Zcoker

They may not tell you all the time where the bait is but they sure can point you in the right direction to get the fish. This bird here was my FFS for the day lol and said, “follow my lead.” One cast below it got me a decent one. Happens all the time out in the glades.

I use my senses all the time out in the glades, have to. Electronics are useless, literally. Look for the gators, find the fish. Listen for the frogs, find the fish. Follow the birds, find the fish. Feel the current, find the fish. Punch the cover, find the fish. Bass also make a distinct sound at night when they are busting on something topwater. Hear the explosions, find the fish. Many such sites or sounds or natural occurrences offer strong clues as to where the fish are and what they are doing. All one has to do is follow those clues.

I fish from a kayak and all my fish get the net. Reaching into the water out in the everglades to grab a tired or even bleeding fish could bite off more than able to chew, literally! I also never reach for them because of the hooks, trebles and the likes. I've seen many so called tired out fish suddenly explode with new life.

Would've could've should've don't beat yourself up over bass fishing. If anything, try to find your rhythm with things that you are comfortable with, even if they are not of the so called "norm". Unless you are tournament fishing, I really wouldn't worry about it. Have fun, enjoy yourself, your surroundings, thanking the almighty for another beautiful day!

It could make a difference but I have no expereience with SM fisheries, only LM. On dark nights (new moon) is when I get most of my nicer LM's. Full moons do produce but it's the exception and not necessarily the rule. I still get them but it can be much slower. It's usually much better when there's cloud cover. Either way, topwater is my first choice at night and when the fish are hitting, they rarely miss the lure.

Sometimes it feels like a bass of a lifetime but quickly turns into a “darn it” moment. They pull and yank and grab the bottom like an infinite snag. Often, I’ve been surprised to get my lures back. Just the other night I had one smack my big musky jitterbug, and with all those hooks grabbing, I was surprised to get the lure back!

Nothing says you have to change your ways. Fishing with live bait can get the biggest fish. Down here in Florida at world-class Headwaters Lake, many trophy fish have been taken on live bait. Most all the fishing charters use live bait and catch hundreds of bass. Just logical for them. A sure thing, so to speak. When I was using live bait for saltwater surf fishing, there was a ton of skill involved in hunting down the right bait and then catching it, not to mention keeping it alive. Sometimes I spent half the day hunting down the bait. Sometimes I would have to get the bait the day before to use the next day, like sand fleas for Pompano. Need to rake them up, and the skill involved is in timing the waves just right and then keeping them alive in a special container. So there's plenty of skill involved in a lot of things. Casting all day can get just as boring and tiring as sitting and waiting for a bobber to disappear. So do what you like to do and to heck with what anyone says, would be my take on the matter.

I usually catch bowfin which are a pita to unhook! I’ve been catching speckled perch in heavy cover with big punch rigs, 5/0 hooks heavy tungsten, plain weird. And of course the usual alligator. At least I’ve gotten most all of my rigs back!

No kidding! I was trying to fish while watching them all line up and was, like, that don't look right. I guess being close to the space center anything can happen.

Also see a lot of WERID stuff while fishing at night. This was the best I could do to capture a bunch of stars lining up...or whatever they heck they were. Very strange. I also took a video of them.

A good take from all of this is to always be prepared, if possible. Here in Florida we have a TrophyCatch program by the FWC. Fish 8lbs and up are logged and certified. The process has specific requirements and if not followed the fish is denied. So anyone fishing for trophy's here in Florida might want to keep things in check. One of my problems is fishing at night solo....well, it's not so much a problem for catching trophy fish lol But the TrophyCatch requirement means a clear picture of the entire fish (including entire scale) from top to bottom with a clearly definable weight. The fish's tail has to be visibly free from any structure. The weight has to be perfectly readable. That's all hard to do (nearly impossible) alone on a kayak at night. Holding a 9-10lbs ticked off bass by a scale over the dark water with one hand while trying to frame the entire mess with camera in the other hand is insane. It's the kinda photo that someone else has to take for you. So all my trophy fish go unlogged. During the day I'm a bit more proficient but it's still very hard to do solo. I tried it a few times and nearly lost my mind trying to get everything correct. In the daytime the sun is so blinding that the weight display on the scale is hard to capture. So I don't even bother anymore.

So you're asking in this forum about the Charleston area?

Think moving water, espeically during the summer months with the heavy rain. Look for run-off drainage or spillways into the bay after one of those classical Tampa Bay storms. You'll load up on the snook!

Sometimes I catch them, too!

This is called "fishing in the thick of it"

Terms like that get tossed around all the time, fishing in the grass, the lettuce, the weeds, the pads, in the thick of it...all about the green stuff in any particular body of water. There's four major types, floating, submerged, emergent, and algae. Most likely talking about any one of them. Can always shoot off a comment on one of their vids and ask what they mean.

Rain or shine, I am ready for both but try to stay clear of the lightening. Planning trips at night into the early morning usually keeps me high and dry. As far as productivity, I usually get all my action before the storm arrives or before the sky darkens up and right as the wind kicks up.

I have more nasty bug encounters during daylight. There's these knat-like bugs out in the marshlands here in south central Florida that bunch up in your face and follow you no matter where, buzzing and engulfing your entire head. They just don't go away, even if covered up. Mosquitoes are more prominent from the land, like you said, not so much on the water. If anything, there's more bug activity out in the everglades right when the sun goes down and then right when it comes up. Anything in-between is smooth sailing. Most of my bug problems are in my truck. They seem to sneak inside when I'm unloading my stuff at night, all kinds of bugs, which is all part of the clean-up later on.

Some of that floating stuff is so thick that trees and thick bushes grow on it. I have never had an issue with bugs at night out in the Florida everglades, even during the sticky hot summer months. I don't even carry bug spray! 🤷‍♀️

You talking around Islamorada or Charleston? Where

I don't use leaders anymore but when I did I never had my knot going through the guides, regardless of how it was tied, because the knot eventually knocked out a guide...or two. The guides are very small near the tip with only one foot holding them and seem to get knocked out easily, even on the higher end rods. Every single one of my Champion XP's has had a guide knocked out by a knot, very smooth FG knots. So I just don't bother with leaders anymore, only strait braid.

Night fishing can be a fad for some, maybe for the heck of it, just to see what it feels like, a sort of rush, if you will. Very few, however, stick with it. For others, to be sure, night fishing is a way of life and adapting to that way of life takes a lot of time and a lot of experience, a lot of hard earned experience with many unpleasant and dangerous pitfalls and even a few close encounters. Knowing the water fished is one thing. But what if those waters change on a dime? Out in the glades, for example, the floating masses are actually alive and ever changing, like a living amoeba. A nice clear-cut waterway can turn into a thick barrier of ominous shadows, instantly blocking your path or boxing you in. Many such situations come to mind. One has to not only know what's going on but also have that instinctual sense to guide them along.

I haven't done it myself, only something similar. I've roughed up the shaft with sandpaper to get the sound just right. Whatever is done, sound/vibration is a sure thing. Out in the glades, a little "tune" on my jitterbug makes all the difference in the size of bass that hits.

Sometimes I think it doesn't matter what you're throwing when the bass light up to feed. They'll hit just about anything, from my experience. When they light up at night, for example, they slam lures of all colors, whites, blues, purples, rainbows, doesn't matter. Yet the logical norm for dark nights is to use dark colored lures--mainly black. I've seen this folklore debunked many time. So my approach is to not even worry about it. Vibration or sound is more logical in my book at night. And I've proven that to myself many times over. Sometimes the variants, the gut feelings, those instinctual nudges of common sense, all must be followed in order to break away and beat through the barriers.

I'm a hardcore 10 from shore. I started out on the beaches here in south Florida and full steam ahead into bass fishing where I applied a lot of my shore-bound knowledge. When I started catching 7-8 pound bass consistently from the bank, I knew things were going in the right direction for kayak fishing. A good 9 for kayak fishing....motorized kayak fishing! I'm still learning but I'm an ace in the glades, espeically at night in the pitch blackness. I fare well in the daytime, too, but near 100 degree temps keep me in check....or at least keep me in the coolness of night. Boats I never really go into. I mean, I've owned them before, sure, but never took them to the limits like I did the other two forms of fishing. I used them mainly on the west coast of Florida to get out to various islands. Once on an island, I'd tie off the boat, setup camp, and it was never used again until I left. With those rods in the back, I'm gonna need a bigger boat! lol