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Smith Bay (Illinois) — a popular fishing spot. About 1.5 km² in area. This is a sea water — its bite forecast is a marine one, computed apart from rivers and lakes. This page shows an hourly bite forecast for today and the week ahead; the algorithm factors in the weather, atmospheric pressure, and the moon phase.
The bite is strong — fish are active. Weather is steady, with no sharp swings — fish behave predictably.
Best time — 06:00–08:00 (dawn bite) and 19:00–21:00 (dusk bite).
Look for structure — reefs, flats, channel edges; work them slowly near the bottom.
In clear water, natural colors work best: trolling spoon or spinner.
It's a hot day — a hat, sunglasses, and plenty of water are a must.
Worth going — it's a productive day.
The computed water temperature is around 80 °F — warmer than the 43–59 °F comfort range for Coho salmon: in the heat it drops deeper and feeds less often.
Coho salmon works the twilight: the peaks are pinned to sunrise and sunset — their times are in the sun-and-moon card above.
Pressure is dropping 0.03 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 peak season for Coho salmon here.
These are the same values the bite curve above was computed from. How the forecast works
Partly cloudy · feels like +101°
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?