Understanding Solunar Intelligence in CatchMate

What is Solunar Intelligence?

Solunar theory holds that the gravitational influence of the moon on water triggers increased fish activity at predictable times each day. The effect is strongest around a new or full moon — when tidal forces are at their peak — and the daily feeding windows correspond to the moon's overhead and underfoot positions, plus its rise and set.

For carp and specimen anglers, this matters more than most. Carp are highly sensitive to environmental pressure and light levels. Many experienced anglers already plan sessions around moon phases. CatchMate's Solunar Intelligence feature lets you log that data automatically, see it mapped against your catches, and discover whether lunar timing genuinely explains patterns in your own results.

How to Enable It

Solunar Intelligence is off by default — it's an opt-in feature:

1. Open Settings in CatchMate
2. Scroll to the Moon Phases section
3. Toggle Solunar Intelligence on

Once enabled, moon data appears across your session history, venue history, fishing plan, and analytics. Toggle it off at any time to hide the data — it remains stored and will reappear when you switch it back on.

What You'll See

In Session History

Every logged session displays a solunar summary in its weather tile:

• Moon phase name and illumination percentage
• A star rating for that day's solunar strength
• All four solunar windows for that date, with exact start and end times

For a 48-hour carp session, this lets you look back and see exactly when the moon was at its most influential — and whether your runs clustered around those windows.

In Venue History

The history tab for each venue shows a moon emoji and star rating on every session row. Scroll through your lake's history and immediately see which sessions coincided with a full or new moon — and cross-reference with totals.

In the Fishing Plan (Intelligence)

The weekly forecast shows a solunar badge on each day. Tap any day for the full breakdown — moon phase, illumination, and the four daily windows with exact times. Plan your bivvy arrival to coincide with a major window. A Wednesday full moon means ★★★★ conditions with two major windows landing at dawn and dusk.

In Catch Pattern Analytics

The Solunar Correlation panel analyses all your logged catches and shows what percentage occurred during a major window, a minor window, or outside any window. For specimen anglers who log every take, this becomes one of the most revealing data points in the entire app.

The Star Rating System

Ratings are based purely on moon phase strength — gravitational influence on water:

Rating	Moon Phase	Conditions
★★★★	New Moon / Full Moon	Maximum pull, peak solunar conditions
★★★	Waxing / Waning Gibbous	Strong conditions
★★	Waxing / Waning Crescent	Moderate conditions
★	First / Last Quarter	Weakest pull

A ★★★★ rating applies to the whole day. A ★★★★ day with a major window at 2am on an overnight session is a very different prospect to a ★ quarter moon. The rating tells you the quality of the day — the windows tell you when to be ready.

Major and Minor Solunar Windows

Each day has four windows, calculated from the moon's position relative to your session venue:

Major Windows (2 per day)

Approximately two hours each. These occur when the moon is directly overhead (upper transit) and directly underfoot (lower transit). These are the strongest feeding triggers and are widely regarded as the most productive times to have a bait in the water.

Minor Windows (2 per day)

Approximately one hour each. These occur at moonrise and moonset. Secondary feeding periods — fish often show and move, but intensity is lower than a major window.

For overnight sessions, knowing that a major window runs 3:15am–5:15am means you check your alarms at 3am, top up your spots, and stay sharp. Solunar windows help make sense of when the action happened — and help you plan for when it will happen next.

Using the Catch Correlation Data

Once you have a bank of sessions logged, the Solunar Correlation panel becomes genuinely powerful. It answers a simple question: do your carp run during solunar windows, or is it random?

For most specimen anglers, the data tends to show that a disproportionate number of takes cluster around major and minor windows — particularly major windows on high-rated (★★★★) days. But this varies by venue, by season, and by species. CatchMate shows you your data from your venues.

The correlation panel breaks down the percentage of your catches that fell during:

• A major window
• A minor window
• No solunar window

Over time — with catches properly timestamped — this tells you whether the theory holds at your lake.

Your Existing Sessions

All your previously logged sessions are automatically populated with solunar data based on their date, time, and venue location. There's no manual backfill required. Enable the toggle and your full history is immediately visible.

Solunar Intelligence is included in CatchMate at no extra cost. Enable it in Settings → Moon Phases.