Warm Weather Night Fishing Question

[OCdockskipper]

Since our warmer weather out here typically isn't as stifling as other parts of the country, I have never made nighttime bassing part of my summertime arsenal.  However, the more I think about how comfortable our nights are from June thru September, I think I may be missing out.  The one question I have is what times do you fish at night and would you recommend those same times for my lake?

 

I would think the easiest way would be to start near dusk and fish until 1:00 or 2:00 am in the morning.  However, the lake I fish on has a lot of pleasure boaters who use the early evening hours in the summer as times to cruise the lake in their pontoon boats.  Typically there will be at least a dozen boats or so on this 100 acre lake until 10:30 or 11:00 pm every evening, going in & out of every cove on the lake.  I am wondering if it may make more sense to launch near midnight and fish through the dawn until 8:00 or 9:00 am to avoid human presence by others (there is no a.m. cruising, I think most folks are hung over  ).

[Bluebasser86]

I'll fish dusk till dawn if the option is on the table. There is usually a middle of the night lull though. The best bite is typically dusk until around 1am, then starts up again around 4am until whenever they decide the sun is getting too high in the morning. I would absolutely give it a try and honestly wouldn't worry about the pontoons. One of the lakes I used to night fish a lot was really similar, private, lots of docks, about 100 acres with clear water, pontoons and small personal craft "stirring the lake" as I call it when they all drive slow laps around the lake following each other. Fishing was almost always excellent, just had to have our lights on. 

[Catt]

An hour and a half prior to the raising of the moon on the horizon. 

 

An hour and a half prior to the setting of the moon.

 

An hour and a half prior the moon reaching its apex

 

Kinda sounds like the sun huh!

[buzzbaiter83]

Go at dusk. Fish til you get tired. Night time fishing is peaceful. It’s quiet and everything slows down. If I had to pick a timeframe though I’d launch around 11-12pm and fish til just after daylight. 

[Angry John]

If your looking for peace and quiet the midnight to 8 time frame would bexpect my first choice for a busy lake.  For no power boat lakes I go an hour before sunset and fish till around midnight.

[WRB]

I only get to night fish during a controlled tournament 6 hour schedule 8 P to 2 A.

Tom

[Catt]

What moon phase are y'all talking?

 

[WRB]

Night tournament where I fish are scheduled around the full moon phase.

My first night event was fishing out of another freinds boat and it was his 1st night event, the blind leading the blind takes on a who new meaning. My partner fishes 3" reapers on 8 lb P-Line that is what he uses. I fished jigs and 10" Black Power worms. We got a very late draw time nearly the last boat out so all the top spots had boats on them, except 1 spot was overlooked that was a good day area, so we stopped there. Within the 1st hour I managed to catch 38 lbs for 5 bass, all jig fish. We didn't cull any of those bass,  caught several more and had a wonderful time the rest of the night and won the event by over 10 lbs.

Tom

[OCdockskipper]

On 6/7/2018 at 2:59 AM, Catt said:

An hour and a half prior to the raising of the moon on the horizon. 

 

An hour and a half prior to the setting of the moon.

 

An hour and a half prior the moon reaching its apex

 

Kinda sounds like the sun huh!

Catt, are you saying the decision on when to go out at night (dusk to midnight versus midnight to dawn) should be based on the moon phase for that evening instead of more local considerations (remember, we really don't have any weather changes in the summer out here)?

 

For example, tonight our moonrise is 2:19, so the midnight to dawn scenario would catch the the times prior to the moonrise & prior to the apex, whereas the dusk to midnight or so scenario misses all 3.  If I am understanding you correctly, I should force myself to get some sleep early this evening and head out to the lake near midnight.

[Mr. Aquarium]

i fish dusk till dawn sometimes! i love night fishing, i live in the north east and i start fishing in april and fish up till  november. i bet i could get night fish in december up here. 

where fish i dont see heavy boat traffic. so i usually start at sundown and  fish till 1-2am. 

[Catt]

@OCdockskipper

 

Those are your "feeding periods" associated with the moon.

 

During daytime there's a "feeding period" at first light until sometime after sunrise, again around 12:00-2:00, & again at sunset until darkness.

 

Do we fish only those 3 time frames?

 

There was a time when I would go out at 6:30 pm & stay out until after sunrise. 

 

So to answer your question I would probably sleep in until about 1:00.

[Todd2]

I'm going out tonight. I usually get there around 7, fish till 2ish. I have one spot that turns on almost like clockwork around 12-1. It's close to a busy ramp so my theory is it takes some time for them to settle down. That probably is not really why, but it consistently is a good spot. I don't get the opportunity to choose weather, moon phases,  etc. I go when I can get away, and play the cards that I'm dealt.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Todd2 said:

 I don't get the opportunity to choose weather, moon phases,  etc. I go when I can get away, and play the cards that I'm dealt.

 

Exactly! ?

 

Day or night the best time to go fishing is anytime you can go fishing.

 

Boat launches are one place I always target. If they're lighted that's a plus but hit all of them.

 

On Toledo Bend most camps have private boat launches which may not have had on boat on them in months. I target them anyway...I think it's the concrete!

[OCdockskipper]

With a high pressure system parked over the West, our temperatures spiked following the 4th of July.  It hit 113 here on Friday and will be in the triple digits again today, with lows never dropping below 75 in the middle of the night.  So I flipped my sleep schedule around late Thursday and scheduled to go out from midnight to 8 am this morning.

 

The trip went well, the weather was perfect for shorts and a T shirt with no concern of sunburn or exposure.  My familiarity with both the lake & my gear made casting in the dark not as bad as I had been concerned about.  Lure wise, the bass had no interest in a topwater, which is not unusual for this lake.  Instead, the bait of choice was a Rapala Scatter Rap shallow, which stayed high in the water column around the docks & weedlines and had a little erratic action without any thing to run the bait into.  Jigs & worms didn't produce much, except at one dock that had a minnow light submerged in the water.  I caught a few bass that were hiding on the outside edge of the shadows and would dart into the light to feed, including the largest for the night, a 4 lb 2 oz one on a Ned rig.

 

One thing I found is that fishing before dawn sure prepares you for when the sun gets ready to rise.  Not only do you have a good idea what to do instead of having to spend time trying figure them out, now being able to see where you are casting seems like cheating.  Of the 41 bass I caught, 26 were in the 5.5 hours of darkness before dawn while the remaining 15 were in the 2.5 hours following it.  I believe the difference probably had to do with execution on my part, making more precise casts to fish I might have missed in the darkness.  The only negative is that I left them biting.

 

On the positive side, I had the boat back in, cleaned & all my tackle put away as the temps hit 90 degrees.  Took a nap to get my sleep schedule back to normal and popped in to give this report.  I like having this as an option to avoid getting hammered by summertime heat.

[Catt]

@OCdockskipper what was the moon doing? ?

[OCdockskipper]

39 minutes ago, Catt said:

@OCdockskipper what was the moon doing? ?

It rose at 1:15 & was near overhead as I came off the water.

 

Other than that, I believe it was rooting me on!!

[JustJames]

I also plan to fish a few hours tonight (after 12:00PM) instead of tomorrow morning, since it will hit 106 tomorrow. The jerkbait is a good choice but I'm scared of those treble hook. Like you even I see some activity on surface but none ever take my topwater. I usually get lucky with Fluke when jerk up high in water column but detect the bite is a lot harder when I cannot see if the line move. I plan to do some wacky Senko tonight. 

[Dorado]

@JustJames I’ve tried wacky rigged senkos countless nights and I just can’t seem to enjoy it since I can’t line watch. Same with a weightless Fluke...... I feel like I miss so many bites since I purposely keep my headlight off to avoid spooking them from the bank. 

[TnRiver46]

I don’t fish at night, maybe one day. I’m lucky to be awake right now! 

[JustJames]

It was super hot still 82 outside, end up stay out for only hour and a half. I caught two decent size, one on wacky rig and another chatterbait.

[Catt]

On 6/8/2018 at 10:34 PM, Catt said:

So to answer your question I would probably sleep in until about 1:00.

 

10 hours ago, OCdockskipper said:

It rose at 1:15 & was near overhead as I came off the water.

 

12 hours ago, OCdockskipper said:

Of the 41 bass I caught, 26 were in the 5.5 hours of darkness before dawn

 

 

[NHBull]

Last night I took my cousin out for a casual dinner on the boat and dusk fishing. Within minutes of the sun falling behind the mountains, every time she threw her wacky rig she got hit by a 1.5 to 2.0 pounder.

 

I was throwing jigs and getting countless 3 pounder.  Changed to poppers over shallows and I had more fun in in an hour than had in 3 days.

 

A well lit night makes all the difference for me. We quit by 2200. My body is still sore

[CrankFate]

On 6/7/2018 at 2:53 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

just had to have our lights on. 

I think the lights draw the fish. From what I have observed many times in places where there is outdoor lighting near the water, the bass are drawn to it and use it to hunt. At night with lights, the bass hang suspended and wait for things hitting the water (like insects) or passing over their heads.  I’ve seen this just about anywhere I’ve ever been at night where there were lights and bass, especially when it is hot out.  

[Brew City Bass]

I live in Wisconsin. Our summer nights are very mild. Highs usually 70-75 lows all the way to 50. 

I go out around 9pm and the bite really seems to turn on around 10:30 - 12:00. If it's a full moon it gets wild with the fish sometimes!

We have a problem with the locals getting hammered and making slow laps around the lake in their pontoons. I am always looking over my shoulder. I've personally seen two night time accidents. Both were older residents on pontoons and they were hammered. One drove into someones dock, it even had a light on it and all. Other one hit the back of a boat that was anchored and fishing for crappie. He also had his lights on, but the pontoon didn't. Relatively no damage and no one hurt thank God. Just pay attention. 

I always bring a gun with me as well. I feel very vulnerable at the launch by myself at night in the pitch dark. Just good peace of mind for me. 

[NHBull]

4 minutes ago, Brew City Bass said:

I live in Wisconsin. Our summer nights are very mild. Highs usually 70-75 lows all the way to 50. 

I go out around 9pm and the bite really seems to turn on around 10:30 - 12:00. If it's a full moon it gets wild with the fish sometimes!

We have a problem with the locals getting hammered and making slow laps around the lake in their pontoons. I am always looking over my shoulder. I've personally seen two night time accidents. Both were older residents on pontoons and they were hammered. One drove into someones dock, it even had a light on it and all. Other one hit the back of a boat that was anchored and fishing for crappie. He also had his lights on, but the pontoon didn't. Relatively no damage and no one hurt thank God. Just pay attention. 

I always bring a gun with me as well. I feel very vulnerable at the launch by myself at night in the pitch dark. Just good peace of mind for me. 

Being prepared for worst case scenario is always comforting and allows you to proceed with a clear mind