Forecast - Dec 14 - 17, 2011  -  "Highlands Today Headline: Fishing above average next few days"
 

Fishing conditions for the remainder of December’s second week look to be promising with a weather forecast that shouldn’t produce any negative factors, and a waning full moon heading toward orbit perigee, which always means a greater level of positive lunar influence on fish feeding intensity and duration. The next four days should be above average fishing conditions, now all you have to do is clear your schedule and “go get ‘em.”

Today the major feeding migration moves into the afternoon hours for daytime anglers and early, early-morning hours for nighttime anglers, however it is my opinion that the night migration is larger in both duration and intensity “until” the moonrise moves past midnight. After this point, the process reverses slowly, like a returning pendulum.

Thursday through Saturday the afternoon migration moves later in the day to become the evening feeding migration that will have anglers heading to the lake instead of to supper—that is if the Dinner Bell rings at 5 p.m. The evening bite will be stronger than its counterpart, the morning bite, until the moon’s orbit places it directly overhead during the sunrise, which will occur this weekend.

The best time of day to fish today will be from 2 – 6 a.m. and have a one-in-ten scale rating of 5 and remain there until Sunday when it starts to improve. The peak period should tend to be near the middle-to-end of this four-hour feeding period.

Not far behind in feeding intensity and building as we speak, is the second best time of day to fish, the afternoon feeding migration. It starts today at 1 p.m. and peaks by 3 p.m. reaching a rating of 4-5, and ends by 4 p.m. Daily this period will start later by forty minutes or so and become the best time of day to fish by Friday evening.

The weekend’s afternoon-to-evening fishing conditions should be excellent, all things considered. Each day the evening bite will pick-up from the previous evening’s rate, so success should follow suit, right anglers? Fish will be increasingly moving into feeding areas daily and this will most certainly increase the odds of setting the hook.

The worst time of day to fish will be from 9 - 12 a.m./p.m. when the rating stops at 2 -3.

Looking ahead to next week anglers can expect the development of a strong early morning feeding migration fueled by the lunar perigee and beginning of a new moon.  

News & Events

Lake Istokpoga’s level is currently at 39.52’ above sea level, which has been the level--or slightly above during heavy rainfall--since the middle of July. Most of those days water releases or occurred to maintain the maximum high-pool level. Given all the advances in reducing the amount of influent agricultural pollutants in Arbuckle Creek in recent years, which flows into the lake at the north end, this has to be good for the health of the lake.

Due to lack of rainfall over the past four years, this lake has not had this amount of constant water-flow period since 2006. It should produce an “above-par” bass spawn season with so much shoreline being underwater for several months instead of for brief periods, too short for successful spawning.   

Istokpoga anglers should consult weed management treatment maps before fishing this lake due to a hydrilla treatment event last week. Maps should be supplied at the lake’s boat ramp kiosks (realtor style), if not, contact FWC biologist Steve Gornak at 863-462-5190. Istokpoga management information is available on my website, Istokpoga.info.