Michigan Best Fishing Times Today

The idea behind these Michigan times goes back to John Alden Knight’s solunar tables of 1926. A major period runs about 2 hours around the moment the moon crosses overhead or passes underfoot, and a minor period about 1 hour around moonrise or moonset. Treat them as a traditional guide rather than a promise; on Michigan water a cold front or muddy runoff matters more.

Each day the moon rises over Michigan roughly 50 minutes later than the day before, which walks the periods through the clock. Look along the week for a period that overlaps first or last light.

Solunar tables traditionally rate the days around the new and full moon highest; the phase and the share of the moon lit are on every Michigan day card.

Michigan splits across Eastern time and Central time: 79 counties on Eastern time; 4 counties on Central time. Clock sunrise is not the same across Michigan: on June 21 it ranges from 5:01 a.m. in Dickinson County to 6:13 a.m. in Berrien County, 72 minutes apart.

Around Lansing daylight lasts 15 hours 19 minutes on the June solstice and 9 hours 3 minutes on the December solstice, so the same solunar period can fall in daylight in summer and in the dark in winter. From Keweenaw County in the north to Berrien County in the south the county centres are 5.6 degrees of latitude apart; on June 21 that is 15 hours 57 minutes of daylight against 15 hours 13 minutes.