Minnesota Best Fishing Times Today

Major periods, roughly 2 hours long, are centred on the moon passing overhead and underfoot; minor periods, roughly 1 hour, are centred on moonrise and moonset. This is the solunar theory John Alden Knight set out in 1926, a traditional guide for Minnesota waters and not a guarantee of bites.

Over Minnesota, moon times shift about 50 minutes later each day, so a major period that falls at dawn this week lands mid-morning next week. The 7-day row shows when one lines up with sunrise or sunset, the hours many Minnesota anglers already favour.

Solunar tables traditionally rate the days around the new and full moon highest; the phase and the share of the moon lit are on every Minnesota day card.

All 87 counties keep Central time. On the June solstice the first Minnesota sunrise comes in Cook County at 5:04 a.m. and the last in Rock County at 5:44 a.m., a 40 minute spread on the clock.

Around Saint Paul daylight lasts 15 hours 37 minutes on the June solstice and 8 hours 46 minutes on the December solstice, so the same solunar period can fall in daylight in summer and in the dark in winter. From Kittson County in the north to Mower County in the south the county centres are 5.1 degrees of latitude apart; on June 21 that is 16 hours 10 minutes of daylight against 15 hours 27 minutes.