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Highlands Today

Abandon Afternoon, Research Early Morning

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DAVE DOUGLASS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

The peak feeding migration period starts today at the same time as the intense heat of the Florida summer afternoons.

From noon to 3:30 p.m., the moon will trigger the majority of fish to want to feed. If you locate the moving oxygenated water with a depth of four to eight feet and lily pads, or healthy semi-thick hydrilla with clearer water, you'll be setting your hook on some really nice fish.

Tomorrow is the start of a new early-morning bite, which starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 7 a.m. in the same areas as the afternoon bite.

However, be looking in more shallow depths of three to five feet in lily pads and cattails. The larger bass will be traveling along the outside edges of those two types of vegetation and occasionally venturing into the open spaces and pockets - up to 20 feet or more if there's suitable current and/or depth (24 to 30 inches is a minimum).

By Tuesday, the peak migration period of the day switches from the afternoon session to the very early morning session.

The morning migration intensifies and expands in duration as the afternoon summertime heat shuts off the ability of fish to digest their food because of low oxygen levels. This will force bass to feed when water temperatures are in the low 80s in areas where aquatic plants are not thick enough to diminish oxygen levels below five parts per million dissolved oxygen.

Tuesday's peak times are from 5:45 a.m. to 7 a.m., but the bite could be extended if there is substantial cloud cover.

If you're like me, you'll abandon the afternoon bite session and start researching the early morning bite instead. I'd rather fend off the mosquitoes than to deal with the blazing summer heat.

Fishing Facts

It's time to start thinking of color variations and sizes as the sun's spectrum begins to significantly change during the course of the day - green pumpkin colors for overcast mornings in cleaner water lakes.

Try brighter greens with some red glitter if there are clear skies in the morning. Add some black or dark brown to the green early in the morning as a last result. In the afternoon, however, you might want to try the brightest of colors along with watermelon green.

If you happen to be fishing in stained water where visibility is very poor, the darker colors such as black and blue, dark reds and black, and combos of Junebug with glitter.

The color red will steadily increase as a highly visible color as the summer progresses. This is because of the solar red spectrum increases as the sun travels lower to the south across the sky during the day. I personally prefer a red and black plastic with some flash.

If I am using a black and blue jig, I'll add some red paint to the hook, skirt, or rattles. Giving both baits with red and those without red equal time, will reveal how this process progresses over the next two months.

Fishing Stories

When I was out on a Highlands County lake last week, I was reminded how not following the natural desire of battling the bass in lily pads is smarter than attempting to over-power them with rod and braided line.

I had just hooked into what looked to be a bass of about six-plus pounds.

I was pitching 30 feet into the pads, in four to five feet of water depth and very slowly, gently, working the line over the healthy large leaf pads.

Inch by inch, I would raise the rod tip, pausing every six inches to let the pad act as a bobber. Then if nothing happened, I would loosen the line, letting the bait drop down to the lake bottom. Now to change the next effort to raise the bait up, I would drop the rod tip to the water and over to the side of the leaf I wanted the line to go to, and start the process slowly one more time.

The second method bends the leaf over and most times allows the line to fall into the water, which when it does occur, I free spool the reel allowing the bait to drop. It was during this part of the method of retrieval that the bass would suck in the bait so softly. I figured out they had the bait in their mouth when I resumed attempting to lead the line with the rod tip, but felt a very slight heaviness to which I set the hook with a firm snap motion of the rod backward and slightly up, above the boat deck.

Now here's the reason for the story.

The bass is hooked and moving slowly but strongly through the pads, staying at the bottom with authority. This automatically triggers in me the desire to take control of the situation and force this fish straight back to my boat.

Well, after 30 seconds of battling this strong bass from one tangled lily pad to the next one, the hook-set rips a hole and finally rips free from its set - the fight is over and any fish which were nearby are 100 miles away, well, maybe only one mile away - you get my frustration cause you've been there, too.

Out of frustration I decided to try the opposite retrieval method on the next hookset.

Instead of horsing the fish back the boat, I would set the hook as I did before but this time allow her to come to me on her own by free-spooling the reel. So, I worked along the same area going in the same direction for about 30 minutes and came back to the same area where I lost the battle.

Again,I pitched back into the same general area and worked my line through the thick pads. On the third effort it happened again. I set the hook, did the unthinkable - free-spooled the reel - and watched to see what would happen.

Sure enough if that 6.9-pound Bass didn't come straight out of the pads into open water and within four feet of my boat into my waiting net.

The trick here is to have your net already in the water sideways so all you have to do is turn it up once the fish swims within the circumference of the large net. Both the bass and I didn't have much of a work-out and we both looked really good for the picture that soon followed.

I caught three more that day using this same tactic. Less stress for me and the fish, and one less, "The One That Got Away" stories to tell.

Fishing Tournaments

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, Cell (863) 446-1310 bassbutchie60@aol.com or Dwight Ameling at (863)471-3305.

Dave Douglass is a bass-fishing guide and bass tournament angler and CEO of S.O.S.-Florida Lakes, Inc. He can be reached at 863-381-8474, or e-mail him at davedouglass@sos-floridalakes.org.

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