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Overall rating

Walleye at North Pipe Lake — 2026-10-27

Fair · 55/100

Best window: 1 PM (Fair · 59/100)

Season
Fall
Moon
98% illuminated, waningFull Moon
Est. surface temp
49.3°F
Pressure
30.33 inHgFalling

Est. water temp

49.3°F

v1 estimate from air temperature — not a sensor reading

Below Walleye's 65-75°F range

Sun & moon

Sunrise
7:41 AM
Sunset
6:03 PM
Moonrise
6:34 PM
Moonset
9:49 AM
Sky, wind & pressureat best window · 1 PM
Cloud cover
99%
Precip chance
35%
Wind
15 mph SSE
Pressure
30.33 inHg Falling

Species context

Why this score

Fair (55/100) for Walleye: water is estimated at 49.3°F, below Walleye's 65-75°F optimal range. Best window: Dusk — boosts feeding activity by about 40%, one of their peak feeding windows. That hour also overlaps a major solunar period. 30.33 inHg and falling pressure modeled about 5% above this fish's baseline. Moderate (10-20 mph) wind modeled about 20% above this fish's baseline.

What's driving the 1 PM score

Light window (dusk) is doing the most for this score. The score gives up the most on water temperature — 49.3°F estimated, about 45 points below its best. The whole day is then scaled to 108% for pre-frontal warm sector.

  • Water temperature · hurting
  • Light window · helping
  • Solunar period · helping
  • Barometric pressure · helping
  • Wind · helping
Show the numbers behind this

  1. Water temperature: 49.3°F estimated

    0 of 45 pts

    Optimal range 65-75°F

    Well supportedWater temperature governs a cold-blooded fish's metabolism, so it is the largest term in the model (Christie & Regier 1988). The figure is a thermal-lag estimate built from forecast air temperature and the time of year — not a sensor reading, and not this lake's actual measured water.

  2. Light window: Dusk

    30 of 30 pts

    Boosts feeding activity by about 40%

    Well supportedLow-light feeding windows are the strongest timing signal inside a single day. How much each window is worth is this species' own cited response, sourced in its model file, not a generic curve.

  3. Solunar period: Major period

    5 of 5 pts

    Not supported by testingPeer-reviewed testing of North American freshwater fisheries found no significant relationship between solunar values, lunar phase or lunar illumination and catch rates (SN Applied Sciences, 2023) — air temperature predicted catch better than any solunar table tested. It is shown because anglers expect it, and it is shown separately so you can discount it. The owner reviewed this evidence and demoted its weight accordingly.

  4. Barometric pressure: Stable (held neutral by the front)

    9.5 of 10 pts

    Modeled flat — no change from this fish's baseline

    ContestedThe barometric effect is real to most anglers but small and contested in the literature — several of the species studies cited in this model report null results — so it carries one of the smallest weights here.

  5. Wind: Moderate (10-20 mph)

    10 of 10 pts

    Modeled about 20% above this fish's baseline

    Moderately supportedWind stacks forage on windward structure, but both the size and the direction of the effect depend on the species and the water, so it carries a modest weight.

Then the whole score is scaled

Season: Fall — ×1.00 (100% of the ungated score)

How catchable Walleye are at this point in the year. This scales the whole score rather than competing with the factors above — a fish that is dormant this time of year cannot score well no matter how good the hour looks.

Weather front: Pre-frontal warm sector — ×1.08 (108% of the ungated score)

A multi-hour frontal pattern read from the day's forecast trajectory. Because a front IS a barometric event, it replaces the single-reading pressure factor above, which is held neutral — the barometer is never counted twice.

Those five factors add up to 54.5 of 100 points, and the two multipliers above take that to 59. The weights are tuning constants — solunar's was demoted after peer-reviewed testing found no predictive effect (#456), and the rest remain under owner review — shown here rather than hidden so you can weigh them against your own judgement.

What this score does not know

  • Water clarity. We have no source for it and do not estimate it.
  • Measured water temperature. The figure in the breakdown is a model over forecast air temperature, not a reading from a buoy or a probe.
  • Baitfish and forage activity.
  • How much fishing pressure this water has had.
  • Where the fish actually are. Depth bands are the species' published seasonal ranges, not an observation of this lake.
  • What anyone actually caught. No catch reports feed this score.

Conditions read from the National Weather Service as of Oct 27, 2026 at 12:31 AM CDT. Solunar periods and sun/moon times are computed, not fetched.

When best caught

It's currently fall. Walleye typically hold 20-55 ft deep this time of year — at an estimated 49.3°F, this looks like a slower time of year to target them, since water temp is outside their optimal range.

Current depth

20-55 ft

This is the seasonal depth band from the species model — relative to this species' typical behavior, not this lake's actual structure. True depth relative to this lake's bottom contours needs lake bathymetry (tracked in issue #175).

Today's solunar periods

  • Major: 12:45 AM–2:45 AM
  • Minor: 9:19 AM–10:19 AM
  • Major: 1:15 PM–3:15 PM
  • Minor: 6:04 PM–7:04 PM

Best times

When do walleye feed during the day?

Walleye feed most actively at Dawn and Dusk, when activity runs about 19% above the daily average across all four light windows.

  • Dawn1.40x

    Boosts feeding activity by about 40%.

  • Daytime0.60x

    Suppresses feeding activity by about 40%.

  • Dusk1.40x

    Boosts feeding activity by about 40%.

  • Night1.30x

    Boosts feeding activity by about 30%.

Hour by hour

Hourly bite forecast

HourBite scoreRatingLightWind
12 AM
57
FairNight10 mph E
1 AM
57
FairNight10 mph E
2 AM
57
FairNight10 mph E
3 AM
53
FairNight10 mph ESE
4 AM
53
FairNight15 mph ESE
5 AM
53
FairNight15 mph ESE
6 AM
53
FairNight15 mph ESE
7 AM
55
FairDawn15 mph ESE
8 AM
55
FairDawn15 mph ESE
9 AM
57
FairDusk15 mph SE
10 AM
57
FairDusk15 mph SE
11 AM
55
FairDusk15 mph SE
12 PM
55
FairDusk15 mph SSE
1 PM
59
FairDusk15 mph SSE
2 PM
59
FairDusk10 mph SSE
3 PM
59
FairDusk10 mph SSE
4 PM
55
FairDusk10 mph S
5 PM
55
FairDusk10 mph S
6 PM
57
FairDusk10 mph S
7 PM
54
FairNight10 mph S
8 PM
52
FairNight5 mph S
9 PM
52
FairNight5 mph S
10 PM
52
FairNight5 mph S
11 PM
52
FairNight5 mph S

Location

North Pipe Lake · 45.5316, -92.2001

Map data © OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap contributors