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When is the best time to go fishing? See our best fishing days in the Old Farmer’s Almanac’s 2019 fishing calendar, below.
The best times to fish are when the fish are naturally most active. The Sun, Moon, tides, and weather all influence fish activity. For example, fish tend to feed more at sunrise and sunset, and also during a full moon (when tides are higher than average).
However, most of us go fishing when we can get the time off, not because it is the best time! But there are best fishing days, according to lore:
Fishing is said to be best during the time between a new moon and a full moon. This is what the Almanac’s Best Fishing Days are based on.
Month
Best Fishing Days
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
For customized Moon phase times, see our Moon Phase Calendar.
Be prepared! See our list of what to put in your fishing tackle box.
It should come as no surprise that many Almanac readers love to fish. Here are some of the best tips from experts:
“The best way to fish in South Texas with chicken liver is to let it sit a while in the good Texas sun, then sprinkle a little garlic powder and a little chili powder on it. 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 in the comments below!
Got any fantastic fishing tales? Share them below, too!
Best catfish bait is a chunk of mackerel with bloody tuna pro cure gel smeared on it. This combo literally leaves a 200 yard scent trail and every catfish in that area will seek your bait out. Send deal is use a small but very strong saltwater live bait hook veres a mongo hook that a big cat will just spit out. suggest a 1/0 for really big cats and you can go as small as #6 for everything else . 50lb line as a leader when snags are around and 20 on everything open just in case that 100lb blue shows up.
I like to use BassForecast.com for all of my fishing calendar and forecasting needs. It’s gps adjusted to my specific location, and it is the most sophisticated at guessing the bass fishing mood of anything I have ever seen! So much easier to use than charts and graphs online or in bassmaster.
If you know a place where there are Crappie and would catch alot of them. When you catch one that’s too small to keep tie a 10′ piece of line with a small ballooned semi filled with air. He will swim back to the school everytime. Try it and let us know what happened.
We were camping at Holiday State Park in Lynchburg, VA one summer and went down to the dock to fish. I like to have 2 rods, one to fish on the bottom and one to use with a bobber. I had stepped away from my rods when I saw a muskrat swim under the dock. Then my bobber took off and so did my rod and reel. The Forest Ranger thought it was so funny but I did not.
Up here we use jigging shad rapalas tipped with a half minnow or piece of sucker meat. We pinch the minnows in half because when these cats grab fresh meat they WILL NOT open their mouth again until they’re through the ice. During ice off we fish from shore on the bottom with sucker meat. We don’t have the population of people to catch and keep everything in Wyoming so there’s plenty of fish, also they do not mush on us. Our water is cold enough to keep firm meat on these tanks year round. Remember, cats will take live bait that’s moving over a rotten piece on the bottom. GOOD LUCK!
I have used Ivory soap in the spring and when the lake water is clear. Let it sit in the sun for a day or two and cut into 1″ cubes. Used on trotline and was giving fish away in about 4 days.
Use range cubes to lure catfish to your area and then you can catch them on just about any kind of bait. I like minnows and home made dough bait with peanut butter mixed in for taste!
Fished a river that runs threw New Brunfels TX. and those big burgers wouldn’t hit any traditional baits like shiners, shrimp, liver, worms. The only thing they would hit without a doubt was Cherrio shaped Cat food on a #2 hook. Top or bottom didnt matter…
Fishing in Iraq it was hard to find worms so we used T-shirt soaked in beef stew worked pretty good but they were some ugly Catfish LOL
Catfish bait – sausage links from Rural King (slim Jim’s). Stays on the hook.
we use deer hearts in North Carolina and chicken marinated in Italian dressing
Chicken& kool aid get boneless chicken strips, cut up in little chunks, put in a jar, put a pack of cherry kool aid on it, add water just about the chicken, put a lid on it, shake it up and let sat out over night. Catfish loves it. Chicken & kool aid.
the best thing we have used is KFC fried chicken for catfish. caught a huge stringer of them in a very short time. we had run out of bait and thought, why not? well it worked and its our go to now.
Learned about this 10 years ago and have used it faithfully since then. Cubed ham chunks that have been covered with garlic powder and let soak overnight. Might be good to let them dry in the sun to keep on the hook longer, but I always catch a lot just fishing off a boat dock.
my husband my boys and i always do really good using small cuts of chicken breast tenders soaked in cherry kool aid powder we catch catfish blue gill bass even turtles we never go fishing and leave empty handed
I made some dough out of tuna and bread I caught alot of blues on try that I didn’t think it would work but it did everyone laughed about it but who know what really work fish will eat almost anything
I have tried everything but pizza.
they make pro cure gel in a scent called Bloody tuna. This is pure ground tuna oil made into a gel. Used with a chunk of mackerel( cannned if u cannot find fresh) it literally leaves a 200 yard scent trail and every catfish will be on your bait quickly. Pro cure is 100% legal and you can find on Amazon or go directly to the pro cure site. Have 6 catfish species records using the bait and it has worked in all 22 staes i have tried it in. It even lures monster cats hungering down on spawning holes. Just be careful of monster jawed turtles that love this combo as well.
One of my best baits are shrimp or canidian night crawlers , if they don’t hit them they not biting !!! D.breaux
Your right D. Breaux, that is what I use shrimp and or Canadian night crawlers, I have caught lots of catfish with them and also stripped bass will get shrimp
This article is so helpful!
Garner catfish love hotdogs. we caught some big ones on just a little kids’ snoopy fishing pole!
Ice fishing – when the birds are at the feeder
When using liver to catch fish, I tie on a single long shank hook. Then I tie 10-12 inches of 4lb. leader on just below the eye of the hook. Thread on a piece of liver and then wrap the 4lb. leader around the liver going down the shaft to the hook and then back to the eye. Pull tight and tie off the 4lb. leader. Cut off the access leader, cast your line, and hold on.
I have caught 4-5 big cats this way On The Same Piece Of Liver!
The only problem using this method is if you don’t catch any fish it takes you awhile to get the liver off your hook. Ha.
Tight Lines, strong knotts.
Once you placed your liver on the hook. Take about 2 foot of Sewing thread and wraparound no need to tie it off cast as hard as you want chicken liver will not come off. When done fishing you’ll have to burn the thread off your hook or cut it off. Good luck
Get u some panty hose put your livers tie it into a ball hook your threw it catfish can’t get bait off
I use a regular needle and thread or hook and sew the minnow or other bait carefully to the hook too keep the fish from stealing bait LOL. YEAH…..I CATCH MORE THIS WAY
Daily fishing Southern Bell
Keep your fly in the water as much as you can. Even a poor cast may catch a fish. Unless you are in the middle of a specific hatch use the best proven basic flies like a Pheasant Tail nymph or a Parachute Adams. Keep things simple forget all of the fancy flies. Finally, regardless of the hatch fly size and proper presentation are the keys to remember.
We use chicken hearts in central Alabama for blue cats. They are cheap and tough. Also we find gray sand wigglers. They are smelly and really good for cats. Just dug about 500 today.
We also use Shad.
Gotta try the Pro cure Gel in Bloody tuna scent over a chunk of mackerel. Canned mackerel is fine if u cannot find fresh. The canned stuff needs a bit of thread to tie it on but christ it’s almost unfair. I have a good friend who commercial fishes cats and he showed me the combo. Its worked in 22 states with incredible results.
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