Solunar Tables originated in Melbourne

As the Solunar Theory story is told in John Alden Knight’s 1942 book “Moon Up, Moon Down,” it was just before noon on a hot July day in the early 1930s. The place was Lake Hell’n Blazes at the headwaters of the St. Johns River, south of U.S. 192 west of Melbourne.

Knight, a New York stockbroker on a fishing vacation, was being guided by Bob Wall, who moved to Melbourne from his native Georgia to build a fishing camp where the river crossed 192, in those years known to people in Melbourne as the Kissimmee Highway, a bumpy two-lane road to Kissimmee.

They had been plugging with top-water baits since dawn and had little to show for it. There wasn’t a sign of activity anywhere under the boiling sun and Knight was losing his patience. He suggested they pull their small cypress boat up on a floating island for lunch.

Wall kept glancing at his watch, followed by a look out across the thousands of lily pads that matted the Hell’n Blazes surface.

Then, Wall said: “Come on, Jack. Hurry up with that lunch. We’ll miss the good fishin’ if we sit here much longer.”

“What makes you think they’ll rise in all this heat?” Knight questions in the book.

“They’ll rise all right. Moon’s down about noon,” Wall said.

“What’s that got to do with it?” Knight asked.

“Never mind about that. Just take my word for it. These fish are goin’ on a feed pretty quick now,” Wall explained.

It was from that conversation more than 80 years ago that the idea for the Solunar Theory, often called the Solunar Tables, was developed, copyrighted and marketed by Knight and his family

To this day, countless anglers and hunters use the Major and Minor solunar periods as prime activity and feeding times for fish and game. The original John Alden Knight Solunar Tables appear in hundreds of newspapers and magazines.

It was an old back woods Georgia Cracker idea that had been handed down to Wall by his grandfather, a South Georgia market hunter who had observed fish and game all his life, coming to believe that fish and wildlife became more active when the moon was in its “up” position — at its zenith — and again when it was “down” at its nadir.

Wall’s success with the theory earned him a reputation as one of the finest bass guides in Florida, and people, like Knight, came from all over to fish with him.

According to Knight’s book, he and Wall caught more bass following their lunch break than Knight had ever seen. They brought nine bass back to camp that totaled 78 pounds. Just as Wall had predicted, the good fishing started about noon and lasted for two hours.

Knight became so intrigued with Wall’s theory that he moved to Orlando so he could fish with Wall often. For several years, Knight studied and researched the effects of the moon and sun on the activities and feeding habits of fish and game, using Wall’s “moon up, moon down” theory as his basis.

Knight coined the word Solunar from “solar” and “lunar.” The tables usually list four Solunar periods each day, two “major” and two “minor” times. Each major lasts about two hours, with the peak occurring at the time listed, and the minor lasts about 45 minutes. Each is followed by about a six-hour activity lull.

The active periods occur about one hour later each day because a so-called moon day is about an hour longer than the 24-hour earth day, according to Knight. For the same reason, occasionally a day will show only three periods.

Knight found that barometric fluctuations, frontal conditions or changing air temperatures could alter the times.

Anglers — particularly freshwater types — are the primary users of the tables. Most saltwater anglers are more tide-conscious, believing that feeding increases during certain tide phases. Deer hunters use them and some squirrel hunters swear by the tables.

Similar tables also have surfaced but most sportsmen feel the Knight tables are accurate more of the time.

Bob Wall sold his camp and moved back to Georgia in the early 1950s. His camp always was known simply as Bob Wall’s Camp. Owners that followed kept the name until years later, when Henry Hollingsworth bought the business and renamed it Camp Holly, a name it retains.

Today, Camp Holly is best known for its laid-back atmosphere, airboat rides, good hamburgers, and more recently an alligator exhibit. Few know it as the home of the worldwide original Solunar Tables.

Contact Bill Sargent at sargentwb@gmail.com.