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Highlands Today

Expect The Best Shoreline Fishing Of Your Lifetime

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DAVE DOUGLASS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 3, 2008

The lunar cycle is between the end of the new-moon phase and the start of the first quarter moon phase, which means anglers find themselves waiting for the new morning bite to increase in intensity and duration. At the same time, they're enduring the hot afternoon weather conditions of the major feeding migration peak time of noon to 2 p.m.

Today, anglers will enjoy the new moon effects with the mass migration occurring just as the summer heat intensifies. With the probability of an afternoon thunderstorm or two, wind and cloud cover provides some relief from the sun's rays, but also means a potential danger of lightning and excessive high winds - all in a days work for the Florida largemouth bass angler.

On Monday and Tuesday, as the peak period moves later into the afternoon and diminishing in intensity and duration, the majority of the fish populations will move in mass into shoreline vegetations making excellent shoreline angling opportunities which we haven't experiences on most of our lakes due to the past drought.

The early morning bite progresses into the daytime major feeding migration more each day this week. The first quarter moon phase occurs on Friday at 8:20 p.m., which will provide an some of the best early morning fishing for the month. However, today through Wednesday, anglers who are out on the lake before sunrise might locate some decent fish migrating along shorelines as the nighttime feeding session ends.

Fishing Facts

As Florida's lakes rise and return to their normal levels, the fish migration routes will return to their natural state. This means a much longer route for fish to swim along, which means more expended energy in order to feed.

Bait fish will move into the new shoreline vegetations for cover and safety, and since there is so much new thick growth, there are plenty of places to hide from their predators. The result is, the larger fish must hunt more in order to feed and this means anglers who love to work the shoreline will be "back in the bass seat saddle again" - finally.

Be expecting some of the best shoreline fishing of your lifetimes - seriously, I'm not overstating it.

When was the last time you experienced your favorite lake being down over six feet, never?

Very rare one-in-a-lifetime conditions also happened for the fish populations. Feeding became very easy because there was less water, therefore less area, for predators to feed. The result is that the survivors grew record weights over the past two years. And now those "winners" are traveling up and down shorelines which they have never experienced before looking to find their food.

For the bait fish, help finally arrived in the nick of time. The rise of the water allowed them to move into shelter cover and the odds of them surviving has just substantially increased. The "eat or be eaten" game is more evenly matched now for the world of the fish.

Anglers literally reap the benefits they will likely only see one time in their lifetime. The first effects of the one-in-100-year drought are at first adversely negative, but at the end are conversely positive for the angler.

My "News and Stories" segment of this article should have lots of new material featuring many a shoreline trophy catch and record stringers from flippin' & pitchin' the great Florida shorelines.

Fishing Story

I was out on the water the other day - at work in the office - doing some research for one of my bass tournament clients for an upcoming event. I was waiting for the bite to turn on while attempting to hit a dormant bass on the head to get her attention and promote a retaliatory strike. I had worked areas of the lake which I had previously proven to be excellent fishing holes that produce in most weather conditions and lunar phases. The results were as expected when bass are waiting for oxygen levels to rise along with the sun, a few small dinks that would not be '"keepers" in a tournament.

I looked at my watch and paused to recall my own published advice on how to approach bass angling for the next three days and consulted my own version of the bathymetric map for the lake and moved to the area where bass should migrate to under the circumstances at hand.

Now, I should tell you that when working in the "office" I don't use open hooks, but instead crimp the hooks over as to not injury the client's potential tournament stringer. This also holds the plastic bait in place as the fish attempts to eat it while being resisted by me, attempting to "train" her in preparation for my client to catch in a few days.

I set the boat down 50 feet from the intended starting point and cast to the lead edge of the shoreline vegetation. When the bait splashed into the water after landing on the lily pad leaf, the pads 15 feet away flexed contrary to the wind affects letting me know I had calculated everything correctly.

As the bait fell about three feet in six feet of water column the line stopped but I didn't feel any "tap" or "thump" and didn't see the line move at all. My normal impulse is to pull the trigger, but because I'm in the office, I slowly raise the rod tip instead to check to see if it feels heavy. Sure enough, the line slowly moves upwind and toward the surface.

Now the fun starts as I attempt to retrieve the bass to the boat using only the fishes' desire to eat the bait instead of the usual hook-set affect. A steady firm reel retrieve leading of a large bass is surprisingly easily done. She swam right along with the leading of the bait she was attempting to eat, to about six or seven feet of the boat and let go once she saw it.

I did get a chance to see her and guessed she was at least six pounds.

I quickly pitched back further into the pads to see if there was more than one. Sure enough, her bigger sister was waiting there with quite a bit more enthusiasm and grabbed the bait and moves steadily through the lily pad field, mowing down all the pads in her patch to open water. She was much larger than the first one for there is no bass but a very large bass that is able to swim with a hookless bait on braided line through thick pads without letting go. She made it to the edge and noticed me standing there and released; diving for cover. My guess again, an eight-plus-pound bass.

I decided to move closer to shore and worked my way into the pads and pitched to the back section of the field and started to swim the worm under and over pads to an open section of the field. As the bait fell into the open area, the line jumped and started to slowly move down.

I free-spooled the reel to see what would happen.

I needed to understand the way she would move through the area; fish always use the same routes. However, the line became snagged on the pad stem to which she responded by pulling the pads down with easy as she moved along her route.

Once again, a bass large enough to hold onto a bait without a hook, regardless of the resistance of the line caused by being tangled in thick vegetation. I didn't get to see the third bass for she let go before coming to the edge of the Lily Pad field.

I couldn't help thinking, "I wish I wasn't in the office today and fishing instead."

Fishing Tournaments

The Wednesday Morning Black Bass Fishing Tournament is open to the public. Next event is Aug. 6 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, Cell (863) 446-1310 bassbutchie60@aol.com or Dwight Ameling at (863)471-3305.

FAST FACTS

The lunar cycle is between the end of the new-moon phase and the start of the first quarter moon phase

Dave Douglass can be reached at 863-381-8474, or e-mail him at davedouglass@sos-floridalakes.org.

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