When to go, rated from moon, tides, and light.
What we've verified: we tested this calendar against three years of real Southern California dock counts. The signal that held up is season + water temperature — when you pick a target species, the rating now leans mostly on whether it's the right time of year and the right water temp for that fish. That's what the stars are really telling you.
What the moon turned out NOT to do: in our backtest, "solunar" day-picking (rating a whole day by the moon's position) showed no power to predict which day fishes better — so it now barely moves the stars. But dock counts can't tell us what time of day the fish bit, so the classic claim that majors and minors matter within your day is untested, not disproven. We still show each day's major/minor windows — use them to pick your hours, not your day.
Tides & light are real mechanics: moving water and the dawn/dusk transitions genuinely shape feeding. They carry the day-to-day spread in the general rating, and the tide chart shows when the water moves.
Water temperature is observed from a local buoy for recent days and a seasonal estimate for days too far out to measure (never a forecast).
One honest limit: a season-based calendar can't see an unusual bite — the biggest yellowtail days in our data came in March, far off the "right" season. That's what What's Biting → is for: it tracks what's actually being caught right now versus the seasonal norm.
Tide predictions: NOAA CO-OPS station 9410680 (Long Beach). Water temperature: NDBC buoy 46253 (San Pedro South). Always check conditions and current CDFW regulations before you head out. A high rating is a suggestion, not advice.