Reading the Moon: The Story Behind Solunar
What solunar tables are, and how an old almanac page became our Solunar design.
Anyone who has fished the Bay long enough has a theory about when the bite turns on. Some go by the tide. Some go by the wind. And some will tell you the fish don’t care what the clock says; they care where the moon is.
Where solunar tables come from
In 1926 an outdoor writer named John Alden Knight started gathering the folk wisdom of fishermen and hunters and testing it against the moon. The idea he landed on was simple. Fish and game move most when the moon is straight overhead or straight underfoot, and they stir again when it rises and sets. He called the result solunar tables, from sun and lunar, and they’ve been printed in newspapers, magazines and almanacs ever since.
The tables split each day into major periods, roughly two hours around the moon passing overhead or underfoot, and minor periods, about an hour around moonrise and moonset. The days around a new or full moon are supposed to be the strongest of the month.
Is it science? People still argue about that. But plenty of anglers and duck hunters still check the tables, and anyone who has watched a dead morning turn on all at once has at least wondered.
Drawing it like an almanac
We wanted the design to look like something you’d find folded in a tackle box or tacked up behind the counter at a bait shop, not a modern graphic. So it’s built like a page from an old almanac: a hand-engraved crescent moon holding a sun at the center, all eight phases of the moon around it, and the coordinates of home waters in small type.
It isn’t in our brand colors, and that’s on purpose. Solunar has two palettes of its own. On the light shirts it’s a navy so dark it reads almost black, with a rust sun. On the dark ones it’s cream with an aged gold sun, like ink on an old page.
If you’re planning a trip around the moon this fall, check the 2026 rockfish rules before you go.
What it’s printed on
Every garment is a Comfort Colors garment-dyed blank, printed direct to garment so the ink stays soft: a heavyweight tee, a long sleeve, a crewneck and a hoodie. Each one has the small moon-and-sun icon on the chest and the full plate across the back. The icon also goes on a white enamel camp mug and a 3-inch sticker for the tackle box.
The rest of the lineup
Look up the next major period, get on the water a little early and see for yourself.
An almanac moon · 6 piecesSolunarOne design, drawn like a page from an old almanac: an engraved moon holding a sun, all eight phases, and the coordinates of home waters. On tees, long sleeves, fleece, a camp mug and a sticker.Shop Solunar From the Solunar collection
- Solunar Almanac Tee
- Solunar Almanac Hoodie
- Solunar Camp Mug
Everything in this story
Solunar almanac tee + solunar almanac hoodie + solunar camp mug = $150. Ships free.
Shop the collection
Solunar almanac tee + solunar almanac hoodie + solunar camp mug = $150. Ships free. Shop all collection →
