Best Week For Fishing This Month

The full moon is exactly four days away at 6:17 a.m.

At 10 a.m. today, the earth is five days away from the moon being closest to the earth during its 28-day cycle. Both of these facts combined will produce the best week for fishing this month.

Starting today the very early morning bite gradually gains intensity and duration a little more each day throughout the week. Today the bite starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 10 a.m. tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

As the waxing moon develops and completes its monthly cycle on Thursday morning, the nighttime fishing really turns on due to the increase in moonlight.

Now normally this heavy night feeding session would stunt the daytime feeding session, however both events happen during daylight hours in the early morning. This means an excellent early morning bite. If there happens to be significant cloud cover during the night the daytime bite will increase and improve even more.

The weather forecast predicts constant temperatures in the high 70s, low 80s, and the wind should be out of a north, northeast, and/or east, and mild to calm. If this holds true, the fishing will improve even more.

Whenever the environmental conditions remain constant for more than three or four days, anglers should be able to locate larger concentrations of fish as they form daily migration patterns in harmony with the weather.

Fishing Facts

The larger fish settle into ambush points along their daily migration routes - which is also a part of their claimed territories - more often when weather conditions remain constant for several consecutive days.

They establish territories to dominate by laying-in-wait at key points along the routes leading to ideal feeding habitat - or as the anglers like to say, "hot spots" or "honey holes."

Fishing Formula

There are several methods to try this week, and all of them should produce very well. First thing in the morning the top-water baits thrown into vegetative areas and worked out to open water will produce spectacular strikes. Likewise flipping and pitching shoreline points and structures should equally produce.

As the water temperatures rise to the upper 60s, flipping in two to three foot depths in areas protected from strong winds that also have cleaner water will likely produce your first spawning bass of the season.

Not to be forgotten is making use of the Carolina-rig in hydrilla which is not yet topped out all the way. Bass love to bed in fresh growing hydrilla near the center of the largest patch area. Try casting into the wind and slowly crawling your bait back to the boat. It's easier to work bait in the same direction the thick weed is being pushed because of wind and wave action.

Fishing Fiction

"If bass are disturbed just prior to laying their eggs, they'll drop of them of bed because of stress and not produce offspring that year."

This is not true in Florida.

Because of the warmer climate bass spawn twice a year as a norm and if caught while on bed, and moved from the area during a tournament, will adapt and start the process all over again and produce eggs for a new spawning event in a few months. It is for this fact that Florida Fish and Game does not prohibit fishing for bass during the main spawning months of the year, as they do in most other states. The multiple spawn of the Florida Largemouth bass allows anglers to enjoy angling every day of the year.

Fishing Flash

The months of November through March provides the best time of year for Hydrilla herbicide treatments due to the water temperature being ideal for the chemicals to have full effect. Temperatures in the mid to lower sixties or lower, ensures the highest level of chemical absorption into the targeted plant species.

For instance last year, the DEP's plans for Lake Istokpoga Hydrilla treatments was held up because of a research mapping contractor, which ended up causing a major large scale treatment during the peak angling season. This wiped out 30 days of planned fishing events for all types of anglers who love the fifth largest lake in Florida - Istokpoga.

Instead of vacationers and local businesses conducting much planned for and anticipated business, they instead changed their plans to conduct business where they could get the best end result - to catch bass and create memories to last a lifetime for their families. Likewise the local businesses who rely on this peak-angler-traffic season to sustain their businesses for the year, lost out and saw their potential customers go to Polk County which happened to be "not" conducting large scale treatments which wiped out whole popular areas of the Kissimmee Chain of lakes.

There is potential good news this year however. Because anglers united against the DEP's method and practice of hydrilla management throughout the state - case in point was last year's first week of March Istokpoga large scale treatment - and asked the state legislature to legislate all plant management control to Fish and Game (FWC) instead, there is hope that a better understanding of what a Florida fishery is in it's totality will be the basis upon which hydrilla treatments are planned.

Lake users of all types care more than anyone about the health of the lake they enjoy. There is absolutely no reason why the taxpayer's money should be used by lake management agencies in such a way as to shut down the lake user's lake at the absolute best time of the year to use it.

Bottom line here is this: There is plenty of time to treat hydrilla in Istokpoga during November and December, and then resume treatments in the first week of April. If treatments are needed during the first three months of the year, the plan should be to space them out and keep them smaller than 200 acres.

One last thought: Isn't there lots of hydrilla to be treated right now and isn't the water temperature already low enough? Why are the lake management agencies waiting to do their research? Shouldn't it have been done in October so that treatments could start when water temperature dropped to appropriate levels? There is no excuse to not do a north-end treatment in both November and December, and then two south-end treatments in April and May, and a huge gigantic scale event in June.

If the mapping contractor delays research again this year, who stands to lose again? Is it the tax-paying lake-user and the businesses who serve them?

Fishing Tournaments

The Wednesday Morning Black Bass Fishing Tournament is open to the public. Next event is Nov. 12 on Lake Jackson. Time: 7:30 a.m. to noon. Pay at ramp - entry fee $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, bassbutchie60@aol.com or Dwight Ameling at 863-471-3305.

Triton Owners Tournament presented by Florida Triton Boat Dealers & Fishers of Men National Tournament Trail, will be held on Nov. 22, safe-light to 3 p.m., launching from the Southport Ramp on Lake Toho. This is a team event for Triton Boat owners only. The entry fee is $100, with optional $20 big bass pot, and $5 raffle. Pre-registration is available until Nov. 14 or pay cash at the boat ramp. A pre-tournament meeting will be held at the ramp at 5:30 a.m. This is a 100 percent pay back event. For more information, contact Lake Placid Marina, Outback USA, Lorida Bait & Tackle, or Triton Boat dealers, or contact Don Hatcher at 863-655-0265, or 863-214-1740 for full details.