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EmailHere's a list of the best fishing days and times for 2012, when the Moon is between new and full (EDT).
For your customized Moon times, see our Moon Phase Calendar.
For more activities, see our Best Days timetable.
2012 Best Fishing Days
- January 1–9
- January 23–February 7
- February 21–March 8
- March 22–Aptil 6
- April 21–May 5
- May 20–June 4
- June 19–July 3
- July 19–August 1
- August 17–31
- September 15–29
- October 15–29
- November 13–28
- December 13–28
The Sun, Moon, tides, and weather all influence fish activity. For example, fish tend to feed more at sunrise and sunset. During a full moon, tides are higher than average and fish tend to feed more.
However, most of us go fishing when we can get the time off, not because it is the best time!
Best Times for Fishing
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One hour before and one hour after high tides, and one hour before and one hour after low tides. Inland, the times for high tides correspond with the times when the Moon is due south. Low tides are halfway between high tides.
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During the "morning rise" (after sunup for a spell) and the "evening rise" (just before sundown and the hour or so after).
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When the barometer is steady or on the rise. (But even during stormy periods, the fish aren't going to give up feeding. The smart fisherman will find just the right bait.)
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When there is a hatch of flies—caddis flies or mayflies, commonly. (The fisherman will have to match his fly with the hatching flies or go fishless.)
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When the breeze is from a westerly quarter rather than from the north or east.
- When the water is still or rippled, rather than during a wind.
Tackle-Box Checklist
- Fishing line
- Bobbers
- Swivels, to keep fishing line from twisting
- Leaders
- Sinkers
- Different sizes of hooks
- Pliers, to help remove hooks
- Stringer, to hold all the fish you catch
- Sharp knife
- Ruler/scale
- Flashlight
- First-aid kit
- Insect repellent
- Sunscreen
- Unscented soap to wash your hands before handling bait. –suggested by Jerry Buerge
Reader Suggestions
- The best way to fish in South Texas with chicken liver, is to let it sit a while in the good Texas sun, sprinkle a little garlic powder and a little chili powder. This combination makes the liver pasty and it will stay on your triple or single hook with little to no problem. I do offer a warning, that pow you will feel on your line is going to be one big Texas size catfish, so get ready and have some good Texas fishing fun. –Ramiro Vela
- A really good bait I have found is hot dogs with chicken meat. Cut them in desired pieces and set in the sun to 'dry up'. When they are 'dried', they will stay on the hook better. You can put them in a bag in the freezer to keep. Brim and catfish will bite this bait. –Jean Cannon
- The best catfish bait are catalpa worms. You can put what you don't use in the freezer with a few catalpa tree leaves. When you are ready to fish again, take them out and they come back to life. Start reeling in the big cats. –Joey Brown
- To find the big cats, it would help out if you knew the underwater structure of the pond, river or lake. Find DEEP holes with lots of cover as in over-hangs. Gravel pits are a great place to fish for cats. –Todd Heil
- The best catfish bait that I have found fishing for catfish anywhere bar none is shrimp, yeah it's a little costly but let me tell ya somethin' friend, it's worth it. –Chuck Hubbard Jr.
- I am Blackfoot American Native. We live to fish and hunt our meals. A true hint in catfishing is never to use any type of scents (Cologne, powders, perfume, etc.) Don't handle cigarettes or any type of tobacco products without washing your hands before applying baits, hooks, sinkers, new line, etc. The fish know these things. –Tommy Bays
- The absolute best way I know to keep your liver on your hook while fishing is: Buy 1 or 2 old plastic ice trays. Go ahead and bait your hook the best you can. I use a "threading" action. Place the hook and liver into the ice tray and let it freeze throughout the night before you go fishing. When you are ready to go fishing, just twist the old ice trays and take the liver cubes and pack them in a bag and put them in a container of ice. –Chris Payne
- In Kentucky where I live we use bait store crickets and mill worms floated with a bobber. Put three or four crickets and a couple of mill worms on a hook and hold on! You have you try different depths until you find the fish. Once you find them you can have a lot of fun catching all sizes. I have caught them from squeakers to 62 pounds on this bait, so good luck! –Kenny Conley
- I'm 68 years old and fish every chance I get. My daddy always told me to watch the cows. If they are up and eating, go fishing. If they are down resting, you might as well stay home. So far this has worked pretty well. –Edna James
- The best bait I have used here in Bradenton, Fla. is fresh mullet that has never been frozen. Catch them late afternoon or at night. Catch them as long as your leg. Good Luck! –Bill Suggs
- As the water in your minnow bucket warms the minnows will slowly die. They need a very cool temperature to survive. Never put ice cubes in with live minnows. The chlorine in the water stays and will kill your bait. Freeze water bottles then gently place them in the bucket. Usually one will be enough. –Alec Plummer
- Try it all, love the outdoors and keep a bait in the water. You won't catch anything if you aren't out there! –Jody Wolf
Add your own suggestions or comments below!
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Comments
Where I grew up in the middle
Where I grew up in the middle of Virginia....I would go down to the rail road river trestle and put a piece of sliced cheese(1"x1" square) on a barbed hook with a bobber set at about 3-4' in depth....I would put the bobber in between the pilings in the middle of the river(22' deep) and just wait.....the bobber would slowly just start to sink.....and lo & behold....I would catch blues, flatheads, mud cats and other assorted fish!!! The hotter the day.....the better the cheese would work....just let it set out and dry in the sun....it would get hard and of course smell that much more pungent.
As strange as it sounds, we
As strange as it sounds, we used to use softer brands of dry dog food to catch catfish at a few ponds in the DFW area of Texas.
We used treble hooks and fished on the bottom with weighted lines and occasionally with bobbers if we got bored.
We never did find one dog food that worked better than others...it usually depended on how hungry the catfish were and if we were in the right place at the right time (just like any fishing!).
I did try baiting out a creek or two with a full bag of the dog food in a medium to large sized mesh bag from onions or potatoes. That worked out pretty good! The creeks were at the "bottom" part of the lake on the map, if that made any difference.
Channel cats and the mud cats seemed to like the dog food best. We also used hot dogs quite often. Good luck, y'all!
best way to fish on the river
best way to fish on the river is to keep your bait alive after you hook it so always hook your bait in front of tail fin. remember in day perch are in the open and at night they hide in coves and in morning theyre in rocks and weed
best catfishing is right
best catfishing is right before a rain and while river is raising use chicken liver on a straight hook after you thread it on hook,get some sewing thred out of the old ladys tool box and wrap it around and around the liver then pull thight abd break thread it will stay on till a fish is on your hook
Yeah. I was once fishing for
Yeah. I was once fishing for bass on Bessie's Creek in Brookshire, Texas. A terrible storm came up. I was using an 8 inch Broken Back Mirror lure and made one last cast and retrieved it parallel to the grass line When WHAM ! At first I thought it was a bass but it kept running my drag hard. Well it finally turned around. Believe me I didn't turn it around, I was using 10lb test and am surprised it didn't break. She kept swimming towards me and went under an old wooden bridge with fallen pilings. I jumped in the creek to wanagle her around the obstacles, ever so diligently as not to break the line. When she came up she literally scared me. She was a 55 pound channel cat. I finally gilled her and rushed home. It was storming remember? On a giant top-water lure being reeled in at lightning speed. Such fun. On Lake Conroe I was wade fishing and I cast a chartreuse, willow leaf, spinner bate into about 4 inches of water and caught a 17 lb male Florida bass. In Sam Rayburn reservoir, I caught a 7 lb spawning bass....in...a tree stump. I missed my mark casting, but caught her anyways. I wished I could have seen my eyes when I did that. My advice is to go bass fishing. You may end up catching the biggest catfish ever. Ha ha.
for catfishing i use pieces
for catfishing i use pieces of bars of soap it sounds weird but trust me it works i was fishing on a cat pole one day and i caught a 95 pound cat but remember to always use a treble hook.
For Catfish we use what is
For Catfish we use what is called cut and gut, it is fresh caught, cut up peices of Gizzard Shad meat and the gut of the shad combined on the hook. You can catch the Shad in a throw net. Best is to catch the Shad from the same lake you are fishing
Big fast smart TroutIn ct at
Big fast smart TroutIn ct at baldwins pond in meriden, you should use a sliding weight with a size 4 hook and yellow powerbait. on the bottom of the waterfall use no weight or bobber and use meal worm on a size 6 hook and drop it right down and you will defitely catch a 13+ in trout right there. The trout are tricky but be prepared.
Now that Spring is here, with
Now that Spring is here, with spawning and post-spawning times are near, it's best to fish the shallow warm waters that attract the forage.
I *think* the north shores warm first, but I may mistaken.
Remember the food chain:
1. wind stirs up the water and frees plankton.
2. Minnows feed on on plankton.
3. Wind shakes insects free from the water vegetation.
3. Smaller forage fish and smaller game fish eat the insects.
4. Larger game fish feed on forage and smaller game fish.
5. The plankton, insects, and minnows are up against the wall--the windward sides of the bar, the drop-off, the bank, the weedbeds.
Choose your lures according to the hatch, the forage,and the species you're after.
Regarding 'when water is
Regarding 'when water is rippled or still.' You can count on the water in high mountain lakes to be rippled, still or churned. I have discovered windy conditions and churned waters overall to be beneficial fishing over the years.
I believe it is best to fish the other end of the lake where the winds have pushed and churned nutrients to the corner of a lake, outlet/inlet/cove in other words fishing against the wind. My success rate of catching fish in this manner has increased significantly throughout the years.
My years of buying lure du jour have all but come to an end based on observation and usage of lure(s). When fishing mountain lakes, small ponds, streams, rivers, inner city lakes and lakes in general I have discovered that carrying a small pocket-size tackle box with two lures in quantity catches many species albeit carp, catfish, trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, salmon, walleye, pike.
I'm not out to catch the biggest or the most fish inasmuch as I am willing to gain another experience in the great outdoors by keeping it pragmatically simple.
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