The sun comes up, the sun goes down. The moon comes up, the moon goes down. From this seemingly trivial fact, John Alden Knight conceived a guide he hoped would allow fisherman and hunters to forecast the best times to take to water and wood.
During a hunting trip, Knight became intrigued with a bit of local folk wisdom used to explain the activities of wildlife. The old professional hunters of the south would plan their fishing and hunting outings in accordance with the position of the moon. Their experience dictated when the moon was up (overhead) or down (underfoot) that fishing would be at its best.
Knight wanted to take this idea, examine and refine it. It was an accepted notion that fish were usually active at sunrise and sunset but what of the other times of the day? He made a list of 33 possible factors that might influence the activities and behaviours of fish. By elimination, Knight whittled the list to three; the sun, the moon, and tides. He didn’t believe the sun was the sole reason, as it didn’t really change from day to day and fish were active at different times of the day. The moon did go through its phases each month but what did it all mean?
He was left with tides, but this posed problems as well. Salt-water fisherman had longed relied on tides to locate fish, but tides were a saltwater phenomena. Surely they could have no bearing on a freshwater stream. (Tidal influences do occur in freshwater but most bodies of water are too small to show appreciable effects) Knight postulated that perhaps the sun and moon, primary tidal influences, were more of a factor responsible for the activities of fish and wildlife than the actual tides.
Knight studied the existing Inland Tide Tables, based on the Atlantic Tide Tables, to find a correlation between tides and fish and game activity. After nearly two years of investigation, the tables were deemed inconsistent and Knight cast them aside, relying on sun and moon positions alone to forecast peak periods of activity.
Taking its name from a combination of sun (sol) and moon (lunar), Knight coined the term “Solunar” to describe the combined gravitational pull of sun and moon. The time of day at which this pull is directly exerted is the solunar period. Knight also discovered that between the new and full moon there were times of lesser but still significant activity. The greater were designated as Major Periods (lasting 2-3&1/2 hours) and the shorter termed Minor Periods (lasting 3/4-1&1/2 hours).
Taking his research further, Knight looked at nearly 200 individual cases of record fish catches, looking at instances when both large fish and large numbers of fish were taken. He found more than 90 percent occurred during a new moon and during the Solunar Periods, when the effects of sun and moon are greatest. We now know that the maximum solunar period occurs during the time of a new moon when tides and currents are strongest. This slowly dwindles in magnitude to a minimum during the moon’s third quarter.
If fish are commonly active during sunrise and sunset, then combining this knowledge with the Major and Minor Periods of the solunar tables could surely benefit anglers. Proponents of the solunar tables in fact recommend those times when a Solunar Period occurs within 30 minutes of a sunrise(set) as being the absolute best times to be on the water. One does have to consider other factors such as weather patterns but the tables can serve as a daily guide to what many believe to be an accurate depiction of fish activity.
Today, 64 years after their first publication, Knight’s solunar tables are printed in over 150 newspapers across the U.S. and various outdoor publications. Some anglers swear by them, others swear at them. I do know that the biggest fish I’ve caught have come during the new moon. Coincidence?
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