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Indian River Bay (Delaware) — one of the area's fishing spots. Salt water, not fresh — so this page carries its own marine bite forecast. A smart bite calendar — moon phase, atmospheric pressure, and weather combined into an hourly fish-activity forecast for the coming days.
Recorded 1 catch here. Most commonly caught: Striped bass. Peak season: November.
Thursday, September 3
The bite is moderate — fish feed in short bursts. Pressure is dropping — this usually boosts the bite.
Best time — 00:00–04:00 and 23:00–23:00 (nighttime activity).
Look for structure — reefs, flats, channel edges; work them slowly near the bottom.
The water's turning murky — go with bright, noisy lures: soft-plastic jig or live bait.
It's a hot day — a hat, sunglasses, and plenty of water are a must. Rain is expected — don't forget a rain jacket or a waterproof shell.
An average day — best chances during peak windows.
The computed water temperature is around 76 °F — inside the 61–79 °F comfort range for Black drum, so baseline activity is high.
Black drum feeds at night: the peak falls in the dark hours, between sunset and sunrise.
Pressure is dropping 0.09 inHg over the day — fish are usually more active ahead of a weather change.
One more input — the moon's feeding windows: within their hours the score sits higher than across the rest of the day. The window times are in the “Solunar feeding periods” card below.
September is an active season for Black drum here.
These are the same values the bite curve above was computed from. How the forecast works
| 00:00 | 01:00 | 02:00 | 03:00 | 04:00 | 05:00 | 06:00 | 07:00 | 08:00 | 09:00 | 10:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 15:00 | 16:00 | 17:00 | 18:00 | 19:00 | 20:00 | 21:00 | 22:00 | 23:00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 ft | -0.2 ft | -0.8 ft | -1.4 ft | -2.1 ft | -2.7 ft | -3.0 ft | -2.8 ft | -2.1 ft | -1.3 ft | -0.5 ft | 0.3 ft | 0.8 ft | 0.7 ft | 0.2 ft | -0.4 ft | -1.2 ft | -2.0 ft | -2.8 ft | -3.1 ft | -2.8 ft | -2.4 ft | -1.8 ft | -1.2 ft |
Open-Meteo tide model, grid point 7.5 mi away
Open-Meteo Marine model, grid cell 7.5 mi from the waterbody. Values are daily means.
Drizzle · feels like +87°
The day is 2 min shorter than yesterday.
Sunshine hours count direct sun only — cloud cover cuts it, so it is shorter than daylight.
The windows are set by the moon's transit and rise, and the forecast above already accounts for them: within these hours the bite score sits higher than across the rest of the day, while the day's overall level still comes from the catch-calibrated model.
What are solunar periods?Measured river conditions are available for Indian River Bay: current gauge height, streamflow, and water temperature when reported by the source.
USGS gauge INDIAN RIVER BAY INLET NEAR BETHANY BEACH, DE, 1 mi away · measured 2014-10-01 00:54 · data source · provisional data, subject to revision