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Three Buoys Tackle • Elkton, MD
Three Buoys Tackle
THE CROW'S NEST

Fishing windows, with the working shown

Every forecast app hands you a number and asks you to believe it. This one shows its arithmetic: each window is the sum of named factors — first light, the solunar periods, moving tide, a live temperature reading — and anything we could not measure is listed by name, with the reason. Research first. Claims second.

Waning gibbous · 93% lit · day 17.3 of the lunar month

Running at Chesapeake City, C&D Canal this month

Seasonal claims cite the guide that backs them.

Blue Catfish

Fresh cut bait on heavy bottom rigs in the channel

Invasive — no limits; harvest is encouraged.

Gear for this → Why we say this →

Chain Pickerel

Inline spinners and jerkbaits along wood and weed edges

61.5°F reading is above the 34–60°F feeding band — expect a slower bite.

Gear for this → Why we say this →

Striped Bass

Topwater at first light over structure; jig the channel edges after sun-up

61.5°F reading sits inside the 45–70°F feeding band.

Seasons, slots and closures change — check MD DNR before targeting stripers.

Gear for this → Why we say this →

The next three days

Today

2026-10-28
Sunrise
7:26 am
Sunset
6:07 pm
Moonrise
7:40 pm
Moonset
10:33 am
1:53 pm – 4:23 pm Good
  • · Solunar major — moon underfoot.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 5 mph — comfortable water.
4:37 pm – 6:52 pm Good
  • · Dusk — the evening feed.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 3 mph — comfortable water.
6:55 pm – 8:25 pm Fair
  • · Solunar minor — moonrise.
  • · Tide is moving (flood) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 2 mph — comfortable water.

Tomorrow

2026-10-29
Sunrise
7:27 am
Sunset
6:05 pm
Moonrise
8:42 pm
Moonset
11:44 am
2:25 am – 4:55 am Good
  • · Solunar major — moon overhead.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 0 mph — comfortable water.
6:42 am – 8:57 am Fair
  • · First light — low sun and feeding light.
  • · Around slack water (slack before the flood) — expect a pause mid-window.
  • · Forecast wind about 0 mph — comfortable water.
10:59 am – 12:29 pm Fair
  • · Solunar minor — moonset.
  • · Tide is moving (flood) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 1 mph — comfortable water.
2:57 pm – 6:50 pm Prime
  • · Solunar major — moon underfoot.
  • · Dusk — the evening feed.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 5 mph — comfortable water.
7:57 pm – 9:27 pm Fair
  • · Solunar minor — moonrise.
  • · Tide is moving (flood) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 2 mph — comfortable water.

Fri Oct 30

2026-10-30
Sunrise
7:29 am
Sunset
6:04 pm
Moonrise
9:53 pm
Moonset
12:44 pm
3:29 am – 5:59 am Good
  • · Solunar major — moon overhead.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 3 mph — comfortable water.
6:44 am – 8:59 am Fair
  • · First light — low sun and feeding light.
  • · Around slack water (slack before the ebb) — expect a pause mid-window.
  • · Forecast wind about 3 mph — comfortable water.
11:59 am – 1:29 pm Fair
  • · Solunar minor — moonset.
  • · Tide is moving (flood) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 7 mph — comfortable water.
4:05 pm – 6:49 pm Prime
  • · Solunar major — moon underfoot.
  • · Dusk — the evening feed.
  • · Tide is moving (ebb) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 5 mph — comfortable water.
9:08 pm – 10:38 pm Fair
  • · Solunar minor — moonrise.
  • · Tide is moving (flood) through this window.
  • · Forecast wind about 3 mph — comfortable water.

Not in this forecast

Every factor had live data behind it for this forecast.

Live water temperature: 61.5°F — read from the gauge, never modelled.

Live gauges → Tides & solunar → This water's page →

How a window earns its score

Three layers, in order of certainty. Astronomy is arithmetic and never missing: sunrise, sunset, moon phase, moonrise and set, and the lunar transits. Dawn and dusk are feeding fact; the solunar majors and minors are a century of angling tradition, and we label them as the theory they are. Season comes from our own guides — every species claim on this page links to the article that backs it. Live readings — water temperature against the species’ feeding band, tide movement, forecast wind — join the score only when the gauge or the NWS actually answered.

Overlap is the whole game: first light landing on a solunar major with a moving tide is what a Prime morning is. The score is the receipt, not the promise — weather changes, and fish have not read the theory.

FactorWeight
First light / dusk+25
Solunar major (moon over/underfoot)+30
Solunar minor (moonrise / moonset)+15
Tide moving through the window+10
Light wind (≤12 mph)+5
Heavy wind (≥18 mph)-15
New or full moon×1.2 on lunar factors

The lookout grades itself

0 stamped reports in the book

Every catch and fishing report filed on this site is stamped with the conditions it happened under — the moon, the light, the solunar period, and what this page was rating that hour. The stamps accumulate into the one thing no forecast anywhere publishes: its own record. Descriptive, not causal — this is where the community’s catches actually landed, never proof the rating made the fish bite.

The book is open — 0 of 20 reports stamped so far.

We publish the percentages when there is enough in the log to mean something. Small-sample percentages are how honest data becomes a dishonest claim. File a report and the book fills.

Fished a window? Tell the fleet how it held up.

Field reports are how the lookout gets sharper — and how the next angler decides.

File a field report Log the catch