Jan 8, 2012 - Highlands Today Title, "Full moon produces a pair of bites". 

Forecast - Jan. 8-10, 2012 

Anglers start this week with plenty of sun and few clouds, and just enough wind to create ideal fishing conditions today. This will change Wednesday evening as a mild front moves into the area. But until the weather change gets here during the midweek, the full moon will have mostly clear skies to shine its light on potential prey.  

Today through Tuesday, the full moon will light the way for the majority of fish to feed at night. The normal feeding migrations happens from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a rating of 6-7.  The feeding bite should be near the beginning of this period, 9-10 p.m. and last for about an hour. .

The secondary feeding migration occurs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and has a rating of 4-5 during the peak period from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. This feeding bite will be better if the full moon has nighttime clouds, otherwise your angling skills need to be exceptional to make up for the lack of positive fishing factors—like angering a ten-pound suspended-bass hiding in thick cattails, by pitching a jig into her bedroom.

Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning a small weather system moves into our area but shouldn’t do any more than slowdown the bite for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as the temps drop ten degrees and the wind switches to the west northwest..

The second half of this week will provide anglers with a developing evening feeding migration that should become the dominate feeding bite of the day as the current full moon phase wanes toward last-quarter. The weather is forecasted to remain stable all the way into the weekend so anglers should make plans for some great evenings on the lake.

The worst time of the day to fish during this full moon phase is during midmorning and mid-afternoons when the rating drops to 2.

As with all full moons, a larger majority of fish populations feed at the same time, meaning few feed at the opposite time of day, although, take comfort. The “village idiot” never fails to “not” disappoint. (You remember me telling you about this type of fish, right?)  This fish is the one that has all the hook marks around his mouth in various stages of healing. This fish once caught and released, turns around to repeat the process.  

I’m glad not all fish are like the village idiot, because catching bass, one after the other for hours, day after day, month after month, would most certainly ruin me. At the very least, I wouldn’t respect the bass any longer for it would just be, …like a cow. And, I don’t see the need to write about catching cows, perhaps its because they don’t swim or run fast enough..

Next week the lunar perigee accelerates the early morning feeding migration so as long as there is no radical weather to deal with. Fishing also should be exceptional when most anglers like to fish--early mornings as the sun comes up.  

News & Events

Win a Free Bass Fishing Trip by visit the HighlandsBassAngler.com website and try your luck at guessing the correct weight in pounds and ounces of the bass I am holding in the Mystery Bass Giveaway Picture. Email your guess to me by using the contact info at the end of this article or on my website.

Lake Istokpoga’s level is currently at 39.31’ above sea level. Three gates are open at six inches and flowing about 500 (cfm) cubic feet per minute. This time of year South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), implements a change in the lake level management plan’s low-pool mark of 38.5’ above sea level to gradually decline to 38’ by March. The high-pool of 39.5’ remains until April. Istokpoga is the reservoir for agricultural interests north of Okeechobee.

Attention fishing tournament directors If you would like to advertise your fishing tournaments and events please call or email me with the particulars and I will be glad to include them in this weekly article.

Also if you have a picture of you and a fish, and a little story about how you caught it, I would invite you to send me your picture and information to be used as a featured story or segment. Nothing inspires anglers more than other successful anglers.