Today's Bite Forecast
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Bite forecast
Pick a lake, a species, and a date to see the hourly bite forecast and the day's overall rating.
Overall rating
Best window: 8 PM (Good · 71/100)
Some conditions data (cloud cover or barometric pressure) was unavailable from the weather service for this day — the rating above reflects only what was available.
Est. water temp
66.2°F
v1 estimate from air temperature — not a sensor reading
Below Muskellunge's 75-80°F range
Sun & moon
Species context
Good (60/100) for Muskellunge: water is estimated at 66.2°F, below Muskellunge's 75-80°F optimal range. Best window: Dusk -- boosts feeding activity by about 31%, one of their peak feeding windows. That hour also overlaps a minor solunar period. Stable pressure modeled flat — no change from this fish's baseline. Calm (0-5 mph) wind modeled flat — no change from this fish's baseline.
Light window (dusk) is doing the most for this score. The score gives up the most on water temperature — 66.2°F estimated, about 23.5 points below its best.
Water temperature: 66.2°F estimated
16.5 of 40 pts
Optimal range 75-80°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.
Hour by hour
| Hour | Bite score | Rating | Light | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 PM | 71 | Good | Dusk | 3 mph NE |
| 9 PM | 66 | Good | Dusk | 2 mph NE |
| 10 PM | 51 |
Palmer Lake · 46.1997, -89.4996
Map data © OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap contributors
Light window: Dusk
25 of 25 pts
Boosts feeding activity by about 31%
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.
Solunar period: Minor period
9 of 15 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. Its weight is under owner review.
Barometric pressure: Stable
10 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.
Wind: Calm (0-5 mph)
10 of 10 pts
Modeled flat — no change from 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: Summer — ×1.00 (100% of the ungated score)
How catchable Muskellunge 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: No clear front — ×1.00 (100% of the ungated score)
A multi-hour frontal pattern read from the day's forecast trajectory. No front is classified today, so this changes nothing and the single-reading pressure factor above does its normal job.
Those five factors add up to 70.5 of 100 points, and the two multipliers above take that to 71. The weights are v1 tuning constants under owner review — they are shown here rather than hidden so you can weigh them against your own judgement.
What this score does not know
Conditions read from the National Weather Service as of Jul 28, 2026 at 8:21 PM CDT. Solunar periods and sun/moon times are computed, not fetched.
It's currently summer. Muskellunge typically hold 6-20 ft deep this time of year -- at an estimated 66.2°F, this looks like a slower time of year to target them, since water temp is outside their optimal range.
6-20 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).
Best times
Muskellunge feed most actively at Dusk, when activity runs about 31% above the rest of the day.
Suppresses feeding activity by about 25%.
Suppresses feeding activity by about 6%.
Boosts feeding activity by about 31%.
Suppresses feeding activity by about 50%.
| Fair |
| Night |
| 1 mph E |
| 11 PM | 51 | Fair | Night | 1 mph E |
|---|