Solunar Theory for Fishing: Majors, Minors, and Whether It Holds Up
Solunar tables promise the two or three windows a day when fish feed hardest. Here's where the idea came from, what majors and minors actually are, how to read a table without fooling yourself — and the honest answer on whether it works.
The theory was set out in the 1920s by John Alden Knight, who argued that the daily movement of the moon, not just the sun, sets when fish and game feed. Every solunar table since works the same way: take the moon's position for a given date and place, and mark the few windows when it's strongest.
The important detail most tables bury is that those windows depend on where you are. A solunar table printed for another region is the wrong table — the moon isn't overhead at the same clock time.
Major and minor periods
| Window | What triggers it | Roughly how long | Times a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major | The moon directly overhead (transit), or directly underfoot on the far side of the earth | About an hour either side of the moment | Two |
| Minor | Moonrise and moonset | About an hour either side | Two |
| Peak days | New moon and full moon, when the sun and moon pull in line | The day either side counts too | A few days a month |
How to read a solunar table
- Set it to your own location first — the windows shift with longitude, so the times in a magazine table are somebody else's.
- Read the two majors first: those are the windows most tables print in bold, and the ones most anglers plan around.
- Add the minors at moonrise and moonset if you have the flexibility to fish four short windows instead of two.
- Cross-check against sunrise and sunset. A major that lands on dawn or dusk is the overlap anglers rate highest — and it's also the one that's hardest to attribute to the moon.
- Check the moon phase: new and full moon days are traditionally counted the strongest of the month.
Does solunar theory actually work?
Honestly: it isn't settled, and anyone selling you certainty is overselling. Two things are worth holding on to.
First, a good part of what people notice may be the overlap. Majors and minors fall near dawn and dusk often enough that a table will regularly agree with the two times of day almost everyone catches more fish anyway.
Second, the theory says nothing about your water. The table is identical for every angler at your longitude — the fish in front of you are not. What the windows do give you is a testable claim: fish them, log what happens, and after a season your own record answers a question no table can.
Test it against your own log
- Note the day's major windows before you go out.
- Log every catch at the moment you make it, so the timestamp is real rather than remembered.
- Keep fishing outside the windows too — otherwise you'll only ever prove that you catch fish when you fish.
- After 40 or 50 catches, look at how they fall against the windows and against sunrise and sunset. If the majors add nothing beyond dawn and dusk, you've learned something worth more than the table.
Anglerly works the solunar maths out on your phone. Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, the moon phase and the day's major feeding windows are calculated from the date and location — no forecast service to call, so it still works where there's no signal. Each catch keeps its own snapshot of those conditions, which is exactly what you need to run the test above.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between major and minor solunar periods?
Majors happen when the moon is overhead or underfoot — twice a day, lasting an hour or so either side. Minors happen at moonrise and moonset, also twice a day and usually treated as shorter and weaker. Both are worked out from the moon's position for your date and location.
Do solunar tables work for fishing?
There's no settled evidence that they beat simply fishing dawn and dusk, partly because the windows so often overlap with them. Plenty of experienced anglers swear by them anyway. The way to answer it for your water is to log your catches with their times and conditions and look at where they actually fall.
Are solunar times the same everywhere?
No. They depend on longitude and, for moonrise and moonset, on latitude too. A table has to be computed for your position to mean anything — which is why an app that works it out from your location beats a printed table for another region.
Is a full moon the best time to fish?
New and full moons are the traditional peak days, when sun and moon pull together and tides run their biggest. What that actually changes on the water is covered in moon phase and fishing, including the 2026 calendar.
Does Anglerly show solunar times?
Yes — each catch stores the sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, moon phase and major windows for when and where it was made, computed on the device. Logging, viewing and those solunar figures are free in Anglerly; it's a one-time purchase with no subscription.