Bass Night Fishing?

[Joedodge]

So I've night fished for inshore and Sharks. But never messed with bass at night. Id like to give it a try as the summers coming and it gets warm. But a lot of where I fish is nature preserve and park lakes that close at dusk. But I have a few I can try. Do you guys have a suggestion on lure choice, or tactics in general. Seems so weird to do a finesse type fishing in pitch black

[A-Jay]

The list of factors that make Night Time Bass Fishing Operations attractive to me is long & varied.

 

In no particular order: the lake is usually empty, the winds are usually less than during the day, the bass are often a little shallower, Top water baits are pretty good at night, the bigger bass are often a less wary under the cover of darkness, a spinnerbait is like magic, and to key in on the present for you personally - a moon burn is highly unlikely     but do bring insect repellent.

 

As for tips & techniques - fish the same type of productive water & baits you have success with during the day.  However, drop shots, & super finesse stuff may not be necessary at night.

 

Fish places you know well, wear a PFD, tell someone where you'll be & when to expect you home.  Bring at least Two Lights (headlamps work well).  Keep your gear & boat deck neat clean & organized or you'll find that loose plug stuck some where bad.

 

 Have Fun and bring a camera with a flash . . .

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

[Dogmatic]

I fish mostly topwater, but also throw large spinner baits, jerk baits, and swimbaits, but only when I know what I'm fishing. I found the key is getting your eyes adjusted to the dark, which means rarely using artificial light(flashlight,head lamp, ect...).

[Joedodge]

Wow ok awesome guys! I have a small pond I fish alotin the day time that has good 1-1.5 pound fish and it's always accessible. I'll probably try there first. And I know a larger pond I can also. The parks all get locked up. I never thought of throwing spinners at night, but it makes sense!

[Ozark_Basser]

Use the same things you do in the day. Expect to find bass up super shallow. Think of where the baitfish would go at night. Most baitfish cannot see nearly as well as bass, especially at night, so they relate to super shallow cover and the bank. The bass follow. So be careful with light so you don't spook the fish.

Some baits really do excel at night though. Wakebaits are good. Walking baits don't seem to do as well at night as they do at dusk, but they will still catch fish. Jigs and chatterbaits are my two favorite night baits with a trailer. A lot of guys like pork as a trailer at night. I just use RI sweet beavers. As far as colors, dark colors like black or brown work fine.

[justhere]

Black Jitterbugs are a good bait for night time bass. Hearing them blow up on it is such a thrill. I also use shallow cranks and twister tail grubs with spinner arms.

[Dogmatic]

Wow ok awesome guys! I never thought of throwing spinners at night, but it makes sense!

I use "midnight specials" black with big thumping colorado blades. As for other baits, almost all my night fishing baits are black,(except for my CL8 bait baby possum) they just silhouette better.

[whitwolf]

The list of factors that make Night Time Bass Fishing Operations attractive to me is long & varied.

 

In no particular order: the lake is usually empty, the winds are usually less than during the day, the bass are often a little shallower, Top water baits are pretty good at night, the bigger bass are often a less wary under the cover of darkness, a spinnerbait is like magic, and to key in on the present for you personally - a moon burn is highly unlikely     but do bring insect repellent.

 

As for tips & techniques - fish the same type of productive water & baits you have success with during the day.  However, drop shots, & super finesse stuff may not be necessary at night.

 

Fish places you know well, wear a PFD, tell someone where you'll be & when to expect you home.  Bring at least Two Lights (headlamps work well).  Keep your gear & boat deck neat clean & organized or you'll find that loose plug stuck some where bad.

 

 Have Fun and bring a camera with a flash . . .

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

 

 

This is a great post. I can't stress enough being familiar with you body of water, It's a different animal at night. If you don't know your surroundings well I highly suggest going slow and being overly cautious.

 

As for baits, I'm partial to Zoom 8" big dead ringers, jigs(with rattles) a black spinnerbait, and a R.I. sweet beaver.

[bigbill]

I was up at 3:30am hit the shore by 4:15 start fishing. I start with top water, poppers, spooks, propbaits, then shallow cranks, then deeper cranks etc. I throw a ritual of different baits.

Fishing in the dark the key to success is being stealthy, very stealthy. So quiet it's like your not there. I drive up slowly, close the door on the car slowly, walk up to my spot softly. Put my tackle box down lightly. Handle my rods with no noise. I use spinning reels only. I close the bail after a cast by hand. Any noise out of the norm spooks the big bass near the shoreline. Be very very quiet.

My PB of 10# was caught 2' from shore at 5:am. Right at dusk as the sky was lighting up.

I caught more bass in numbers in the evenings but the area is too crowded. So I tried the early am. I find the bass are bigger.

Plus we get to watch the night turn to day. I watch the big yellow ball come up thinking about Louie Armstrong's what a wonderful world.

Night fishing is awesome. I been told after the early evening bite after the place calms down the bass turn on again around 10pm. I never tried it.

Now as the night becomes day I run the same baits again. But I then go deeper cranks, Carolina rig senkos. I throw jig and pork trailer on the Rocky point. I have a weedlines that runs parallel to the channel away from me. It's good for a few bass at the transition point.

Each area is different just stay focused and motivated.

[Joedodge]

Wow thanks so much for the awesome replys everyone. I am super pumped to try this. Always did well for snooks and shark at night and loved it!

[bigbill]

Just be safe and aware of your surroundings. I heard a bear one night hoot. I had one near my car. There was one spotted at a nearby school.

I had a bobcat 15' away from me.

The bass fishing is awesome. I go anyway. I heard a bass do a body slam.wow.

[AQUA VELVA]

Tons of good advice here from guys who know. I night fish my home lake a lot. What works for me are black jitterbugs, black Z-Man chatter baits and a black spinnerbait with a single colo blade on it. Sometimes a black buzz bait will be very productive also. Be careful with jitterbugs and buzzbaits. Don't set the hook till you feel the weight of the fish on your line or you could get a face full of lure. Good fishing!

[Big C]

Watch out for the BOOGERMAN.

[stkbassn]

Night fishing is my favorite kind of fishing for bass. I also look better in the dark Seriously I love to throw 12 inch power worms in black or black grape. I also throw storm jointed thundersticks right along the bank..reel slow and steady listening to the rattle and get ready for the explosion. Wait until you feel resistance and snap your hookset. Also, large wake baits like the ms slammer work well...bbz 6 inch or 8 inch floating shad..6 inch is great for me. Spinnerbaits are great too...I wake them closer to the surface on moonlit nights. Have a blast.

[Catt]

Darkness covers up an angler's presence and most of all his mistakes!

Fish the same baits, the same locations, and techniques you would during the day. My best trip ever with a Drop Shot was at night. The only thing different I add to my repertoire at night is a Q-Beam!

Give special attention to night lighted areas; lighted docks, lighted boat ramps, a row of camps with lights along the bank or a single camp with a light near the water.

Shallow vs deep; I have not noticed a distinct advantage one way or the other. I will normally fish both areas thoroughly staying with the one that produces the best results. However shallow water does offer a greater opportunity to use different techniques.

[WRB]

Night bass fishing has lots of advantages over day time. The one big disadvantage is the poor visibility we have. Difficult to judge distance, tie knots, see where you are going or stepping on.

My advice is to keep it simple at night and be safe. Flash lights, cap lights, navigation lights and spot light all help you see better. Light also attracts bugs, you are in Florida! Nocturnal critters are active at night; snakes, gators etc, be careful.

Rat swimbaits, buzz baits are good surface lures at night. Soft plastic worms of all sizes and jigs are good at night.

Crankbaits work good from a boat, just need to learn to cast in the darkens keep the lure in water.

Let someone know where you are and take a cell phone.

Good luck.

Tom

PS, use the search tool, lots of night fishing threads to look at. Listen to Catt!

[Bluebasser86]

Man I got excited just thinking about night fishing again! Night time is a great time to catch big fish and practice the KISS method of thinking. I fish a big dark jig, a big dark worm, and a bladed jig about 90% of the time. I don't like topwater or treble hooks at night because I've had too many baits come screaming back at me when someone didn't follow the rules and set the hook when they heard an explosion. Trying to unhook a bass on trebles is hard enough in the daylight, much worse at night. 

[SirSnookalot]

I fish pre dawn everyday (at the ocean), fish don't swim out of the water but gators and mocs do.  I never bass fish at night in Florida from shore, not worth the risk for me.

[Bluebasser86]

I fish pre dawn everyday (at the ocean), fish don't swim out of the water but gators and mocs do.  I never bass fish at night in Florida from shore, not worth the risk for me.

I stepped on a ground hornet nest bank fishing in the dark once, that was a bad night. 

[Mr Q]

   Around where I live, no one goes night bassing. That's a shame since its an excellent time for shore fishing.

 

   Where I live, all the local "dead" ponds (in the daytime) become alive with large bass at night. All the ponds I fished were heavily covered with pond lilies so I picked a shore spot during the day and made many casts into the openings till I could place the surface lure into the openings with my eyes closed. Then I tried the exact same spot at night when the water was calm. The first (and only) bass I caught made such a racket fighting me that the pond area was "turned off" from all the noise. In these cases, get one bass then leave for the night. Strangely, lightning flashes don't seem to spook them at night but any loud noises from shore or lights will.

 

   The most productive shore night lure for me is a spotted or black jitterbug in top water vegitation ponds and in open waters, a spinnerbait retreived close to the surface. The jitterbug drives the bass crazy with its slow gurgling noise and like other say, the strike can be so dramatic that once experienced, you will then never quit night fishing for bass! And the "dead" ponds mentioned above - they only produce small "trash" fish during the day but once dark, the bigger bass come close to shore feeding on frogs and the jitterbug resembles a wounded frog swimming - an easy meal for a large hungry bass. People don't beleive I catch 6-10 pounders in these dead ponds but I don't care - the thrill of the strikes are so nice to experience

[Bankbeater]

Make sure you know the area and your surroundings.  Visit the area in the daytime, and take a good look around.

[Joedodge]

Thanks so much everyone, I wouldn't dare fiah new territory alone at night in FL. We have enough deadly critters in the day time. I'll try the few lil ponds first and see how a night trip gos and fish some simple lures, like spinners, or roostertails and jigs. Maybe a frog

[Senko lover]

The first time I ever went night fishing, I got about 5 strikes on my Popper in the course of 15 minutes. It was exhilerating!

The second time I ever went night fishing, I got my reel tangled so bad that I lost all the line on it.

So definitely make sure you bring a light with you.

In general, throw your favorite lures, but retrieve them slower and use darker colors.

[papajoe222]

My favorite lake is super clear and the major feeding time is from dusk until around midnight with another peak period beginning around 3:00AM. Both of these occur in shallow water from 1ft..-6ft. as the main forage here is minnows and they stick close to shoreline weeds.

My night time baits are geared toward mimicking those minnows. Long/narrow cranks, smaller spinnerbaits with willow blades, and PopR's worked steadily for hard baits and grubs on darter jigheads and Flukes for soft plastics.

During the 'off' period I'll move out deeper and switch to big, ribbon tailed worms, fat cranks and Colorado blade spinnerbaits. Jitterbugs and ChugBugs or PencilPoppers for topwaters

This is the only water I fish from my boat. My other night fishing is restricted to ponds which I'll fish with the same baits I'd use during the day.

[wytstang]

This is on my to-do list this year, I would love to see how a slow rolled chatterbait does during a full moon. I'm definatly getting a jitter bug as well because everything Ive read about them during the night I want to experience.