What in the World Is the Solunar Table?

The solunar table is a daily prediction of when fish are most likely to feed, based on where the moon and sun are sitting. The idea is simple. The same moon that moves the tides also gets fish up off the bottom and feeding at certain hours. Every day has a couple of stronger windows and a couple of weaker ones.

Does It Actually Work?

Honest answer: there's no rock-solid proof fish feed on the moon's clock, and plenty of sharp anglers are skeptical. But it's not made-up either. It's tied to the moon and the tides, and moving water absolutely turns fish on. So treat it as one more vote in the decision, not gospel. Fish it blind and you'll have dead days. Stack it with everything else and it earns its keep.

Majors and Minors

• Majors: the two longer, stronger windows each day (a couple of hours each), when the moon's pull is strongest.
• Minors: two shorter, lighter windows.
• Moon phase: new and full moons are the peak, the same reason they throw the biggest tides of the month.

How to Actually Use It

Don't fish the times blind. Stack them. The window you really want is where a major lands on a moving tide, at first or last light, on a new or full moon. That's four reasons for fish to eat, all at once. Short on time? Find the major that overlaps the outgoing tide at sunrise and fish those hours instead of three random ones.

How Big Buoy Shows It

We lay the majors and minors right on top of the tide chart, with sunrise and sunset marked and the moon phase right there. No cross-referencing three tables in your head. You open a spot and the good overlaps jump right out at you.

Quick Hits

• Better than the tide? No. Use them together, and when they agree, pay attention.
• Best days? Around the new and full moon.
• Slow solunar, great weather? Go anyway. Conditions beat the table every time.

Next Steps

Read Checking Tides & Current for the moving water it's tied to, and Planning Your Trip Around the Wind so you don't blow a good window on an unfishable day. Then open a spot, pull up the tides, and watch where the feeding windows fall.