By: Jake Bussolini
Over the several years that I have been writing about freshwater fishing, I have been criticized for my theories related to the best months, weeks, days and times of the day to fish. For years nearly every credible fishing magazine has published tables to guide anglers to the best fishing times based on the positions of the sun or the moon. It is not my purpose here to address that entire argument but to deal only with the portion of it that deals with the best time of the day to fish.
Like nearly every angler, as a young boy I was taught by my Dad that early morning fishing was mandatory to insure a good daily catch. As an obedient son, born in the 1930âs, I was never permitted to doubt the wisdom of an adult, especially my Dad. After all, he had the wisdom of age and street smarts. All I had was book learning so I blindly followed his guidance on this subject.
As I moved through life and began to accumulate my own experiences, supported by a fine science-based college education, I was sitting in my boat on a freezing December morning waiting for the official sunrise to kick off a striper tournament. My thermos was empty of the hot coffee that has sustained me to this point. âWhy am I here at this ungodly hourâ I asked myself. âWhat is it that makes the fish want to bite my bait this early in the morning?â I couldnât come up with an answer that provided any warmth but that moment changed my fishing process for the rest of my life.
I talked to several experienced anglers about the morning issue and they all seemed to accept the morning fishing theory without question. The general consensus was that most predator fish come into the shallow water at night to feed on the smaller fish that reside in those waters. As the sun rises, the light signals that it is time for them to return to the deeper water for the remainder of the day. This meant that the predators were now on the move after sunrise, and knowing that provided guidance for anglers as to where these fish were located, moving from shallow to deeper water. This knowledge should permit better catches, hence, early morning fishing.
There is one major flaw in this logic, I believed. If the predator fish have been feeding all night, possibly for eight hours, their stomachs would be full at sunrise. With full stomachs, why would they be interested in more food to supplement what was in their stomachs. Logic tells me that early morning was the worst time to expect a big catch.
This fact intrigued me so I began doing specific research on the subject. Most anglers accept the fact that food is always a target of opportunity for nearly all species of fish. Even with full stomachs, a predator will nearly always attack a good meal if it is passed before him. BUT! Wonât they be more aggressive if their stomachs are empty? Logic says certainly they will. This would imply that the best time to catch lots of fish is in the late afternoon and early evening, before they move in for the nightly meal.
Based on this possible theory, I began collecting data on all my fish catches. Of course, the only data that I could use was when I fished in early morning and late afternoon. This meant that in most cases I would collect data when I was traveling and fishing all day. For more than 5 years I gathered data on my catches and what a surprise I got when I finally tallied up the results. With a collection of more then four thousand catches over this period, most of the fish were caught between 10 am and 6 pm, with the peak always occurring between 1 pm and 5 pm when the fish were getting ready to go to the shallow water to feed.
Of course, I did make some adjustments in my technique during the tests. On very sunny days, I fished deeper when the sun was brightest, knowing that the suns reflection has a great effect on fish behavior. During the middle of the day, on sunny days, the fish will go deeper or look for structure to hide from the sunâs rays.
I do believe that when the fish are in transition as they are when the sun begins to rise, there is a better chance of finding them near the drop offs. But based on data that I have collected I am sticking with my theory that late afternoon and early evening will produce the best catches on most freshwater bodies.
Jake Bussolini is a freelance writer who has written several books about freshwater fishing. His books can be seen at www.booksbyjake.com.