Best Fishing Times in Philadelphia, PA Today

Anglers and hunters around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania plan by the moon: two major feeding periods when the moon is directly overhead and underfoot, and two shorter minor periods at moonrise and moonset. Every window in the table above is calculated for Philadelphia's exact position — 40.01°, -75.13° — and its local clock, not a generic statewide chart. Philadelphia sits close to the center of its New York time zone, so sun and moon time stay within a few minutes of the clock — the windows above line up neatly with a standard almanac.

At 40.01° latitude, daylight in Philadelphia swings from about 14.8 hours around the June solstice to roughly 9.2 hours near the December solstice — a moderate 5.7-hour seasonal spread. That matters because a solunar period does its best work when it overlaps first or last light: the long days of summer push Philadelphia's dawn and dusk far apart and give more chances for a major or minor to land on a low sun, while short winter days compress the action into a tight morning-and-evening window. Watch the table for periods flagged Dawn/Dusk — in Philadelphia those are the windows worth rearranging your day around.

Whatever Philadelphia anglers are targeting, lining trips up with the feeding windows above is the cheapest edge available. The waters around Philadelphia — a community of roughly 5,782,653 people — see the same rhythm move both rod and rifle: the major and minor periods that switch on the bite also get deer and other game on their feet, especially when a period falls in the cool hours near sunrise or sunset. Pair the day ratings above with local weather, water temperature, barometric trend, and the season, and use the 7-day outlook to line your next Philadelphia trip up with the strongest days.

Planning further out? See the monthly solunar calendar for Philadelphia, which rates every day of the current month.