Solunar Fishing Times: Best Fishing Times Today by Lake
Pick a lake and a date to see the solunar periods many anglers plan their trips around, along with sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and the moon phase. Not fishing one of the listed lakes? Tap Use my location. Your position stays in your browser and is not sent to us.
What the solunar periods mean
Solunar tables go back to John Alden Knight, an American outdoor writer who published the first ones in 1926. His idea was that fish and game feed more actively at certain points in the moon’s daily cycle:
- Major periods last about two hours, centered on the moment the moon is highest in the sky (overhead) and lowest below your feet (underfoot).
- Minor periods last about an hour, centered on moonrise and moonset.
- The best days fall around the new moon and the full moon. Days with a period that lines up with sunrise or sunset get an extra boost, because bass are often active in low light anyway.
The calculator rates each day as Best, Good or Average. Best means within about a day and a half of a new or full moon. Good means within about three and a half days, or an ordinary day with a period near dawn or dusk. Everything else is Average.
Does it actually work?
Treat solunar times as a tiebreaker, not a forecast. The moon’s pull clearly drives ocean tides, and saltwater fish often feed with the tide. In lakes the evidence is mixed, and solunar theory has never been proven in controlled studies. For largemouth and smallmouth bass, these things usually matter more:
- Water temperature and season. They decide where bass are and how hard they chase. See our guide to bass spawn water temperature.
- Weather. Stable weather, the hours before a front and overcast skies tend to fish better than bluebird days after a cold front.
- Light. The first and last hours of daylight are reliable almost everywhere. More in the best time of day to fish for bass.
If you only get one morning on the water, go. If you can choose between two days with similar weather, the solunar rating is a reasonable way to decide.
How the times are calculated
The calculator works out the positions of the sun and moon directly in your browser, using standard astronomical formulas from Jean Meeus’s Astronomical Algorithms, simplified for speed. Sunrise and sunset use the usual definition: the top of the sun on the horizon, with average atmospheric refraction. Moonrise and moonset also account for the moon’s parallax. Results are usually within one or two minutes of official almanac times. For an exact check, compare them with the U.S. Naval Observatory sun and moon calculator.
Each lake uses a point near the middle of the water. On very large lakes the times at the far ends can differ by a couple of minutes. Times are shown in the lake’s local time zone, including daylight saving time. With “my location,” your device’s time zone is used.
FAQ
Why is there sometimes only one major or one minor period?
The moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, so roughly once a month one of its events slips past midnight and doesn’t happen at all on that calendar day.
Do solunar times work for saltwater fishing?
In salt water, tides are the main way the moon affects fish. Check the tide tables for your spot first and use solunar periods as secondary information.
Is night fishing better around a full moon?
Some anglers do well under a bright moon in summer, when bass feed after dark. See fishing for bass at night for when it works and how to stay safe.