You can target and catch brown trout and rinbow trout when they are feeding or snaking but by far the best time is when they are actually feeding in a bite window.
This is my acronym of the eight criteria that I believe should be considered when determining when is a good, better or best time to target trout.
MMATTTSB
There criteria, with other conditions remaining the same, influence the creation and maintenance of trout bite windows. The more of these criteria that line up at the time trout are being fished for the greater chance there is of catching them.
- MOON PHASE
- MATCHING THE HATCH
- ACTIVE WATER
- TEMPERATURE OF WATER
- TIME OF DAY AND CLOUD COVER
- TIDES
- STEALTH
- BAROMETER
MOON PHASE
Some of these criteria are well understood, and applied intuitively by most trout fly fishers, but one which is toward the top of the list for me is Moon Phase, and more often than not, that may not even considered so I thought I would publish this paper to put that discussion on the table for our “fishonfly” family.
I am confident that considerations of moon phases apply not only to trout but to many other species that we target on fly. I’m investigating that for the other species that I target and you may like to do the same.
Since time immemorial fishermen and hunters have developed different methodologies of determining how phases of the moon, with other conditions remaining the same, effect their success or failure rate.
Whilst the process that I apply is the “moon phases” methodology described below, you’ll recognize that aspects of the three methodologies that I have describe have a lot in common.
Solunar Charts
Solunar tables are tables that fishermen and hunters use to determine the best days of the month and times of the day for catching fish and hunting game. Knowing the time of the tides, sunrise, and sunset help fishermen predict when fish are going to bite.
Moon above and below approach
This approach relies on an understanding that there are bite windows when the moon is above your head or below your feet with the latter creating a more aggressive but shorter bite window.
Typically, we have two high tides each day and two low tides. Your right we don’t have tides in our trout lakes or rivers … whilst that is true there is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting that trout and many other species in land locked fisheries have bite windows that relate to tide changes … or is it to phases of the moon.
The moon is the most significant influence on our tides followed by the sun so allowing for the influence of the suns gravity high tide is generally either side of the moon being over our head. The smaller low tide of the day occurs when the moon has orbited to the opposite side of the earth and is below our feet and again, because of the influences of the gravitational forces of the sun, that smaller high tide is generally either side of the ‘below” moon being under our feet. Many consider that the “below” moon is the most significant as it has the greatest influence on creating an aggressive bite window even if the bite window is generally shorter.
The low tides occur when the moons orbit takes the position of the moon off half way between the position it was between the two high tides.
The moon above and below approach is a key criteria taken into account in Solunar charts.
Moon phases
Please also note that the comments below about the influence of moon phases are based on the assumption of other conditions remaining the same.
Anecdotal and other considerations
With other conditions remaining the same, during both day light and and night, during any moon phase there is the probability that there will be a bite windows as the moon comes up.
Once it’s dark if the moon has not come up, or is not still up, there is anecdotal evidence that it’s not worth fishing. I think this is probably because trout eyes are not as adapted to hunting in times of low light as some species and when the moon is not up there is just not enough light for trout to see the profile of prey against the moon lit sky.
Viewed from the North pole the moon is seen as rotating anticlockwise but of course if your viewing the moon from the South pole or southern climes like Australia the moon is seen to rotate clockwise.
NEW MOON
On the day of the new moon the moon is not visible at all because it is on the opposite side of the earth or if you like “below your feet” and those that follow the “above and below” approach regard that as the best time for fishing.
For us in Australia the moon is seen to travels clockwise around the earth and in the first 7 days of that rotation the moon moves clockwise from behind the earth gradually making progressively more of the moon visible to us in the western sky.
First the crescent is seen as only a sliver as the edge of the moon is exposed to the sun but then on each successive night as its orbit takes more of the moon out of the shadow of the earth more to the sun is exposed and progressively the thickness of the crescent increases. Whilst that crescent builds and until it is 50% of the moon is exposed, and the moon is somewhat to our north, this lunar phase is known as a building or waxing crescent moon.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the first 7 days after the new moon is a better than average day time fishing period for trout and most fish with afternoon fishing being better than morning fishing.
I think that is related to the last quarter being a quiet fishing time and the fish becoming activated to feed by the new moon.
FIRST QUARTER
In the next 7 days the moon moves clockwise from our North toward our East gradually making progressively more of the moon visible to us in the western sky.
As the exposed part of the moon, or waxing phase, of the the moon progresses it is said to become gibbous or greater than 50% an it is then referred to as a waxing gibbous moon.
The waxing gibbous phase is my favorite trout fishing moon because, particularly for those last 4 or 5 days of this lunar phase, those of us that like to fish the afternoons and dusk, the rise of the waxing gibbous moon before sun set give us a bite window at the moon rise time, even though we may not be able to see the moon in the daytime sky, and then a second bite window at sunset.
So, using 2nd June 2020 and a lake i’ll call Jindabyne as an example. The waxing gibbous moon rises was at 14:35 (3:35pm) and sun set was at 17:15 (5:15pm). As I like to fish a full hour after sunset to ensure that I cover the dusk bite window that gives me a finish time of 18:15 and a 4 hour session. As the moon will rise about 50 minutes later each day that gives me 4 consecutive fishing days where I can fish the moon rise and dusk bite windows.
After that 4 day period moon rise in this example on 6th June 2020 was 17:42 (5:42pm) and after sunset which was still at 17:15 (5:15pm). That meant that the dusk and moonrise bite window crossed over with or closely followed the sunset bite window and to take full advantage of that and the next two days leading up to the full moon it would be best to start later each day and finish later each day than for the previous 4 days.
FULL MOON
As a rule of thumb on the days before the full moon deduct around 50 minutes per day from the ‘sunset’ time for ‘moonrise’ and on the days after ‘full moon’ add around 50 minutes per day to the ‘sunset’ time for ‘moonrise’.
When the moonrise is not visible in the sky but after sunset there is generally hiatus of bites between the dusk bite window and when the moon rises over the eastern horizon. With other conditions remaining the same, the rise of the full moon after dark triggers the most active bite windows of the month. Those “full moon” bite windows can occur at any time between the dusk and dawn bite windows when the full moon is in the sky. Interestingly, when trout will take advantage of that bite window goes through a cycle of its own.
After winter as the water starts to warm and items on the trouts menu and trout become more active the night time moonrise bite wind can be quite narrow but very intense. This is believed to be because they are not as hungry as they were after the slim pickings of winter .
Then as spring and summer months progress the trout population increasingly spread their feeding times over a progressively long period of moon lit night time. This is thought to be because the trout have overcome the hunger pangs from the slim pickings of winter and also as by waiting the water is often just that little bit cooler late at night and before sunrise.
Last Quarter
In the next 7 days the moon moves clockwise from our East toward our South gradually making progressively less of the moon visible to us in the sky.
As the exposed part of the moon, or waning phase, of the the moon progresses it is said to become waning or less than 50% an it is then referred to as a waning crescent moon.
The last or last quarter quarter is that 7 day period where less that 50% of the moon remains visible and it moves from being a gibbous moon to a crescent moon. That happens because from the front side of the earth the moon moves round to our south with progressively more and more of the moon moving behind the earth.
I regard this quarter as being the least productive for trout fishing. You’ll still of course get dusk, dawn and moonrise bite windows but generally they are not as intense as at other times described above.