Flexibility required for catching fish

Today the first-quarter moon phase arrives at 3:42 p.m., and on Friday the lunar apogee occurs. Both factors combine to create a developing early morning bite and an excellent early nighttime bite.

The water temperatures are still too low for the early morning bite to really build in intensity and duration, but never the less there will be some smaller fish biting. The larger fish will wait however until the water temperatures reach their daily high mark.

As the daily temperatures return to seasonal norms the lunar-cycle influences will become the dominate factors for anglers to consider. This should happen during the middle of this week so anglers have positive news to look forward to.

The early morning bite starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 8 a.m. with no peak period to speak of. The rating should reach 5 but all bets are off.

The early nighttime bite starts at 5 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. with a peak period occurring right at the beginning of the major feeding migration of the day. The 1-10 rating should make 6 today and reach an 8 by midweek.

The new moon is eight days away and if the weather happens to stay up in the seventies we could see the best fishing conditions of the New Year.

Fishing flash

Last week I received approximately 100 petition signatures collected by Frank Phillips from Mallard's Mobile Home Park, Lorida Bait & Tackle, and Mossy Cove Fish Camp, requesting that the current Crappie limit be changed to 10 fish per license per day, and a minimum 10-inch limit for a harvesting.

Along with Frank Phillips & supporters I have also received several phone calls voicing the same minimum slot limit size of 10 inches, as well as the same 10 fish harvest limit per day per angler.

The Crappie harvest laws currently on the books allow for 25 fish per day per angler license, and no size limit. On the myfwc.com/fishingcapitol/crappie webpage the following is stated, "The Black Crappie (a.k.a. speckled perch, speck, or papermouth) is a favorite sport fish throughout Florida. It is also a very tasty panfish, and a generous daily bag limit of 25 fish provides a healthy "mess" of fish for many anglers."

Ok so now let me get this straight, the idea is to allow a fishing provision of 25 crappie of any size, per day, per angler license, so that that one angler can feed all his friends one meal of 25 crappie. I can understand how some crappie anglers have large fish-fry parties or at the very least medium-to-large dinner parties where many people partake in eating crappie, but you and I both know that this is seldom the case.

Instead crappie anglers everywhere throughout Florida, both residents and non-residents, stock-up for various reasons - commercial reasons being number one on the list followed by many more reasons to have large freezers full just in case 25 people arrive unexpectedly, and demand a Crappie fish fry like no other.

The FWC website further claims that Istokpoga is number six on the top-ten-list of hottest crappie lakes in Florida - tell this to all the crappie anglers I have talked to over the past three years. I don't know one crappie angler who believes this claim. But they do believe that with the current amount of crappie-fishing pressure happening on Lake Istokpoga, there is no way that the crappie population will replenish itself without a change in harvest rates and sizes by the FWC.

If you're interested in this lake management issue, plan to attend this Thursday's LIMC meeting and/or call Clell Ford and he'll be happy to discuss this with you.

On Tuesday March 9 at 10 a.m., there will be a public meeting to discuss plans for a spring hydrilla treatment on Lake Istokpoga.The location: Parks and Recreation conference room, at 4344 George Boulevard - across the street from the Bert Harris Agricultural Center.

Attention all Lake Istokpoga lovers, Highlands County Natural Resources' Lake Manager, Clell Ford will be chairing the seasonal winter management meeting which provides the public with an overview of accomplishments, current status, and future plans to handle current problems and challenges.

On Thursday March 11, at 9 a.m. the Lake Istokpoga Management Committee (LIMC) will hold it winter meeting at the Bert J. Harris Agricultural Center in room 3. Come out and see what over 10 years of meetings has achieved for your Lake Istokpoga.

The SAFER 9th Annual "Save Our Canals"Tournament has been scheduled for Saturday, April 24. Entry fees and raffle ticket purchases are the sole source of funding for SAFER's yearly agenda. For complete information, visit on the web at sfanglers.com.

Lake Istokpoga's level remains at 39.28' above sea level today.

FWC Largemouth Bass Research Study Program: E-mail: TagReturn@MyFWC.com, or Phone: FWC Tag Return Hotline: 800-267-4461. Mail address: LMB Tagging Study, 601 W. Woodward Ave., Eustis, FL 32726