How fishing bite times work
A bite time is a clock window built from the moon. It tells you when solunar theory expects more activity. It does not tell you that fish are there, or that they will eat.
Major and minor, in plain terms
Solunar theory, written up by John Alden Knight in the 1920s, says animal activity lines up with the sun, the moon, and the tide. The practical version anglers still use is simpler than the astronomy.
- A major period is centered on the moon overhead or the moon underfoot. Classic tables treat it as about two hours.
- A minor period is centered on moonrise or moonset. Classic tables treat it as about one hour.
Hankorama's Bite Time follows that shape. Majors are about two hours around a moon transit. Minors are about one hour around moonrise and moonset. The times are calculated for the latitude and longitude you pick. A city page such as Galveston is that calculation for one place, not a statewide forecast.
The tool samples the moon's position. It is a planning aid, not an observatory ephemeris. Move twelve miles and the minute can shift. Solunar.com notes the same east-west sensitivity.
What the research actually supports
A NOAA fisheries paper on Gulf of Mexico reef fish found a lunar signal for some species and some gears, and no lunar signal for others. Red grouper and tilefish moved with the moon in that dataset. Red snapper and vermilion snapper did not, in the methods they tested. The effect also flipped by species and by gear.
So a full moon is not a universal bite switch. Weather still matters. Solunar publishers themselves say a pressure change can wipe out a "good" moon window, and that you still have to be where fish feed.
How to use a window without fooling yourself
- Pick the real spot, not a city you wish you were in.
- Look at the major first if you can only fish one block of time.
- Check weather on the same screen. A front can matter more than the moon.
- If you fish tides, open a tide table too. Bite Time does not draw a tide curve.
- Write down whether the window matched the catch. A fishing log is how you learn if this spot cares.
Some days the moon schedule only produces three periods, because a lunar day is longer than 24 hours. An empty minor is not a broken app.
Questions that still come up
- Are major periods always better than minor ones?
- In the solunar model, major periods are the longer windows around the moon overhead or underfoot, and minor periods are the shorter windows around moonrise and moonset. That is a planning label. It is not a guarantee that fish will feed.
- Do I still need a tide or a weather check?
- Yes, if you fish salt water or a river that moves. Bite Time adds a weather read on top of the moon windows. It does not replace a local tide table, a barometer, or knowing that fish are actually in that spot.