Weather dictates intensity, duration

The fishing bite will be dominated by the weather patterns instead of lunar and solar influences for the remainder of the week. The lunar apogee occurs on Saturday and the new moon on Sunday, creating a weak lunar phase that allows the weather conditions to set the intensity and duration levels of the daily feeding migration.
As far as when fish will bite, depends on how the weather roller coasters ride - that the low- and high-pressure system timings create - arrives in our area of Central Florida.
Take, for instance, the timing of Tuesday's low-pressure system. The barometer was stable at 9 a.m. Tuesday and started to decline rapidly by 10 a.m. Anglers who happened to be on the lake during the mid-morning hours experienced fish willing to feed. And no matter which fishing chart/forecast you used, it turned out to be incorrect having been trumped by the weather again.
The points in time in which barometric pressure changes set the times of when fish will feed for the next 24 hours, if not the next two days. The larger and quicker the pressure change, the larger the feeding intensity and duration will be and the longer the effects will last.
Therefore, today anglers can expect to locate feeding fish during the mid-morning hours and again about 12 hours later. The intensity rating of the mid-morning bite will be a modest 5-6 and the late evening rating even less at 4-5. The exact times are not so easy to predict due to the current weather creating an opposite barometric change. If the barometer is rising quickly today, the bite will diminish both in duration and intensity. However, if a steady slow rise occurs over a longer period of time anglers can expect greater success.
The next barometric decline is forecasted to start sometime during late Thursday morning and not be as intense as Tuesday's decline. The arrival will change the start time of the daily feeding migration for both Thursday and Friday.
By the weekend there will be a new moon lunar effect that does start to play a role in determining the daily feeding migration timing and strength. The daytime feeding migration will be stronger, especially if the weather stays relatively stable without major pressure changes.
Saturday's major feeding bite should be centered close to 1 p.m. when the peak period reaches its highest feeding intensity rating of 7. The duration is not so easy to determine, but my guess is it will be less then an hour.
 The nighttime anglers will see their best success from sundown to midnight. My guess would be a peak period occurs between the hours of 9-11 p.m. It is also my guess that the intensity and duration could be the highest of the day reaching a 7 to 8 on the 10-scale.
Fishing facts
Anglers who chart barometric pressure will know how to adjust the feeding times predicted by the various fishing solunar tables and charts. Also anglers who are able to be on the water just prior to a barometric change - especially a decline - will experience the highest rates of angling success.
Knowing the barometric plot history and forecast is the difference between boating fish and not boating fish. Over the past five years time and time again I have come off the lake and checked the barometric plot during the time on the water and discovered that the majority of fish caught was right at the time of barometric change; the more severe the rate of change was, the greater the catch rate
Fishing fiction
"Fishing is a matter of luck and that's all there is to it." If this is indeed true, there are anglers out there who seem to "get lucky" all the time and others who never get lucky at all. And anglers who talk about "luck" set odds on how lucky they will be today; based on how lucky they were yesterday. I'm betting that most of the fish in the lake of the lucky fishermen will "get lucky" today. But only if the unlucky fishermen are trying their luck where those lucky fish are.
Fishing flash
Lake Istokpoga is currently at 39.4 feet above sea level, which is a little over an inch below the maximum depth the yearly lake level management schedule allows.
Dave Douglass is a bass fishing guide; visit HighlandsBassAngler.com for complete information, secretary of the Florida Freshwater Fishing Coalition Inc online at FLFFC.org. Cell: 863-381-8474, Email: davidpdouglass@hotmail.com