Occur when the moon is directly overhead or underfoot. These are the strongest feeding times of the day.
Minor Periods (1-2 hours)
Occur during moonrise and moonset. Secondary feeding windows that still offer good activity.
January 2026 Fishing Calendar
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1🌕B
2🌕B+
3🌕B+
4🌕B
5🌖B
6🌖C+
7🌖B
8🌗C+
9🌗C+
10🌗C
11🌗C+
12🌘B
13🌘B
14🌘B
15🌘B
16🌘B+
17🌑B+
18🌑B+
19🌑B
20🌑B
21🌒B
22🌒B
23🌒C+
24🌓C+
25🌓C+
26🌓C+
27🌔C+
28🌔C+
29🌔B
30🌔B
31🌕B
Best (A/A+)
Good (B/B+)
Fair (C/C+)
Poor (D/F)
Top 5 day
Grades rate solunar timing and moon phase for the whole US. Water temperature moves a fishing day more than the moon does and depends on where you fish.
Get the full A+ to F grade for your water at bestdaystofish.com
Winter Fishing Tips
Winter fishing requires patience and slower presentations. Fish deeper water and target sunny afternoons when water warms slightly. Focus on major feeding periods as fish conserve energy.
Best Fishing Days in January 2026
The top-rated fishing days in January 2026 are January 2, January 3, January 17, January 18, January 16, ranked by solunar activity, moon phase, and the strength of each day's major and minor feeding periods. Those are the factors a national calendar can actually know. Water temperature moves a fishing grade far more than the moon does, and it depends entirely on where you fish, so enter your location for a full grade that adds water temperature, weather, and barometric pressure.
January is the coldest, slowest water of the year across most of the country. Fish hold deep and move little, so the day is won by fishing the warmest hours of the afternoon and slowing the presentation down further than feels reasonable. In the north this is prime hardwater season, and in the south a mild spell can pull bass shallow for a few remarkable days.
Want it on the boat or the fridge? This page doubles as a free printable fishing calendar for January 2026. Use the Print or Save as PDF button at the top and your browser produces a clean one-page PDF of the whole month, grades and moon phases included.
What the Fish Are Doing in January
Pre-spawn (1 species)
Sheepshead feed hard before spawning in January, and our scoring raises their activity by up to 1.40x. Look for sheepshead on nearshore reefs, bridge footings and jetties 15-50 ft.
Spawning (3 species)
Lingcod, Pacific Halibut, Rockfish spawn during January. Fish on beds are harder to tempt, so our grades apply a spawn-lockout penalty. Target pre-spawn and post-spawn species instead, or fish deeper staging areas nearby.