Fishing Forecast

How This Fishing Forecast Works

Most solunar calendars only look at the moon. Fish don't. This forecast scores every hour of the next several days on the five things freshwater fish actually respond to, weighted by how much each one matters:

• Light (27%) — sun elevation, cloud cover, and measured UV, mapped through a fish light-preference curve. Dawn and dusk transitions earn a bonus because rapidly changing light triggers feeding.
• Barometric pressure (25%) — the 3-hour pressure trend and 6-hour volatility, classified into a frontal state. A falling barometer ahead of a front is one of the strongest bite signals there is; a post-frontal bluebird sky caps the whole day's score.
• Solunar periods (20%) — moon transit and underfoot majors plus rise and set minors, with smooth edges instead of hard cutoffs, so a bite window fades in and out the way it does on the water.
• Wind (15%) — a light chop breaks up the surface and gets baitfish moving; a gale shuts things down. Wind direction is read separately as frontal confirmation.
• Water temperature (13%) — estimated from the seasonal baseline for your latitude plus recent air temperature, including whether the water is warming or cooling over the last 24 hours.

How to Read the Score

Scores run 0–100 for each hour. Anything 80+ is worth planning a trip around; 90+ means multiple factors are stacking in your favor at once. The "Best Windows" panel at the top pulls out the strongest stretches in the next 24 hours so you can check your day at a glance. Log your catches in the Catch Log and export them to see which conditions actually produce fish for your water.

Common Questions

What's the best time of day to fish? Usually the low-light transitions — the hour around sunrise and sunset — especially when they overlap a solunar major and falling pressure. But a strong front can make 2 p.m. on a cloudy Tuesday better than a bluebird sunrise, which is exactly what the hourly score is for.

Does barometric pressure really affect fishing? The pattern most anglers observe: falling pressure ahead of a front tends to fire fish up, while the high-pressure clearing right after a front is often the toughest bite of the week. This forecast reads the actual pressure trend at your location instead of guessing.

Does it work for my lake? It works anywhere — enter any city, ZIP code, or use your location. It's tuned for inland freshwater: bass, crappie, bream, and catfish behavior.