Highlands Bass Angler Freshwater Fishing Forecast Articles

Florida Freshwater Fishing Forecast for December 21-28, 2025

Sunday's Comprehensive Fishing Article for Florida's Freshwater Anglers

Dec 21, 2025

New Moon and Perfect Weather Makes Fish Bite

The Florida Freshwater Fishing Forecast for December 21-24, 2025, gives anglers the last two days of a weak new moon seven-day phase and an unseasonably warm fall-like weather forecast. All fishing factors considered for the next four days, anglers will enjoy excellent fishing conditions that will cause fish to feed at their highest annual rate.

The excellent conditions include all the fishing factors; ideal water temperature, wind speed, sun-to-cloud ratio, and 0.08-.10 in hg pressure change, each day. Fish adjustment activity will mainly be driven by these four factors with some mild lunar influence during the daily weak lunar periods.

The daily lunar periods will become a major factor again next week. And you should note that the New Year begins with a bang, with the lunar perigee on the first, the lunar high on the second, and the full moon on the third day of January. If the extended weather forecast becomes true, fishing the first four days of January will be very good.

With the new moon occurring two days ago last Friday, the overhead moon in the early afternoon hours combined with the solar noon influence will be the best time of day to find active feeders. And there is a minor percentage of fish which have been feeding during the hottest water period of the day during the midafternoon hours, and I expect those fish to feed more aggressively as the overhead moon occurs at that time of day during the midweek.

The new moon combined with perfect weather will make fish bite better than the advertised ratings.

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Solar-Lunar Factor: Solar noon occurs at 12:23:54 p.m. EST. today, and will advance over the next ten days to 12:28:20 p.m. EST. The new moon happened two days ago, and the moon arrived at the low position on the outer edge of the solar energy path to earth yesterday. So, the lunar effect is weak however, the new moon still changes the feed rate factor for the good one to two points during the overhead period primarily. The next seven days the weak moon will gradually improve daily as it heads to the lunar high which occurs January 2, 2026.

Weather Factors: As already stated, weather conditions are ideal for fish to feed at will. The perfect water temperatures enable fish to feed at their highest annual rate, and they will put on at least fifty percent of their annual weight gain while the water remains in the seventy-to-eighty-degree range. And if the extended weather forecast proves to be true, that temperature range will continue into the new year.

Of the four weather factors already stated, atmospheric pressure should be looked at more closely. During the fall season daily pressure change begins to become a factor in the formation of fish feeding activity---during the summer rainy season pressure change is a nonfactor.

Currently daily pressure changes have had a minor role in the production of feeding efforts because the maximum pressure change averages about 0.08 in hg over a twelve-hour period. And here in central Florida, over the past twenty years and thousands of fishing trips, I’ve recorded fishing factors every time I fished, noting specifically pressure changes and anytime pressure changed up or down more than 0.10 in hg the catch rate improved. And when pressure changed close to 0.18 in hg or more during a twelve-hour period, during the change I experienced 78% of my best fishing performances.

Yes, when there are pressure changes greater than 0.10 in hg there are weather changes which occur. Rarely does the pressure change without causing a significant weather change. The latter is a byproduct of the former. But of the combined changes, only atmospheric pressure changes cause fish to adjust upward when pressure increases and downward when pressure decreases.

My records clearly reveal that the catch depth changed in correlation with the pressure change. Fact, I have never caught big bass over six pounds in their deeper locations when pressure rises more than 0.14 in hg. I have moved back and forth on established feeding routes from depths of eighteen feet and two feet in deeper lakes and from eight feet to two feet on shallow lakes, when pressure was rapidly changing and the catches during a low to high pressure change always produce in the shallows only.

And when the opposite pressure change occurs, the opposite results occurred, every time. Pressure drops, fish move deeper and by the time pressure had finished dropping, I was fan casting open water just outside of the shallow feeding grounds which produced the day before and catching bass, but usually under five pounds. Which I always factored that the larger bass fed on the pressure increase enough so that when they adjust downward, they were in a period of heavy digestion and did not need to feed.

This week there will be a drop in pressure which will cause fish to move deeper, enough to create a period of adjustment downward Thursday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and perhaps they will move deeper Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. as pressure drops again. Both periods of decline are forecasted to be in the 0.10-0.12 in hg range. Minor adjustment will occur, especially for fish which had a high feeding success rate over the previous twenty-four hours.

Solunar - Weather Variable: As already stated, weather factors will be the main driver in daily feeding activity, but the majority of fish will feed during the overhead period, which will be greatly helped by the fact it occurs when water temperatures are warmest and daily weather changes are occurring at a higher rate. In seven days, the moon will begin to play a major role in daily fish feeding activity.

Major Solar-Lunar Period: Today the moon is overhead at 1:50 p.m. producing a feed rating of five to six from 12:30-3:30 p.m. Daily the overhead moon occurs later by an average of forty-eight minutes over the next four days, and the feed rating should improve slightly as the overhead moon happens during the hottest water period of the day Tuesday through Thursday.

Minor Solar Lunar Periods: Today the moonrise occurs at 8:39 a.m. producing a feed rating of three to four from 7-9:45 a.m. Daily the moonrise occurs later by an average of thirty-nine minutes over the next four days with an unchanging feed rating.

A second minor period happens today when the moonset occurs at 7:01 p.m. producing a feed rating of three from 6-8 p.m. Daily the moonset occurs later by an average of an hour this week, and the feed rating will diminish slightly producing a two-feed rating.

A third minor period happens today when the moon is underfoot at 1:24 a.m. producing a feed rating of two or maybe three from 12:30-2:30 a.m. Daily the underfoot moon occurs later by an average of fifty minutes over the next four days with an unchanging feed rating.

Best Fishing Days: Today and Monday the last two days of the new moon phase will produce better than average results mostly due to ideal weather conditions helping the weak new moon lunar affect which will occur during the early to midafternoon hours.

Saturday the first quarter moon will occur, and the moon will be halfway back to arriving at the lunar high position within the solar energy path, which means the daily lunar periods will have a much greater effect on fish feeding activity, both in numbers and duration. With the warmer than normal weather forecast predicting ideal temperatures heading into the new year next weekend should produce very well during both the sunrise and sunset periods.

Prime Monthly Periods: December 31-January 6, 2026, strong full moon, 15-20 very weak new moon, Jan. 28-February 3 strong full moon, 14-20 new moon, Feb 28-March 5 full moon, 16-21 new moon, March 29-April 4 full moon, 14-21 strong new moon.

Lake Istokpoga S68 Spillway and Lake Level Status: Lake level is currently at 37.78 NAVD88 with four S68 spillway gates closed. The NAVD88 Offset to NGVD29 is + 1.16 feet = 38.94NGVD29. Current maximum high level is 39.5’ NGVD and the low level is 38.5’ NVGD.

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