Night fishing

[FishinDinks]

So I know night fishing is usually a summertime thing but due to my schedule if I want to consistently get out fishing most of the time it is from 8pm-11pm.  I am mostly from shore at these times and most of the places I fish the only access is a town beach with the rest of the 50-200 acre pond being wooded to the shoreline or residential houses.  These are mostly kettle ponds with not much structure with water clarity being clear and the water temps are around 51F right now.  I have waders and usually wade the shore a bit.  

 

Now I have had pretty much no luck doing this.  I have only caught one fish since June and that was on a kayak.  Other then that I have not even gotten a bite.  Is this just the time that I am choosing to fish or is there something I should be throwing?  I have thrown lipless cranks, various texas rigged baits, ned rig, jigs, whopper ploppers.  I am just not sure what I am doing wrong(pretty sure it is me).  I feel like I am focusing on the drop offs I know are there that I can get from shore.  I think overall I am focusing deep a lot due to the first 10-20 feet of the shoreline being maybe a foot deep.  Should I just walk the shore and pound the banks?  I am at a loss but I would love to end this bad run.

 

I should probably mention I am getting back into fishing after about 20 years.  Thank you in advance.

[roadwarrior]

First of all and most importantly, you need to find somewhere else to fish.

Then this might help:  

 

 

[FishinDinks]

2 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

You need to find somewhere else to fish.

 

Meaning somewhere I can walk around the pond?  If that is what you mean then I cant fish without my kayak.  There are probably hundreds of ponds around here from where glaciers receded but they are all wooded around the perimeter with limited access.  But even when I fish from my kayak I have horrible luck.  I have a Garmin striker 4 and I seem to just search for dropoffs and get tunnel vision trying to fish them.

 

This is an example of one of a 53 acre ponds I fish.  The highlighted spots are where I have access.

 

[Catt]

I fish some bayous & rivers around here that have extremely limited access due to the banks being lined with Oak & Cypress trees.

 

Because I'm standing under trees a shorter rod definitely makes a difference.

 

With limited access I'll switch between topwater, mid-depth, & bottom lures.

 

With limited access comes 2 questions, will the bass be there or will they move up?

 

My thought process would be to rotate through all 4 more that once.

[WRB]

Your access is along the south shore sandy areas and "look" OK from the limited contour  map. Sand tells me there isn't a lot of rooted aquatic plant growth along the south shore. 

Is the inlet at the northwest end? 

1. The rounded point to the bottom left yellow highlite indicates R for broken rock and between the north and south shore is a narrows dropping into deeper water that is closest to the souhth shore at the second highlite area. You haven't had any luck along this area? Can you get to where the rock and sand transition near the rounded point?

2. The small point across from rounded point on the north shore near the (outlet?) creek you apparently need your kayak to fish, this area looks like it may be OK.

3. Your lure choices are good and you can fish top, middle and bottom effectively.

4. Dusk to dark transition time period can be slow about 1 hour after it's dark, but the hour of sundown should be good. Your timing is OK. Are you sure this pond/small lake has a good bass population?

5. I like to fan cast making close to 180 degree pattern as possible when fishing from shore. No way to know what depth the bass are active in without trying shallow to deep and deep to shallow; i.e. fan cast. I also prefer using a Texas rigged "brass n glass" rig plastic worm a high percentage of the time. Berkley's Power Worm in 7 1/2" and 10" is very effective night worm for me, lots of choices.

6. Listen to Catt!

Tom

 

[FishinDinks]

2 hours ago, WRB said:

 

1. The rounded point to the bottom left yellow highlite indicates R for broken rock and between the north and south shore is a narrows dropping into deeper water that is closest to the souhth shore at the second highlite area. You haven't had any luck along this area? Can you get to where the rock and sand transition near the rounded point?

 

 

I think there is actually a boat ramp at that R now that I look at it again so I have access there.