We’ve all had days in the woods where nothing, absolutely nothing, is happening. There are no birds singing, no squirrels feeding. It’s totally dead … and then all of a sudden everything comes to life. We start seeing birds fluttering around, squirrels coming down trees, everything feeding. If you’ll take note when that happens, the moon is either in the major or minor phase, probably the major.
Obviously, there are circumstances which would override or otherwise heavily influence the feeding times. Hunter pressure is one. An approaching storm front is another. These are best described as “local” conditions.
The moon affects hunting success, but not in the way we usually believe (full moon --deer feed all night --lousy hunting). Since I do most of my whitetail hunting within 300 miles of the ocean, I also pay attention to tidal charts. Tides are governed by the moon’s position. Use this moon information to select when you should hunt.
The best hunting is when the moon is up about an hour high above the horizon when the sun goes down in the afternoon. I see considerable animal movement at that time. That would be equated to a tidal change.
If you hunt within about 300 miles of a body of water large enough to have tides, get the tidal charts for the numbers of days you will be hunting. The high tide - low tide is the same as the major feed - minor feed.
When you can see the moon earlier in the day, then the hunting and fishing is better. When the moon is coming up it is a major feed; when the moon is going down it is a minor feed. Actually, this particular year I’ve paid a lot of
