what determines good and poor days

what determines good and poor days

johnny weaver 1 posts

1 posts

johnny weaver says:

What determines a good day over a poor day when there are no tides where I fish according to moon phase?

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Mark Totzke 835 posts

Hi Johnny,

the moonphase determines the day ratings.
Best days are around new moon and a few more days around full moon.
According to the Solunar theory the combined gravity of sun and moon makes for good fishing.
This of course also causes larger or smaller tides in the oceans.
During new moon the sun and moon rise and set at almost the same time.
And during full moon it's the other way around.

According to the Solunar theory this change in gravity is causing all water bodies (not only oceans) to move more or less and nature to respond with increased activity.
John Alden Knight, the author of "Moon up, Moon down" was looking for a way to determine good times for freshwater fishing, as there are no tides to go by.
So he was looking for the reason behind ocean tides, which is gravity, and applied this to all fish feeding behaviour.
He initially even called this "inland tides"

Now don't take the day rating as the ultimate way to determine feeding behaviour.
It just says that on these good days there is increased activity.
Many other factors come into play, such as weather conditions, food availability, seasonal changes, bait choices, etc.
All those factors could turn a good day into a bad day or vice versa.
To determine the best day we have to look at the whole picture and the day rating is only one part of it.
If all conditions come together on a 4 star day, then fishing us usually epic with lots of action.

Likes: 4 Login to reply 4 years ago

Euan 8 posts

Hi Mark,

Could there be any chance the major / minor bite times could be an hour or so out? Recently I went night fishing on a 4 star evening, we arrived about an hour before the major bite time. There was a lot of fish activity, but by the time we caught some bait fish and got lines in the water it had quietened down. I caught one fish about 20 minutes into the bite period, but that was it for the entire night.

I'm inclined to think the fish were already active before the stated bite period. Have you experienced this before?

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itsaboat 1447 posts

The bite times are accurate.

The thing is, you have to be where the fish are to start with...I know Mark will get a chuckle from this, but I say it anyway...I could toss lures all day long on the best of 5 star days - into a bath tub and not catch a thing.

I have had many days where I was catching fish an hour before or an hour after the best bite times and nothing during the bite times. All that tells me is that I was not in the right spot.

I had a very good example of this happen about 2 years ago. I picked up a couple of fish about 1 hour before the bite time, then it all went quiet...But moving around found the fish again. The fish were still there and biting very well only they were in a very narrow stretch of water about 3m (10 feet) wide.

When you got the bait fish, did you move or did you stay in the same area? Often the target fish are already feeding on the bait fish which makes it harder for you. If you move then your bait fish is more tempting. You don't have to move far. For example, you can get bait fish right against the rocks. Then cast out 20m off those same rocks and get good fish. But if you got bait fish from a school off the beach and cast back into or near that same school you probably wont get a hook up.

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fishman 1 7 posts

What utter nonsense.

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Euan 8 posts

Why is this nonsense

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dazzling79 209 posts

I think Nature is nature! Fish feed naturally and bite times based on nature. It’s same application to gardening and farming :)

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Mark Totzke 835 posts

Hey Euan,

well, the bite times are calculated according to the Solunar Theory for each location.
The calculations depend on latitude, longitude and timezone.
If you picked the correct location for your fishing times then the bite times can't be off by an hour.
The right timezone is automatically detected when you pick your location and also daylight saving times are also automatically adjusted.

But as itsaboat says. Everything plays together in fishing. Bite times, the right location where the fish are, the right bait for the day, slight weather changes, etc.

The actual solunar calculations for each days major and minor times shouldn't be wrong as long as select the correct location.
You can always confirm and double check this though by cross checking the moonrise and sunrise times for your location.
If these times are correct then the major and minor times will also be correct.

hope that helps

cheers

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Euan 8 posts

Hi Mark,

I may not have put it that well. Not actually questioning the bite times, but wondered if anyone had ever noticed actual feeding activity being slightly different to the bite time. As in maybe the fish in a certain area might feed slightly before or after the right time. I suppose to be safe i would fish either side if the bite time as well if this was the case in others experiences.

In this instance we caught bait off the sand flats then fished them further out in the channel where some of the surface activity had been, with no success.

I guess that's nature and fishing, just wondered if others had noticed feeding times being just before or after a bite time, rather than by the clock that's all.

Thanks

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Mark Totzke 835 posts

I see - being a programmer, I was thinking only in technical terms - if there could be an actual coding error ?

I have often been fishing well past the major or minor times when the fishing on that particular day was really hot.
I noticed a gradual slowing in feeding rather than full stop by the clock :)
Sometimes you get those epic days where there is a feeding frenzy all day long.
And sometimes on shitty days you hardly get a nibble during the majors.

There could also be locations that are very tidal and only accessible during certain times that could be before or after the bite times.

I usually aim to be at my spot at least half hour before the bite times start and usually the feeding then slowly picks up and then I fish until it slows down again or until I had enough.

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itsaboat 1447 posts

In this instance we caught bait off the sand flats then fished them further out in the channel where some of the surface activity had been, with no success.

Arh Hah...You need to "match the hatch"....

Bait fish on the sand flats is going to catch fish on the sand flats....

If there was feeding activity in the channel...then they were feeding on something....If there was a lot of surface activity, then maybe the "hatch" was air borne?? Or at very least what ever they were feeding on was at the surface and your live bait was caught on the sand flats !!

I understand your question and it is a very good question. As I have already said, yes, it has happened to me. Each time it has happened I have been able to put it down to either location or not "matching the hatch". The easy part is matching the hatch...the location is the hard part !!

So, yes I believe the solunar theory works and yes, I believe that the times given on Fishing Reminder are accurate....You just have to match the hatch, find the location, bring a few mates and Fishing Reminder will do the rest...and you just might catch some fish 😊

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JewCraze 79 posts

Hi Euan,

Like Mark & itsaboat said, a lot of other factors come into play. I regularly looked at the forecast poor/good/excellent day and the bite times here, but in actual experience I've not noticed a good fishing session coincided with the forecast good/excellent bite times.

I'm not rubbishing the solunar theory though. Someone spent his lifetime observing and documenting a patterns there must be some validity to it.

But I think it all boils down to: 1) Being able to find the fish (like itsaboat said), 2) Being able to present them attractive baits.

So far I have not been very successful in finding the fish. People with boats or kayak or whatever water raft ... and a fish finder seem more successful. I'm land based and depend on luck quite a bit.

What you described about having caught a bait fish and then all went quiet after that ... that happened to me a couple of weeks back. I took my two boys fishing for mullets. There were lots of them boughing the breads. I caught one, lost one, then I put the one I caught out as a live bait, and that was it, all the went quiet as soon as I put out as live bait the only one mullet caught. My conclusion was the live bait's frantic swim was a danger warning to the other bait fish and so they all went hiding.

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Jim Reynolds 10 posts

Bad day to fish-go fishing. Good day to fish go fishing. Any day you can go fishing is a good day.:D

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dazzling79 209 posts

Try anyway, right? More try to go out for fishing definitely catch more fish. But fish won't feed all day long.

Every day has 4 opportunities of successful fishing on those 2 major times and 2 minor times.
I try to match to these times combining with the right tide times and weather.

The best fishing times work!!

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what determines good and poor days

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