Today’s Friday Finale historical photo is actually a historical diagram I came across in a 1991 Texas newspaper which featured the solunar time periods based on Doug Hannon’s Moon Clock.
Most will probably recognize the name John Alden Knight, who first came up with the solunar theory and its effect on wildlife in the 1920s, and then published his activity times about a decade later. Similarly, noted big bass angler and researcher Doug Hannon created his “Moon Clock” in the early 1980s, based upon his hundreds of big bass catch records. It was a small wheel-like dial inserted into a larger frame that you could rotate and determine the best activity times for any date or location in the U.S. A quick search online revealed that it is still available today.
In an undated/uncredited story on moon effects on the Bass Fishing Alabama website, Hannon is quoted as saying, “I believe that the moon, and its effect on wildlife, has a tradition that is basically timeless. The more hocus-pocus there is around something, and the more legend and lore there is around something, generally the truer it is. That doesn’t mean the lore is true, it means that the effect is true.
“I started studying it many, many years ago by just keeping records on times that I caught fish and times that I didn’t, and I was really quite surprised at how much effect the moon actually had,” Hannon said. “I can tell you that the reaction is extreme and the bigger the fish, the more extreme it is.”
Hannon believed that larger fish tend to be more regimented in their activities and are better able to take advantage of a given opportunity. He further stated, “You have to understand that it doesn’t have to affect everything. If (fish) are keyed to something that it does affect like minnows or insects or plankton movement, which also cycles and gathers near the surface during particular lunar periods, then they are keyed to the moon. If a person wasn’t tuning his activities to a fish that is affected by the moon, then he probably wouldn’t be. But if he is keyed into fish that are reacting to it, in essence he is affected by it.
“How much is due to activity cycles that occur in the water rather than the moon itself, I don’t know. But the fact is the fish do react.”
