Night Fishing

[zildjian]

Hey Guys,

I just went out with a buddy of mine, fished all late afternoon, and ended up trying to fish after the sun went completely down. this is the first time i ever tried actually fishing at night for bass. and it was awful! lol while it was cool to be on the water at while its pitch black, but fishing sucked!

how to you successfully fish at night? i know your suppose to use dark or black color lures, and topwater lures work well. but it was just a big strike out for us. i know lots of people go out during the summer months to night fish, but i can't seem to locate them at night. as during the day time i fish edges of pads, and any fallen timber or lay downs. also edges of of grass, submerged vegetation and drop offs.

but where do they go when the sun goes down?

does there feeding habits change? do they go deeper or shallow? do they go in sleep mode?

i want to do more night fishing in the future, but i would like to be a little more prepared. i honestly had no idea what i was doing.

ps. i hate mosquitoes and nats.

thanks guys,

-Zildjian

[11justin22]

They generally move up to feeding areas from a staging area. If u can find those areas in the daytime hit them at night. I have the best luck in my night tournaments with black and blue jig with a fliipin blue trailer( zoom chunk works really well), a ten inch worm in some type of dark color, and a black spinnerbaits. Other stuff will work but those are the suggestions u will get a lot of and I have found them to work well.

[unionman]

I fish at night the same way (and spots) I do before/just after sunrise.

[zildjian]

Ok sweet. Thanks for the posts guys! I wasn't sure what to do or where to go when the sun went completely down. I felt like I was wasting my time.

[K_Mac]

Night fishing in the heat of the summer is as good as it gets in my opinion. Stick with the types of baits 11justin22 recommended maybe adding a topwater or two, and you are good to go. The clearer the water the better the night bite in my experience. Shallow structure near deep water is my favorite night spot. The outer edge of deep grass is also a favorite.

Use deet for the bugs! Most of the time once it is good and dark. the mosquitoes will not be much of an issue. One more suggestion: Pick a night with a big, bright moon. It is amazing how much you can see when you have a bright moon after your night vision adjusts. Good luck.

[BrianSnat]

I do much of my fishing at night. In the summer I hit the local lake after dinner, about 7 and fish until 10, 11 and sometimes midnight if it's a particularly nice night.

I catch bass in the same places after sunset that I was catching them just before. I usually continue using the same lure and techniques I was using before sunset, which 90 percent of the time is a watermelon or green pumpkin Senko, unweighted and T rigged. This seems to do well for about an hour after sunset then the bite drops off and I go to topwater. Jitterbugs, Skitterpops, Heddon Torpedoes and my new favorite, Rebel Frog R. I work 'em real slow. If that doesn't work I speed things up.

[Captain Obvious]

head over to * Matt Alan has a whole serious of videos on the topic.

Capt.O

[greyleg33]

I fish the same way at night and with the same presentations as I do in the day except I might lean a little more to top-water.

[Busy]

Quite honestly, I'm no expert. I say to fish where you do during the day (or at least at the same depth).

Everyone says that bass "move up" to shallow water at night but I don't believe it. There are shallow water bass and deep water bass. I think the shallow water bass that are hard to get to bite during the day loosen up a bit at night, BUT I do not think that bass living in 20' of water are moving up to 5' of water and back down to 20' in the course of 8-10 hours.

If you are seeing suspending fish at 18' during the day they may move laterally to structure on a shore so that they aren't suspended but I don't think they are changing their depth that drastically.

That being said, I think the bigger bass are in deeper water during the summer, the smaller ones are shallow (on average).

At night, you want to go with dark colors and make noise and/or move a lot of water with the profile of your bait. Black, dark blue, dark red, purple, wide profile, wide fat blades for spinners, etc.

I think the tendency for bass to bite changes far more than their location! Maybe not seasonally, but at least from day to day or hour to hour.

[11justin22]

Quite honestly, I'm no expert. I say to fish where you do during the day (or at least at the same depth).

Everyone says that bass "move up" to shallow water at night but I don't believe it. There are shallow water bass and deep water bass. I think the shallow water bass that are hard to get to bite during the day loosen up a bit at night, BUT I do not think that bass living in 20' of water are moving up to 5' of water and back down to 20' in the course of 8-10 hours.

If you are seeing suspending fish at 18' during the day they may move laterally to structure on a shore so that they aren't suspended but I don't think they are changing their depth that drastically.

That being said, I think the bigger bass are in deeper water during the summer, the smaller ones are shallow (on average).

At night, you want to go with dark colors and make noise and/or move a lot of water with the profile of your bait. Black, dark blue, dark red, purple, wide profile, wide fat blades for spinners, etc.

I think the tendency for bass to bite changes far more than their location! Maybe not seasonally, but at least from day to day or hour to hour.

I respectfully disagree. Fish move to find bait at night. Shad go to shallower water and therefore bass follow. If there is a food supply than yeah they will stay out deeper.

[Busy]

looking for more opinions on this lol! How much will an individual bass move in depth during a night at 84+ degrees surface water temp during the day?

[bassin is addicting]

fished a night tourney Saturday evening. i had the best luck with a Zoom speedcraw in Junebug. i think those large "claws" flapping did the trick.

at least thats what gave me confidence.

[tholmes]

My best results after dark have come with:

Black jitterbug, the largest one you can find.

9-10" (or larger) worms. T-rigged either with or without weight. Black, junebug, and purple.

BIG spinnerbaits, 3/4 oz. or larger. My best color has been black with a soup spoon- sized copper Colorado blade, but at times, other colors will produce as well.

I'm of the opinion that large baits that raise a lot of ruckus are the most effective after dark. Since they probably can't see your lure, they need to hear/feel the vibrations it creates. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Tom

[zildjian]

great posts everyone! thanks a lot for the tips and help! this def is building my confidence up for some night time bassin!

[K_Mac]

Ziljian, after making my post above my fishing partner called and we fished all night(10.30P-9.00A) Sun. night. We did not catch a fish until around 4.30 Sat morning. The bite then only lasted about an hour! This is a private lake that can produce very nice fish. My point is there are no sure things when it comes to fishing. It was a beautiful night and just being out was worth the trip. Good luck.

As far as deep versus shallow, I have long been a fan of deeper off-shore structure and have caught many fish on it both night and day. I have a friend who likes shallow water, and we have caught good fish in water that I would have bet was too shallow and hot to hold fish. Just when I think I have come up with a universal truth when it comes to fishing, the fish will prove me wrong! There are prime locations in both deep and shallow water on most lakes that hold fish. I do believe that is a universal truth; I could be wrong...

[deep]

head over to * Matt Alan has a whole serious of videos on the topic.

Capt.O

X2

Go over to his blog, or his youtube channel (same name as his blog).

Another 2 videos I liked- good stuff. He does a lot of night fishing with big baits, and is a regular guy like most of us.

[Daniel My Brother]

Just when I think I have come up with a universal truth when it comes to fishing, the fish will prove me wrong!

Couldn't agree more.

[Vinny Chase]

I generally fish weed edges and points with a 10" tequilla sunrise worm at night with some success.

[Greed]

X2

Go over to his blog, or his youtube channel (same name as his blog).

Another 2 videos I liked- good stuff. He does a lot of night fishing with big baits, and is a regular guy like most of us.

Here in Colorado we have a few different internet forums on fishing. I'm on the western slope, naturally my home is westernslopeanglers.com. The person in the video you posted is a well known angler on the front range which is everything east of the cont. divide. in CO. I'm not riding this guy buy any means but anytime he posts anything about swimbaits I'll always read it and take it into consideration.

I also figured out night fishing this time last year when I got tired of dealing with the crowds and having to really grind fish out. I just started throwing swimbaits for bass and naturally I throw swimbaits at night also. Until I can get my hands on some other hard baits the only three lures I use at night are a 68 rof5 hud, ms slammer, and a shellcracker. All three have there places yet are fished pretty much the same.

[38 Super Fan]

I caught a bunch last night just swimming a t-rigged zoom u-vibe worm in some shallow water around weedbeds. Not sure why, but that's been far and away my best night-time presentation lately, they wouldn't hit a buzzbait, spinnerbait, or popper last night, but they killed that worm.

[Jay Ell Gee]

My night time fishing experience has been pretty interesting. I couldn't buy a bite on a buzzbait or popper to save my life, but at the same time I am getting strike after strike with the Stanley Ribbits (essentially a soft plastic buzz frog.) I don't know if bass are generally spooky at night or not, but the soft gurgle of the frog seems to do it every time. I have also had success using black or black/chartreuse spinnerbaits (tandem and single large Colorado.) If your area has a lot of baitfish in the shallows at night, throw a wakebait such as a manns baby one minus or BPS "The Egg." Both lures create a wake with what is essentially a topwater rattling crankbait. It's a bit more subtle and I think it makes all the difference. Good luck!