In Memory Of Dan Barnett

Dan Barnett with his wife Mary in a photo that was taken in August of 1989.

Editor’s Note: The Georgia outdoor community lost a long-time friend on Sept. 26, 1994 when Mr. M. Dan Barnett died. Dan, who lived in Covington, was 89.

There are not many fishermen or hunters who don’t recognize the name Dan Barnett. For many years, Dan has produced “Dan Barnett’s Fishing and Hunting Times,” a very popular chart that rates the best days when fish and game are feeding, and also lists the best times during each day. There were many sportsmen who swear by the accuracy and effectiveness of Dan’s information. The “Fishing and Hunting Times” have been a monthly part of GON since the very first issue, and are now provided by Rick Taylor’s Astro Tables.

The below story is a special treat—the dean of Southern outdoor writing, Charlie Elliott, remembers his fishing buddy.

By Charlie Elliott

Dan Barnett was one of my best friends over a long number of years. The many hours we spent together were always enjoyable and delightful and a sizeable portion of our association involved fish, fishing and fishermen.

As long as I knew him, Dan never varied from his perennial philosophy—go fishing whenever and wherever you can.

“Regardless of how lucky or how unsuccessful you are,” I once heard him say, “the basic values of fishing lie in just being outdoors, away from the artificialities of civilization, absorbing the beauties and symphonies of the wilderness, and feeling in closer communion with all creation and its creator.”

Dan Barnett’s philosophy was that if you considered the actual catching of fish as one of those fundamental pleasures, then the addition of a little scientific knowledge and treatment became part of the game. And for this he had worked out an answer.

Early in his life the outdoorsman began to wonder why, when the weather and water and all conditions seemed to be the same, fish often ignored the presentation of food in any of its artificial or natural forms, and at other times they seemed eager for any edible tidbit, no matter how clumsily or crudely it was presented.

Because Dan Barnett was curious, he began to keep a record of days and of hours when fish were feeding and when they seemed to go on a hunger strike. After a while it dawned on him that these records fell into a rough pattern. The problem was that the pattern was not consistent but seemed to vary with each day. Then he discovered that the varieties themselves fell into a sequence, occurring about an hour later each day.

He never told me how long that information rattled around in his think tank before he tied it in with the schedule of the moon and the sea tides, but from these, he developed his chart of the day-to-day fishing hours.

He passed the information along to some of his fishing buddies, and it proved so accurate over a period of time that as a benevolent gesture to all fellow anglers, he published an annual chart of the best fishing days and the most productive hours in those days.

Frankly, I was one of the skeptics, but Dan was my friend and I went along with his theory and kept notes on my fishing hours with results. I did not cast from a boat or wade a stream at the specific times recommended. I fished when and where I had time available. My notes soon proved how fundamentally correct those tables were, and almost before I realized it, I was one of Dan’s most ardent disciples. I soon discovered that I wasn’t the Lone Ranger. I was only one of thousands of other outdoorsmen who followed the daily pocket guide or his chart in such publications as GON.

Dan Barnett could have kept his secret formula for his own selfish pleasure. That he shared it for the enjoyment of others emphasized what his many friends already knew, that he was a caring and thoughtful sportsman with the highest qualities of ethics and honor.