Good News For Daytime Anglers

It's the day after the 11:37 a.m. New Moon, and because of the late morning lunar timing, the intensity and duration of the nighttime feeding migration diminishes significantly with many fish participating in the daytime feeding migration.

This is good news for the daytime angler who has been dealing with the majority of lunar events happening at night during the fall and early-winter seasons. Another benefit to the lunar timing is the fact that virtually all day, the fish will be feeding on and off instead of migrating in one major and minor feeding pattern.

Anytime the lunar cycle's established regular pattern is dramatically reversed - as it was Tuesday - half the fish population suspends its established feeding and follows the new timing. Now factor in the full-moon event taking place at 1:35 p.m. on the 22nd of this month, you'll see a swing effect taking place now which will noticeably improve daytime fishing for the rest of the month.

This is the month where the daytime angler can't get it wrong. Anytime during the day, over a period of four to six hours, he will set the hook more often than he has been over the last four months during a similar period of time.

The two peak daytime feeding migrations happen from 8 to 9 a.m. and 2 to 3 p.m. But, if you're in the heavy migration route areas and slow down your retrieve and action to the point of dead sticking, your chances are very good for setting the hook on a larger rogue bass which doesn't pay attention to the majority feeding pattern of the smaller bass.

In case no one has told you, or you didn't take notice, the Florida largemouth spawning season is at center stage in all Highlands County lakes. However, because of the significantly lower lake levels, the normal spawning areas all the anglers are used to won't be available to the bass.

For this reason, bass will attempt to replace the inaccessible areas with similar protected, mild-water-current areas.

Fishing Facts

The spawning bass looks for areas along its normally travelled routes.

Once it locates a protected area which provides shelter from heavy wave action, limited accessibility to prevent predatory feeding, and sunlight to expedite the hatching of fertilized eggs, it starts to clean out the area.

The male bass starts by picking up larger debris, blowing blasts of water to remove smaller particles, and in the end, fans its tail to hollow out a small circular hole in the sandy lake bottom. Once this is complete, he heads out to court a fine-looking female who has been preparing by feeding heavily over the last few weeks.

Once he's completed the selection, he leads her back to his perfectly prepared bedding area which she immediately settles into, taking up the work of cleaning and guarding until she is ready to drop her eggs for the male to fertilize. The entire process takes about seven to 12 days in most weather conditions.

However, if the Florida weather changes drastically, this spawning attempt could completely fail or be suspended for a few days to a week. Many times the female Bass drops her eggs without a bed and the entire effort is wasted.

Fishing Report

Since I was not able to get out to the tournament events listed in last week's tournament news section, I can not provide the results of those events.

If you're a tournament director and would like to see your event presented in my column, use the contact information at the end of this article to provide me with the information and pictures, and I will gladly include it in the next article. I welcome all fishing and lake-related information and stories.

Tournament News

The Wednesday Morning Black Bass Fishing Tournament is open to the public. Next Event is today on Crooked Lake from 7:30 a.m. to noon.

Pay at ramp - entry fee is $30 per boat. One person may fish alone if you do not have a partner. For information, contact Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home), 863-446-1310 (cell) or e-mail bassbutchie60@aol.com. You can also contact Dwight Ameling at 863-471-3305.

Dave Douglass is a bass fishing guide and teacher, bass tournament fisherman and also an officer of SOS-Florida Lakes, Inc. You can reach him at 863-381-8474, e-mail davedouglass@sos-floridalakes.org or visit reds-bass-fishing-guides.com and sos-floridalakes.org.