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Daytime offers best fishing

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2009

Today the first-quarter moon arrived at 3:22 a.m. and it brought with it a steadily increasing early-morning feeding migration which anglers should easily take advantage of if they locate the higher oxygenated areas of the lake.

There still remain two equal feeding migrations during the daylight hours. Both occur during the hours of six through nine. The ratings should reach 7 or 8 on the 10-scale today but expect this to not stay equal - the evening bite will rapidly diminish in intensity and duration while the morning bite does the opposite. By Tuesday the morning migration will remain an 8 and the evening will drop to a 5 at best.

Nighttime anglers should start to prepare for their best fishing period of the month of June. As this new moon becomes full next week, more and more fish will feed from dusk to midnight when the lake's oxygen level is highest and water is flowing into the lake from the daily rain.

Fishing facts

Water temperatures start in the mid to upper 70s in the early morning and by mid-afternoon reach the lower 80s. If the afternoons are cloudy and remain hot with low winds, the oxygen levels of our lakes is not replenished but instead drop significantly, which continues through the night and this negatively impacts the early-morning feeding migration.

So keep this in mind as you plan to fish in the early morning. You're best mornings will be after a bright sunny day lasting into the early afternoon, followed by the usual evening rains - the later, the better.

Fishing fiction

"The largemouth bass don't spawn in June." This is flatly false, for I have a personally seen and have emails with pictures and information proving that post-spawn Bass were caught in deeper lakes in Highlands County during the month of June in 2008, 07, and 06. And by the way, for the record, they were the largest bass I have ever seen - 30 inches with weights in the 15-pound range.

Fishing feature

Tomorrow, June 1, is the official start of Hurricane Season which makes everyone a little nervous, which can be considered by some to be exciting while others make plans to head north. And then there are a few who just say, "We could use a few of them this year, that's for sure."

I for one am leaning close to the latter group for I have had just about enough of this ongoing, lingering, never-ending, pain-in-the-neck, drought - does it sound like I'm starting to get in a bad mood? That would be an understatement.

When I moved down to Central Florida in 2004 I mentioned to my neighbors that I wanted to experience a hurricane - four months later I had experienced four of them. In 2005 everyone said "the norm was one every few years but that a few tropical storms were a regular thing", and it ended up being a normal rainy season - life was good for the Florida angler - and then "normal" ended and has started since.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the past few weeks has caused me to start to become optimistic and lay aside my lamentations - which I apologize for even though it did feel good to rant for a second there. My new lawn and trees survived and are reviving. The lakes have less of a deficit to recover from than they did last year at this time. The weather pattern seems to suggest future promises of significant rains.

I think it might be OK to hope again since nature is getting into the present-day spirit and "spreading the rain around" to our area - It definitely is the one good thing in this season of spreading abundance around, thank God for "climate change" ...right?

Fishing flash

Lake Istokpoga's current level - Saturday morning 38.42' above sea level - is two inches above the maximum level (38.25') set by the rainy season water management schedule.

The three main gates were open yesterday morning at 1.6 feet and flowing 1340 cubic feet per second.

South Florida Water Management District has been keeping the lake's level right at the maximum allowed level since the rainy season started two days after I wrote on the subject of SFWMD "rolling the dice" on when the rainy season would start. As luck would have it, they rolled the big winner.

Now let's hope the current weather pattern continues for the next two month and provides a few tropical storms - we haven't seen the characteristics of a "normal rainy season" for three years. Last June barely qualified as "normal" and August was above normal with tropical storm Fay saving the season and our lakes from what would have been a disaster with the last six months being the driest on record.

Lake Okeechobee's level is at 11.13' above sea level and rising gradually thanks to an early rainy season making it necessary to release water from the Upper Kissimmee Basin chain of lakes and the river.

What this great lake sorely needs is for a slow gradual increase in lake level instead of the rapid rise caused by Fay at the beginning of the last fall. The shoreline vegetation thrives during low water periods and needs to grow and keep pace with the rate of lake level increase in order to survive and provide a healthy aquatic habitat.

Your Lake Manager's Contact Information:

Clell Ford, Lakes Management Specialist - Highlands County, 4434 George Blvd., Sebring, Florida 33875. Phone: 863-402-6545, e-mail: Cford@hcbcc.org

Vicki Pontius, Parks and Recreation Director - Highlands County, 4344 George Blvd., Sebring, Florida 33875. Phone: 863-402-6812, e-mail: VPONTIUS@hcbcc.org

Steven Gornak, Biological Scientist IV, Aquatic Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Sub-Section, Division of Habitat and Species Conservation, 3991 S.E. 27th Court, Okeechobee, FL 34974. Phone: 863-462-5190 (SunCom 761-5190), Fax: 863-462-5194 (SunCom 761-5194), Mobile: 863-697-6256, e-mail: steven.gornak@myfwc.com

Tournament news - note changes

The Monday Morning Lake Jackson Black Bass Fishing Tournament is open to the public and launches every Monday morning at 8 a.m. with weigh-in at 1 p.m. Entry fee is $10 per boat with a "winner-take-all" payout. One person or two per boat, three legal (more than 14 inches) bass per boat, and one bass over 22 inches per angler. For more information, call Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home) or 863-273-4062 (cell).

The Wednesday Morning Black Bass Fishing Tournament has been suspended for the summer months and will resume in the Fall. For more information, contact Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home) or 863-273-4062 (cell), e-mail bassbutchie60@aol.com or call Dwight Ameling at 863-471-3305.

Dave Douglass is a bass-fishing guide and Secretary of the Florida Freshwater Fishing Coalition - FLFFC.org. He can be reached at 863-381-8474, HighlandsBassAngler.com, or e-mail him at davidpdouglass@hotmail.com

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