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Blue catfish lives in Illinois. Today's bite forecast, a day-by-day and hour-by-hour activity calendar, best time and baits.
Wednesday, September 2
The bite is weak — fish are sluggish. Weather is steady, with no sharp swings — fish behave predictably.
Best time — 00:00–05:00 and 23:00–23:00 (nighttime activity).
Work the cover — snags, weed edges, hole entrances; retrieve the lure with pauses.
In clear water, natural colors work best: cut-bait bottom rig or large bottom bait.
It's a hot day — a hat, sunglasses, and plenty of water are a must.
A slow day — go only if you really feel like it.
The computed water temperature is around 80 °F — inside the 68–86 °F comfort range for Blue catfish, so baseline activity is high.
Blue catfish feeds at night: the peak falls in the dark hours, between sunset and sunrise.
Pressure is dropping 0.03 inHg over the day — fish are usually more active ahead of a weather change.
September is a slow season for Blue catfish: the best months fall at another time of year.
These are the same values the bite curve above was computed from. How the forecast works
Clear · feels like +100°
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.
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