Works for me

Cheers

Paul J

I never really bothered following it before but went to get few bits and peices from Blue Water before decided to grab myself one and give it a shot see how it works out :) being land based might actually pay off to have one. Alot of information in there well worth the buy!

good days bad days....didn't attain consistent results for me ...some prescribed bad days were actually productive days...it's in the bin . What works for me is change of light with incoming tide, to increase luck landbased...

Are north you can say its going to be a bad day fishing ///Fish the high tides

See alot of people have different opinions, i was looking for consistent results. chris what did ya mean by change of light like sunrise and sunset? yeah incoming tide definately pays a big part in it!

My opinion .. if the weather is good and I have a day off then that's a great days fishing ... if you sit at home because some crap book tells you it will be bad then guess what ... no fish for you :-P

What rig should I use? What are the best days to go out? Should I fish on the full moon?

As Feral says, get out there or get nothing.

I dont belive much in this books. I found a few things like tides and winds take a part. but even with everything looking great it doesnt mean consistent succsess.And on other days when things didnt look great we caught heaps. If fish is there and hungry u catch if not not, i guess.

Cheers Seb

With other guys if you don't go you don't know

I followed it for a few years when I was in my keen teenage years landbased fishing. I kept it as a diary and noted what was caught and what time. After a couple of years of fishing 4-5 times a week there were some definate patterns formed. Got to the point we could target mulloway with a better than 50% success rate.
In short, the almanac did help, but not as much as a detailed diary.

I'm going to disagree with the haters!

I lived on a trout farm for a number of years when I was young, and always had to feed the trout in the mornings before school. Our farm manager there pointed out that on days when the almanac was black (ie good day), the trout hit the pellets far more aggressively. In ponds I guess you remove all other factors (tides, wind etc), so will not necessarily be the same in the sea.

I reckon use it as one factor. Dont use it to decide what days to fish - I agree that if the weather is good, get out there. You should however (in my opinion) use it as one factor in determining what time to fish during that day, particularly for predatory species.

Dan

I dont follow it, I dont even check it, but it would be interesting to have a look at it on a large scale. Say if every forum member reported their results, rated from 1-5 for each trip for a year, then we compare the results with the almanic and see if there is any correlation between ratings and the book. Would be a hell of alot of work and no way I'm going to the effort, but would be interesting check it out.

 I have a spot we called "white day" because we nailed about 8 dhuies most being 55cm to 70cm size (all but 2 released) on this spot when the day was supposed to be a dud according to the almanac.

Since then I haven't bothered consulting it. I fish to the weather not to the almanac. A good day on the water is still a good day on the water even if you don't catch any trophy fish.

With our busy lives it comes down to window of opportunity. But a bad days fishing is better than a good days work.

the thing is , there are a number of almanacs. ( even a white day still gives predicted bite times)

the yellow book , the rotherys maori one , my watch has one , and they all seem to differ as to the best bite times.

agree with the change of light and tides.

 I think the almanac and tide charts with moon rise / moon set times etc are all valuable tools, but in some situations they are more valuable than others (when chasing species that are harder to target than others and you have to use every tool you can to get some modicum of regular success - Mulloway fishing springs to mind). When long hours of nothingness can be improved significantly by fishing the best bite times.

Given that "time" isn't an issue generally when I go fishing, I will only occaissionally use the peak bite times to position the boat on certain lumps where I have an inckling there may be good fish residing at that time of year. (I never fish one lump all day, I will generally fish a few areas each with 30 or so lumps around them with maybe 4 drifts max per lump irrespective of what we catch.)

My advice for what it is worth...

If you fish for Mulloway in the swan or similar difficult to target species, then study it, live by it and learn to love it. 

If you are a metro boatie chasing demersals then get one, understand how it works with the moon phases etc then live more by moon rise and set times, tide peaks and change of sea breeze to get over your favourite lump around those times. It will give you a slight edge. 

If you are retired with time on your hands and can fish purely according to the almanac then do so, if you are still working and have only small windows of opportunity to fish based primarily on weather and work/family commitments then forget about it and go enjoy the day on the water regardless. 

my worst day fishing is still better than my best day at work - i know its not an original quote ....but thats my Almanac!!
:-)

Andy i couldnt agree more with you! but yeah as you guys say if the weather is good just get out there and wet a line, even if it may not mean catching much!

I will deffinately look it up and take notes to see weather it actually works or not, but my fishing wont be based around following the Almanac just a bit of a guide.

Thanks guys for all your opinions interesting to see what people think