Those Fishing Tables in the "Old Farmer's Almanac"-Do They Actually Work?

Factual Questions
1

For decades, the OFA has published “fishing tables” which claim to tell you the best time to fish.
These are correlated with the tides, moon phases, etc.
Has anyone actually tested them? I can see how tides affect fishing…generally, there are not many fish around at low tide…but moon phases?
Anyway, like all the stuff in the OFA, there are claims…but no hard proof…or am I wrong?

2

In hot summer months, freshwater fish* will feed at night when it is cool if there is a full moon to help them see their food. Thus the days after a clear moonlit night often have poor fishing.

  • I know diddly about salt water fishing.
3

These are solunar tables based on the position of the moon, the idea comes from some native Americans and a there is a Maori version as well. John Alden Knight started publishing the tables, do they work ???

4

Sure, but first you have to get the fish to read the tables and cooperate.

5

In hot summer months, anglers prefer night time fishing when it is cooler and are aided by the full moon to help them see where to cast.

Selection bias at its finest.

Fish are ‘cold blooded’ creatures - their metabolism is directly related to the water temperature, and ‘sight’ is only one method they use to find/catch food. When the water temperature is higher, they will eat more to keep up with this.

Fish are opportunistic feeders - they eat when food is available - they also do not have hands - so anything they think is food is ingested and then readily expelled if not.

The affects of 02 saturation is a different item - in the hottest summer months, 02 can be depleted at certain depths causing the fish to move to shallower water - night time - especially in grassy waters -would be the ‘worst; time’ to fish simply because the green grasses no longer have the sunlight to help them produce oxygen.

To answer the OP - there is some validity to the ‘solunar’ tables - but the reality is - if you’re not on the water - you cannot catch fish, and if everyone follows the tables on when to go - that is when the majority of the fish will be caught - which is a nice little feedback mechanism.