Fishing calendar, January 2026: best days and feeding times

What is a solunar fishing calendar?

A solunar calendar is a table of the hours when, by an anglers' tradition, fish feed most. It was published by the American angler John Alden Knight in 1936 ("Moon Up, Moon Down") from his notes of the 1920s. The rule is simple: the two hours around the Moon's passage overhead and the two hours around its passage underfoot, on the far side of the Earth, are the "major periods"; the hour around moonrise and the hour around moonset are the "minor periods". The best days are those around the new and the full moon, when the Sun and the Moon pull together and the tides are largest; the weakest are around the quarters. The calendar is a tradition, not a law of nature, and this page keeps it apart from what has been measured: the section on the science says what the catch records show. The times are astronomy and are exact for the city you choose.

Solunar feeding times in January 2026, Kazan: day by day

Every day of the month with its rating, moonrise and moonset, the two major and the two minor periods, and the sunrise and sunset for Kazan. A period marked "dawn or dusk" falls within an hour of sunrise or sunset: the solunar tradition calls that the best hour of the month, and the science agrees that those are the hours to be on the water. About once a month a period is missing: the lunar day is 24 hours 50 minutes long, so one overhead passage or moonrise skips a calendar day.

Feeding times for another city

The feeding times below are computed for Kazan. Pick your city: the Moon rises and passes overhead at a different hour in every place.

What bites in January 2026

January is ice fishing in the north and cold, slow water everywhere else. Perch and roach take small baits on the ice at midday when the light is strongest; pike take dead baits on tip-ups, and burbot bite at night, on the bottom, in the coldest water of the year. Fish are sluggish: the bites are light, the baits small, the presentation slow. Open water in mild climates gives pike and chub on the deep, slow stretches.

The species that usually bite in January 2026 in the temperate zone, the very best of the month first, with the time of day they are usually taken.

When each species bites: the year at a glance

The months of the best bite in the temperate zone (Lithuania and the latitudes near it), the very best months, and the hour of the day. Closed seasons and sizes are those of the Lithuanian amateur fishing rules; every country has its own, so check yours before you keep a fish.

Closed seasons and free fishing days in Lithuania

Under the Lithuanian amateur fishing rules (version of 13 May 2026) pike are closed 1 February – 30 April, zander 1 March – 31 May, asp 1 April – 15 May, grayling 1 March – 15 May, brown trout and whitefish 1 October – 31 December, burbot 15 December – 31 January, catfish 1 November – 1 April, vimba 15 May – 15 June. The first and the last day of a closed season count. A fish caught in its closed season, or under its minimum size, is released at once. On 16 February, 11 March, 6 July, 15 August anyone may fish free of charge in state waters where fishing is allowed.

How to read the table

Take the rating first: a best or good day is worth planning for, a weak one is still a fishing day, only without the Moon's help. Then the periods: the two major ones are two hours long and centred on the Moon's passage overhead and underfoot; the minor ones are one hour around moonrise and moonset. When a period lands on sunrise or sunset, the tradition and the science agree, and that is the hour to be at the water. Fish through the whole period, not only its middle. The tables are for the open water and the ice alike; sea anglers add the tide, which follows the same Moon.

What the studies actually show

The largest study of the question analysed 341,959 muskellunge caught by anglers across North America (Vinson & Angradi, PLoS One 2014). The catch followed the 29-day lunar cycle: more fish were caught around the full and the new moon, about 5 % more on the peak days than on random days, more for the biggest fish, in midsummer and at high latitudes; at night the full moon was better than the new. The effect was real but small, and part of it may be that anglers fish more on those days. A study of 3,377 striped marlin trips off Baja California (Ponce-Díaz et al. 2003) found no difference between the full moon and the other phases. Nothing in the literature supports the exact hours of the solunar periods; what is well established is that most freshwater fish feed most at dawn and dusk, that feeding follows the water temperature, and that many species spawn in step with the Moon. So: use the calendar for the days, use the sunrise and sunset for the hours, and let the season and the weather decide the rest.

Weather, pressure and water: what matters more than the Moon

Anglers' rules of thumb, stated as such: a steady or slowly falling barometer before a front is good, the sharp rise of cold clear air after it is poor for a day or two; an overcast, warm, windy day beats a bright still one; the first warm rain of spring and the cooling after a summer storm both start the fish feeding. The measured part: fish are cold-blooded, and every species has a temperature band in which it feeds, roughly 4 to 15 °C for pike and burbot, 15 to 25 °C for carp, tench and catfish; outside it the bites stop whatever the Moon does. A thermometer in the water tells more than the calendar.

The months of 2026