The Press: Moon Up, Moon Down

John Alden Knight holds that there is “one nice thing about fishing—you can always put ’em back.” He is not the kind of angler who takes the limit catch. But his splashingly successful four-month-old syndicated newspaper feature is helping fishermen in 35 states and three Canadian provinces hook more trout, bass and muskies than ever before.

Fisherman-Naturalist Knight, 56, a retired banker, lives in central Pennsylvania, and he knows a lot about fishing even in places he has never fished. When not busy casting in his favorite trout stream (which he calls “the River X” to keep the crowds away), Knight writes books on wild life and prepares what he calls “solunar tables.” By last week the Des Moines Register & Tribune Syndicate had sold Knight’s tables and his columns to almost 100 newspapers, making them the most widely read fish talk since Izaak Walton, and much more practical.

Everything Hums. The word “solunar” was coined by Knight from the Latin names for sun and moon. Scientists can scoff, but he believes—and several thousand sportsmen who follow his tables will swear—that at certain times of day all nature seems to wake up. Fish bite, ducks and pheasants abound, field dogs are alert and easy to train, and even human beings suddenly feel good for no apparent reason. The solunar tables chart the times of day when everything starts to hum. Says Knight: “We don’t know what causes that activity, but it applies to all life.” The sun and the moon seem to have something to do with it. Fishermen and hunters who follow the solunar tables, says Knight, will have the best luck—other things being equal.

Knight’s solunar theory is a “scientific adaptation” of an old fisherman’s rule-of-thumb known as “moon up, moon down.” It is also an application to inland waters of the saltwater theory that the feeding habits of fish are affected by the tides. (Fish, says Knight, like two square meals and two snacks a day.) The best solunar times vary with the longitude as well as the day, so Knight compiles different weekly tables for each of the newspapers. Each calculation involves the interplay of two forces—the sun’s and the moon’s gravitational pull—on a given spot on the earth’s surface.

“A Nice Mess.” Knight writes seven localized sport columns to go with the tables, so that the Portland Oregonian can tell its readers when to godeer hunting while the Miami News tips off its readers to the best sail-fishing time. Among other subscribers: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Bulletin.

The testimonials he treasures most are apt to sound as statistical as his tables. Sample, from a satisfied Minnesota reader: “On June 1, I went fishing around 7 p.m. The major fishing period [on your table] that night was at 10 p.m. I didn’t get a strike until 9:45. From that time until 10:30 I caught a nice mess of crappies, weighing around two pounds each, and the sun fish were extra large.” News like that makes Knight glow all over.