Glossary

Solunar

The solunar tradition is a way of rating each day for how likely fish are to bite. It comes from John Alden Knight's 1926 observation that fishing seemed to peak at certain hours linked to the moon — moonrise, moonset, and the upper and lower lunar transits (when the moon crosses the local meridian, overhead and underfoot). Knight called those windows "major" and "minor" periods and turned the pattern into a daily 1-to-5 rating. Anglers have used the system for a hundred years.

TideTurtle treats solunar as exactly what it is: an angler tradition, not a scientific forecast. Peer-reviewed studies have tested whether fish actually feed more in solunar major periods, and the evidence is mixed at best. The framing on TideTurtle pages is "the angler tradition that says fish bite more during major periods" — never as a fact. The 7-day strip on each tide page shows the daily rating, and a hover or expand reveals the major and minor period times.

Used as a tradition rather than a prediction, solunar can still be useful: it picks out moments in the day when the astronomy is most active, which often correlates with the most interesting tide-and-light moments. Pair the solunar window with the local tide stage, the wind, and your own fishing experience. For more on the underlying astronomy, see spring tide and the methodology page.