of the Moon on 10 February: waning gibbous with 80% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.
Last quarter Moon on 13 February 2004 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Looking at this table, probably the first thing you will notice, is that its for a specific area (self choosen). I don't have to figure out what two lines on a chart that my desired area is located in, nor do I have to add/substract a certain amount of hours and/or minutes to come up with the times I am concerned about.
Second, notice how easy it is to figure out just exactally how much daylight you can expect for that day.
But since we are more interested in fishing at this time lets see what it looks like according the the above data. Sunrise at 7:48-- put a hour on either side of that (you can figure it precisely if you want to, I just always mentally use an hour on either side) fish should really be turned on from 6:48 to 8:48. Ok lets check out the moon data. Moon set at 10:13 am. with a little mental figuring thats 9:13 to 11:13... I don't know Dave, maybe I should stop here and send this to you real fast, you may want to go fishing in the morning.
Now all I need to do is figure out what I am going to throw at the fish.(I think we all have at least a limited knowledge of the winter and summer solstice, meaning that the sun isn't always over head, so I am not going to get into that for now. Right now, the sun is still to the South of us.) Red is my favorite color, however, its the last color to show up in the mornings, and the first to fade out in the evenings (remember my color chart?) Billebaits "Bomber" looks like a good color to start off with.
Well, I think this is probably enough for you to get the jist of the tables, so play with them abit, I think you will find they work out pretty darn good, and you will be surprised in just how many ways you can come up with to utilize the data.
"RING" "RING" "RING" Hey Dave it looks like in the morning is the day we have been looking for. Meet me at the boat ramp on lake La Te Do at the crack of dawn (7:20am) it takes you two hours to get there from you house, so you need to leave by 5:20.
See you there, Don