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Fishing guide · 4 min read

Solunar times for fishing

A solunar table marks the times of day when the moon is overhead, underfoot, rising or setting. Some anglers plan their day around them. Here is what the times mean, where they come from, and what they can’t tell you.

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On this page
  1. What a solunar table shows
  2. Why the times move every day
  3. The moon’s phase
  4. Do solunar times work?
  5. Solunar times in HuntGrid
  6. Sources

What a solunar table shows

Solunar tables come from an old idea among anglers and hunters: that fish and game feed more at certain points in the moon’s daily trip around the sky. A table marks two kinds of period each day. The major periods, the longer ones, are centred on the moon overhead and underfoot. The minor periods, shorter, are centred on moonrise and moonset.

Overhead is the moment the moon crosses your north–south line in the sky. Astronomers call it the moon’s transit, and at low and middle latitudes it comes about halfway between moonrise and moonset, with the moon at its highest.[1] Underfoot is the opposite moment, with the moon on the far side of the Earth, below you.

Where the moon is at the centre of each solunar period, seen from one place on Earth Earth You Overhead: major Underfoot: major Rising: minor Setting: minor
Not to scale. Major periods are centred on the moon crossing your north–south line in the sky (overhead) and the opposite moment (underfoot); minor periods on moonrise and moonset, as it crosses your horizon.[1]

Why the times move every day

The moon comes back over the same place every 24 hours and 50 minutes, a lunar day,[2] so it rises a little later each day[3] and the solunar periods move with it. A period that falls at first light this week falls later each day after.

The moon’s phase

The moon goes through all its phases about every 29.5 days.[3] HuntGrid’s solunar table rates days near the new and full moon higher. Those are also the days of spring tides, when the tide’s range is at its biggest:[4] on salt water the moon’s effect on the tide is real and well measured, and our guide to tides for fishing explains it.

Do solunar times work?

Whether fish follow solunar periods is debated, and HuntGrid doesn’t claim that they do. If you want to find out on your own water, log your catches: each one keeps whether it was caught in a major period, a minor period or neither, so over a season you can see whether the periods stand out from the rest of your days.

Solunar times in HuntGrid

Our free solunar table shows the major and minor periods, sunrise, sunset, first and last light and the moon for a week anywhere, worked out in your browser. In HuntGrid Fishing, Sun & moon in the Tools shows the same for the place you pick, worked out on your phone, so it works offline.

Sources

The facts and figures above come from these official pages, read on October 17, 2026. The words and drawings are ours.

  1. Rise, set and twilight definitions, US Naval Observatory
  2. The lunar day, NOAA National Ocean Service
  3. Moon phases, NASA
  4. What are spring and neap tides?, NOAA National Ocean Service

Questions

Still have a question? Read the HuntGrid Fishing help pages or email support@huntgrid.net.

What is a solunar table?

A list of the times when the moon is overhead or underfoot (major periods) and when it rises or sets (minor periods). Some anglers fish those times, believing fish feed more then.

Do solunar times really work for fishing?

It’s debated, and HuntGrid makes no promise that they do. Log your catches and compare them with the periods to judge for your own water.

Why are the solunar times later each day?

The moon comes back over the same place a little later each day, so moonrise, moonset and the periods centred on them all move later.

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