Earliest you have ever been bass fishing.

[The fishmaster]

I was out at 3:00 once. If other, reply below this topic the time. I need to know if I am waking up too late to catch the bigguns.

[DogBone_384]

I wake up at 0300 when I want to be on the water just before the sun comes up. Most of my favorite waters are an hour or more from me.

[Bankbeater]

If I’m fishing local I’ll get up around 4:00.  When I’m on a trip I get up at 3:00 to be out on the water before sun up. 

[scaleface]

I'm an early bird . I almost always get up before the sun does . I have gotten up at two before , got my stuff prepared . drank coffee , ate breakfast... and get to the lake before the sun rises .

[Mobasser]

Because I've gotten up at 5:00 for forty years, I can't sleep in. I get up in time to get to the lake at sunrise. Usually 4- 4:30

[huZZah]

Very much depends on what puts me at the water just before sunrise.

[MN Fisher]

So far - the earliest I've been on the water is 7:30

 

Hope to beat that tomorrow - but going before sunrise isn't an option as I don't have lights on the canoe.

[The fishmaster]

Just now, MN Fisher said:

So far - the earliest I've been on the water is 7:30

 

Hope to beat that tomorrow - but going before sunrise isn't an option as I don't have lights on the canoe.

The only reason I get up at 3:00 or 4:00 sometimes is to fish local tournaments. I have a kayak and it also does not have lights. It is a different experience for sure. Who needs coffee when the strike of a topwater bass wakes you up?

[Catt]

7:00 PM ?

 

Stayed out until 9:00 AM!

[TcRoc]

Just before sunrise I like to be on the water . I am not a wake up and walk out the door guy, need a couple hours lol.

Between 3 and 4 if local.

[Spankey]

I’ve tried to be on the water at 3:00 am or earlier on occasions but never really worked out all that well. 
 

The same with trying to hang out well after sunset and that never produced anything special. 
 

But I am on the water 1 hour before first light. 

[Bird]

In the warm months I get on the water at daylight, usually 6 am.

[scaleface]

9 minutes ago, TcRoc said:

. I am not a wake up and walk out the door guy, need a couple hours lol.

exactly 

 

[ironbjorn]

5:30am~. You can get hurt more easily in the dark (this is my way of not owning up to the fact that, even in my 30s, the night still gives me the creeps ---- oh, oops).

[bulldog1935]

I stalked a 4-lb spotted bass in a flagstone pool in the N. Fork of the San Gabriel River for weeks.  

When you'd see him rise to feed on the shelves, move to cast there, his next rise would be where you just left.  Kept getting out earlier until I figured where he rose first in the morning.  

I was there in the dark, holding my cast and watching the morning.  The bluegill began popping first.  When I saw his wake where it should be, made one cast and caught him.  

 

Did the same to an 8-lb largemouth in an impoundment on Bull Creek. The spot is now Spicewood Park in Austin, but this was before - I met the landowner on her horse one day and had her permission to fish there.  

Had to duck walk the dam to keep my stealth so he couldn't see me.  First rise, first cast, big fish to hand.  I named this kicking crayfish Bull Creek Craw in his honor.  

this one's a little muffed, because it caught 30 creek fish the day before I stuck it in the vise for this photo

______________________________

 

In kayaks, we don't paddle until we can make out a navigation target, but we're out as quickly as possible to get to our structure goal for first light.  

[Junk Fisherman]

I have gotten up a couple times at 1:30 to make a 3+ hour drive and be on the water at daylight.  Not anymore.  I am too tired while driving and lack energy throughout the day by waking up at that time.  Nowadays, 3 AM is about the earliest I will wake up for the day.  I'll leave the day before and get a good night sleep close to the lake if I want to be somewhere at daylight that is several hours away.  

[BassNJake]

I've gotten up at 2am so I could fish Guntersville in the morning

Currently I get up at 4:30ish , my first casts are predawn

[CrankFate]

I usually show up around 9:00-10:00am. I haven’t had any better luck fishing earlier than that. Maybe I did, but I’m not getting out of bed before 8 on the weekend.

[flyfisher]

all depends but i have been known to fish the sunset and sunrise in that order on more than one occasion.

[Catt]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

7:00 PM ?

 

Stayed out until 9:00 AM!

 

Bet @A-Jay can relate! ?

[A-Jay]

8 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Bet @A-Jay can relate! ?

Time, as it relates to getting on the water,

whether it's early, late or something in between,

seems to be much less about hour I read a clock

and more about what 'time' the bass think it is.

 #feedingtime

A-Jay

 

 

 

[MIbassyaker]

June through August I usually fish early on weekdays to avoid people. I'm usually up around 4 or 4:30 depending on how far I have to go, to get a line in the water before dawn. But the earliest I have been up is the prior evening to fish through the night; I just haven't done it in a long time.

[Ratherbfishing]

 

It takes me an hour to wake up, get myself and the boat ready, and another 1.75 hours to drive to the lake.  Another 15 minutes to prep and unload the boat at the ramp and head out.  SO, if I want to be on the lake at sunrise (from mid may to mid July), I have to be up around 2 a.m.  I don't often (and it's not my preferred timing) do this but it's not uncommon.

[Krux5506]

I'll wake up around 4am during the peak days of summer to avoid the heat and other boat traffic while I'm at my family's cottage. Ironically, I still never really have much action until 7 or 8 am. If I'm on the water by 5am I'm making pretty dang good time though, for me. Then by 12pm I need a nap. 

[TheBasslayer]

Earliest has to be 5:00, but sometime I’ll go earlier.