Daylight offers anglers best bite

Today marks the beginning of the moon's orbit moving away from earth and is combined with the waxing of the full moon.

Both lunar events produce the typical effects which will be very noticeable by this weekend; a diminishing lunar influence, a decline in feeding intensity and duration.

The only good angling news between now and the weekend is that the temperatures are forecasted to drop by six degrees and some rain should arrive in the afternoons, let's hope so, June has been a disappointing month but there are still seven days left to reach the average area rainfall of seven inches.

Today however will be the best of the next thee days for anglers to head out onto their favorite lake to do a little fishing. The recent new moon and lunar perigee are still causing fish to feed heavier than normal in the midmorning and later afternoon to evening. If you don't have time today your next better than average day will be Saturday.

Today the best bite period occurs from 1 - 4 p.m. and reaches a rating of 7 during the peak period from 2:30-3 p.m. Make sure you bring plenty of water and sun-blocker because there is no doubt you will need it.

Thursday and Friday however this best bite period dissipates greatly to the point where it will become difficult to distinguish when an actual feeding migration occurs - as in more than two fish in one area strike within a half hour. It is entirely possible that anglers could experience one bite every two or three hours all day long, and most likely they'll be small ones. The rating will be 4 or 5 at best and literally no peak period.

On Saturday anglers can expect a noticeable change as the evening bite starts to pick up both in intensity and duration with a start time of 5 p.m., a peak time between 6-7 and a decline right at sundown.

The early morning bite is above average today reaching a 6 on the ratings scale. It starts at safe-light and ends at 8 a.m. and has a peak time of 30 minutes which starts at 7 a.m.

Expect this to do exactly the same thing as the afternoon bite and sharply decrease Thursday and Friday. Saturday it will rebound slightly and reach a peak of 6 and increase in duration by an hour.

All in all the only way fishing will improve this summer is if nature provides an enormous amount of rain to the point where our lakes rebound and rise at least three or more feet in depth.

Lakes without their normal submerged shoreline vegetation are not nearly as healthy as they would be if water covered the dense plant growth. Fish don't have access to the rich cover and anglers have fewer places to typically locate them.

Fishing flash

Lake Istokpoga's level remains at 38.25' above sea level and has less than adequate submerged plant life which shallow lakes must have in order to remain healthy. The problem is that the plant that seems to do best in the lake is categorized as "exotic" and therefore targeted for eradication - even though the state law wording was changed from "eradication" to "manage."

Large shallow type lakes have a very fine line of how much vegetation they require in order to remain healthy. Too much or too little both have significant negative affects, however if a plant manager was going to err, it would be much more wise to err on the side of 35 percent total acreage than the current total acreage percentage of about one third of that.

Right now the majority of bass being caught are at half their normal weight. When a 30-inch bass weighs about eight pounds, and a 24-inch bass weighs less than six pounds, and the smaller bass look as if they just went through the Great Depression, well, something must be totally out of whack.

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 S.E. 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

Tournament news

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 inches) bass per boat, and one bass over 22 inches per angler. For information, call Paul Tardiff at 863-385-8007 (home) or 863-273-4062 (cell).