Submarius
Bite score: the best time to fish, rated hour by hour
Published April 16, 2026 · Last updated October 14, 2026
The bite score is a number from 0 to 10 for how likely fish are to be feeding at your spot that hour. It weighs light, moonlight, how fast the tide is moving, water temperature, wind and waves, and the habitat under your pin where we have seabed data. It rates timing and habitat. It doesn't tell you where the fish are.
The scale.
The app shows the score as a label with the number under it, like Active and 6.4/10.
What goes into it.
Where the sun is. Night hours score well below daylight ones, with a lift around sunrise and a slightly bigger one around sunset. Of the terms that change hour to hour, light moves the score most.
Only at night, and small: at most 5 percent. It grows with how much of the moon is lit, how high it sits and how clear the sky is. Moon phase on its own doesn't score.
How fast the water level is changing right now, compared with the strongest flow in the surrounding 24 hours. Running water lifts the score and slack water lowers it, by at most 10 percent either way. Where there's almost no tide, this fades to neutral.
Only the extremes count. Water colder than about 10 °C (50 °F) pulls the score down, by up to about a quarter at 6 °C (43 °F) and below. Water warmer than about 29 °C (84 °F) trims it, by up to about 14 percent. In between, it has no effect.
These don't change how fish feed. They limit how much water you can fish, so strong wind and big seas pull the score down.
Where we have seabed data under your pin, the score checks if it sits over the shelf (reef and structure fish) or beyond it (open water fish), and ranks the habitat against everywhere else we have data for, from depth, relief, structure and the coastline. Where it applies, habitat moves the score more than anything else: a reef that ranks near the top worldwide can read Hot through most daylight hours, and weak habitat pulls every hour down. Where we have no seabed data, the score runs on time of day and conditions alone.
How the pieces add up.
Every hour starts at 5.0. Each feeding term raises or lowers it by a share, wind and waves can only take away, and where we have seabed data the habitat rank scales the whole thing, from close to zero up to double. The result is held between 0 and 10. Tap the tile and it gives the reasons behind the number in plain words, such as "Moving water concentrates bait" or "Slack water, little current".
A missing input never moves the score. If we have no water temperature for your spot, that term is dropped from the breakdown and the score is worked out from what's left.
What it doesn't use.
A lot of fishing lore leans on these. The bite score doesn't use any of them.
- Barometric pressure. Neither the reading nor its trend. The Fishing dashboard shows pressure and its 6 hour change as a separate tile, so you can read it yourself.
- Solunar tables. No major or minor feeding periods.
- Moon phase windows. A full or new moon doesn't score as a feeding window. The moon only counts as light at night.
- Tide stage or range. High, low or spring tide doesn't score on its own. What counts is how fast the water is moving.
- Catch reports. No one's catches or fish sightings feed it, and it doesn't know which species are around. It rates the hour, not a particular fish.
How often it updates, and where to find it.
The score is recomputed whenever conditions for your spot refresh, which is about hourly. It's an hourly forecast, not a live reading of the water.
Pick Fishing as your activity and the bite score sits at the top of Today, next to the tide and the moon. It also shows in every freshwater layout. Free users see today's score for the current hour. Pro shows all 8 days, each with its peak and roughly when it lands, and adds the Bite Score map layer, an hourly map of habitat and time of day for the next 24 hours, ranked against what's on screen (not the score itself, and not fish or catch). It splits the water into reef and structure fish on the shelf and open water fish beyond it. Free and Pro get the same number.
Where the data comes from.
Wind, wave height, cloud cover and sea surface temperature come from global weather and ocean forecast models. Tides come from NOAA predictions within about 50 km of a US tide station, and from a global tide model everywhere else. Sun and moon positions are worked out in house for every hour. Habitat comes from a seabed grid we build from depth, relief, structure and coastline data, and it doesn't cover every stretch of water yet.
Common questions.
In Submarius, the bite score is a number from 0 to 10, labelled Off, Slow, Moderate, Active or Hot, for how likely fish are to be feeding at your spot that hour. It weighs light, moonlight at night, how fast the tide is moving, water temperature extremes, and wind and waves, plus the habitat under your pin where we have seabed data. It rates timing and habitat, not where fish are.
Light is the biggest of the terms that change through the day, so daylight hours score above night hours, with a lift around sunrise and a slightly bigger one around sunset. Moving water adds up to 10 percent and slack water takes up to 10 percent off. Strong wind, big seas, and very cold or very warm water pull it down at any hour.
No. Pressure and pressure trend are not inputs. The Fishing dashboard shows sea level pressure and its 6 hour trend as a separate tile, so you can weigh it next to the bite score yourself.
Today's score is free. Pro shows all 8 days, each with its peak, and adds the Bite Score map layer, an hourly map of habitat and time of day for the next 24 hours, ranked against what's on screen (not the score itself, and not fish or catch). Pro is $12.99 a month or $99 a year, each with a 7 day free trial, or $149 once with no trial (US prices, which differ in other countries). The score is the same number for free and Pro.
No. The score doesn't know about fish, species or catches. A Hot hour means the habitat, timing and conditions it weighs line up well at your pin. Finding the fish is still up to you.
Related.
- The Submarius fishing app, where the score lives with the tide, wind and pressure.
- Fishing conditions by location.
- Today's bite score at Half Moon Bay, Redondo Beach, Bodega Bay, Montauk and Maui.
- Bite score in the ocean conditions glossary.
See the bite score for your spot.
Drop a pin on your spot and pick Fishing. Today's score leads the tiles.