Solunar calendar
Moon phase, sun times and feeding periods
Solunar tables predict when fish are most likely to feed based on the position of the sun and moon. Useful for picking an hour — not a substitute for reading the water.
No solunar data yet
The calendar is generated from sun and moon positions for each pier. Once the next batch runs, ratings and feeding periods appear here.
Straight answer
What solunar theory actually is
Solunar theory dates to a 1926 book by John Alden Knight. The idea is that fish and game feed on a schedule tied to the moon's position rather than the clock. Two major periods occur each day — when the moon is directly overhead and directly underfoot — each lasting roughly two hours. Two minor periods, about an hour each, fall at moonrise and moonset. A day gets a 0–5 rating based on how those periods stack up with the moon phase; new and full moons rate highest because sun and moon pull together.
How to read this page
- Use the periods to choose which hour to fish, not whether to fish at all.
- A major period that overlaps dawn, dusk or a moving tide is worth planning around. One that lands at 1 p.m. on a slack tide usually is not.
- Rating 4 or 5 means the astronomy is favourable. It says nothing about wind, water clarity or whether bait is in front of the pier.
Being honest about it
Solunar tables are a heuristic, not a measurement. Controlled studies have never produced strong, repeatable evidence that moon position drives inshore feeding the way the theory claims, and any real effect is small next to tide stage, water temperature and light. Plenty of experienced pier anglers ignore solunar tables entirely and do fine.
PierCast includes them because they are cheap to compute, they line up often enough to be useful for planning, and the moon genuinely does drive the tide — which is the factor that matters most. If a solunar period and an incoming tide land together near first light, that is a good time to be on the rail. Treat everything else as a nudge.
Sun and moon times are computed astronomically for each pier's coordinates. Tide timing comes from NOAA CO-OPS.