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A plain-language explanation of how we turn weather, tides, light, lunar timing, and pressure into a daily fishing view.
The app gives every forecast hour a rule-based fishability score. That score is explainable rather than a black box. The highest scoring period becomes the day’s best window, and the next strong period becomes the backup window.
No. Solunar timing is an important input, but this forecast is intentionally broader than a classic moon-only or day-rating system. We are trying to estimate whether a shore-based session is actually likely to be fishable in the forecast conditions.
Tide is one of the strongest signals. Rising tide currently scores better than low tide at our Sydney test locations, and hours close to a tide turn get an extra lift.
The model calculates classic major and minor solunar windows from lunar transit, underfoot, moonrise, and moonset events. Major periods score higher than minor periods, and new or full moon can strengthen them further. Solunar timing matters a lot, but it does not override poor wind, poor rain outlook, or weak shore fishability on its own.
Wind direction is judged relative to the spot, because some banks and bay edges handle certain winds better than others. Strong or gusty wind reduces the score, and high rain risk also applies a penalty. This is one of the main reasons our result can differ from solunar-only fishing calendars.
Yes. The score now includes barometric pressure, but it cares more about pressure movement than the absolute number. Rising pressure helps, falling pressure hurts, and stable healthy pressure can add a small bonus.
We store the forecast pressure for each hour and also the change over the previous three hours. That three-hour trend is what we mainly use in the score.
In the chart, pressure is shown as a small trend row: green arrows pointing up mean pressure is rising, orange arrows pointing down mean pressure is falling, and green dashes mean pressure is stable.
No. This is a guidance tool, not a promise. Water clarity, bait, swell, season, species behaviour, and lure choice can all make a real difference on the day.
The current model is intentionally transparent and easy to tune. It combines solunar timing with real forecast fishability. In short, it combines:
tide + light + solunar + moon phase + tide-change + wind-direction + temperature + pressure − wind penalty − rain penalty
The result is clipped into a practical display range so the app avoids fake extremes.
Weather and tide data can come from WillyWeather or Open-Meteo depending on backend configuration. Pressure is currently supplemented from Open-Meteo when using the WillyWeather weather endpoint because that endpoint does not expose hourly pressure in the way we need.