High Winds Hamper All Attempts At Good Angling

For the Highlands County angler, there's good news and there's bad news, so which one do you want to read first?

Since I believe good news is created from properly handling the bad news first and then forming a plan to counter and/or adjust, you're stuck with the bad first: High winds will make fishing very tough this morning, if not impossible. In the afternoon the intensity will dissipate slightly from 30 to 20 miles per hour.

Depending on your preferred lake and boat ramp, there might be a possibility to fish northern areas tucked up tight against the northern shorelines, minimizing a majority of the wind's effects on your boat and fishing area. However, the temperatures will be dropping today and tonight, plus the barometric pressure is high, and fish fed heavily 30 hours ago. There's your bad news.

Now, the good news is, tomorrow starts a steady progression toward ideal fishing conditions, which will happen over the next five days leading up to the new moon that arrives on at 7:55 am on Jan. 26 - which happens to also be the lunar new year.

So, today if you had planned to go fishing, you might instead spend the time performing maintenance on your boat and tackle; making sure you have everything ready for a week of steady daily use.

There is nothing like knowing your boat is completely stocked, in a perfect operational state, and all tackle is ready to go when the best of all fishing situations suddenly occurs.

Preparation is the first step in the order leading to success.

For those of you that always have your boat and tackle up to par and ready to go and fish no matter what the weather conditions are, here are your peak periods throughout the rest of the week:

Today there is an early-morning bite that occurs from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. with a peak time from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. which under normal weather conditions would be a six or seven on a 10-point scale.

But today will today only reach a five on the scale.

Expect this to probably occur a little later though due to the current cold front reaching its low-point today. Both the afternoon and nighttime bites are dismal at best unless you know exactly where they are and can still cause them to bite in high winds. These conditions will however improve a little each day this week and by Friday and by the weekend expect excellent fishing conditions.

Thursday through Saturday, the early-morning bite builds both in intensity and duration, reaching a peak by the weekend of an eight or nine rating.

The afternoon-bite will also slightly improve but this has more to do with the weather conditions improving than the lunar cycle affects - warmer daytime water temperatures always stimulate fish to feed more. The nighttime bite will remain very poor and this will not change until the waxing of the next full moon starts.

However, as I have always said, "Fish always feed at night no matter what." So this poor rating is to be taken in the context of the fact that the usual great fishing conditions will be at their monthly low point for the next week.

Fishing Facts

Recently I overheard anglers talking about their understanding of various types of monthly fishing time charts which magazines, web sites, and other sources of information offer anglers as tools for planning their fishing events.

Many anglers (and these two individuals as well) are BASS members and read Bassmaster magazine every month, and are therefore very familiar with the "Astro Table" this organization provides.

The general consensus of these two experienced anglers was that since the table chart did not project a very high number for this upcoming week that fish would not be biting much this week.

This is incorrect for two reasons.

First, the chart is a 24-hour chart and not a daytime hour chart, which means that the total number provided takes into consideration the regular majority - 60 to 70 percent - feeding session of all fish at night. So to conclude that daytime fishing this week is not going to be good is a mistake, in fact the daylight fishing will be good at the very least while nighttime fishing reaches its lowest rating of "poor".

This same table shows that the lunar event of the Full Moon has the highest rating for the month of January, but the fact that makes this true is the 70% feeding nighttime peak rating boosting the total day feeding rating, which has a negative affect on the daytime feeding rating. In reality the opposite rating occurs for the daytime angler during the Full Moon.

In contrast, this same chart projects a 50% rating for the lunar event of the New Moon, which leads daytime anglers to think that fishing will be only half as good as it could be. The opposite is true, for that 50% rating happens during the day of which 40% of that rating happens during daylight hours and 10% at night. Since fish feed at night at the lowest month nighttime level or percentage, the daytime bite reaching the monthly maximum level.

The simple fact is among an overwhelming majority of anglers is that during the three days before and three days after the New Moon is the best daylight period of the month.

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 SE 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

Fishing Tournaments

The Outback USA Crappie Tournament is open to the public and will be held monthly.

The second event will be in February - dates yet to be determined. Entry fee is $5 and anglers can fish any lake of their choice and weigh-in on any day at Outback USA at 14021 US-27 South.

Application can be picked up at Outback USA which is half way between South Sebring and Lake Placid. Store hours are from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. every day.

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 inch) bass per boat, and one bass over 22 inches per angler. For information, call Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home) or 863-446-1310 (cell).

The Wednesday Morning Black Bass Fishing Tournament is open to the public. Next event is today on Lake Josephine. Time: 7:30 a.m. to noon. Pay at ramp - entry fee $30.00 per boat. One person may fish alone if you do not have a partner. For information, contact Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home) or 863-446-1310 (cell), email bassbutchie60@aol.com or call Dwight Ameling at 863-471-3305.