What’s night fishing like?

[TnRiver46]

This has been my experience with it…….. granted I’m a tad apprehensive about boating after dark in winter when the mosquitos are gone 

[softwateronly]

I'm in love with night fishing, this spring was my first time getting out in cold water/weather at night and it was just as good or better than summer night fishing.  The big girls seem to get shallow and roam the flats and will chase down fast moving baits.  I'm definitely hooked.  Everyone's comments line up with my experiences as well.  @PhishLI is right on if you're on a clear water fishery.  The new moon seems best to me.  The full moon might be the least likely time to do well, I immediately skip the flats and work the breaks with a jig or worm or slow roll a big swimbait paralell to deep weedlines.  I fish the same deeper water I target during the day. 

 

I have a tiny, no wake, menderchuck attached to my usual menderchuck, and it's a deep, Bahamian crystal clear water, I think I wanna try a full/bright moon glide bait adventure.  See if the size, silhouette, and clack can call them up like midday.  Anyone have success with this?

 

scott

[Capriceragtop]

I bank fish, and went to my most productive lake one night. Took in my gear with a headlamp. Didn't have much luck, but I kept hearing what sounded like someone chunking bowling balls into the lake. Big thumps followed by a splash. Pretty sure it was the sound of some sizeable fish coming up to feed.

 

I ended up cutting the trip short when the cotton mouths started heading towards me. Buddy of mine later told me it was because the head lamp reminds them of frog eyes at night. Said he carried a tiki torch with him. Helps keep the bugs away, and provides just enough extra light.

[RDB]

8 hours ago, PhishLI said:

A full moon at night is bad news in my super shallow lakes unless there's ripple.

 

Last time I fished a full moon I stuck a werewolf…drug me all over the lake.

 

 

[Zcoker]

22 hours ago, SC53 said:

Black buzz bait, dark toads or frogs, dark worms and dark spinnerbait was always the ticket. 
 

 

I know black is the favored color that everyone likes to use at night and I've caught plenty of fish on black myself but I've had some great luck if not better luck using other colors. Heck, just the other night I switched over to green on top and white sub-surface and, boom, quality fish started nailing my baits. So give other colors a shot when black gets no whacks lol  Might surprise ya! 

 

 

[Captain Phil]

34 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

 

I know black is the favored color that everyone likes to use at night and I've caught plenty of fish on black myself but I've had some great luck if not better luck using other colors. Heck, just the other night I switched over to green on top and white sub-surface and, boom, quality fish started nailing my baits. So give other colors a shot when black gets no whacks lol  Might surprise ya! 

 

There is no visible color in the dark of night, everything looks to be a shade somewhere between black and white.  Back when I first started night fishing, we used Jitterbug top water lures.  As a test, my fishing buddy and I alternated between all black and all white. The black lures always caught more fish.  Would a green, purple or chartreuse lure work?  Sure.  Black lures silhouette better against the night sky.   The question is, how does a bass find a 9" black plastic worm in 20 feet of water at night?  The same way it does in the day time, by it's vibration.  

[Zcoker]

13 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 

There is no visible color in the dark of night, everything looks to be a shade somewhere between black and white.  Back when I first started night fishing, we used Jitterbug top water lures.  As a test, my fishing buddy and I alternated between all black and all white. The black lures always caught more fish.  Would a green, purple or chartreuse lure work?  Sure.  Black lures silhouette better against the night sky.   The question is, how does a bass find a 9" black plastic worm in 20 feet of water at night?  The same way it does in the day time, by it's vibration.  

 

No one can say with absolute certainty how a bass sees at night, I'm quite sure of that. Black certainly works, I understand this perfectly well because I primarily fish at night. That's not to say that black is the end-all color at night. Silhouette or not, how a bass reacts to white or green or blue...could be a shade thing, as you suggested. In my experience, the bass have been reacting pretty darn good to the lighter colors, both on top as well as subsurface. In fact, the lighter color on top has been working out so much better that I have stopped using black altogether! I don't do much bottom fishing at night, so I can't comment about the vibration deal. My whole point was about trying out other colors when black doesn't seem to be producing anything.  

[Catt]

Most baitfish have a light colored belly & have a darker back. This doesn't change just because the sun set.

 

In bodies of water with a large shad population white would be more natural.

 

With that said I do quite well with Redbug, Crabapple, & Plum at night.

[Yuddzy]

One thing to consider if you're fishing at night is bird's-nests in your baitcaster, especially if you don't have good eyes and/or lights to assist in clearing them up. My first time ever using a casting reel was at night, fishing from the shoreline. I spent around an hour out there casting, and around 45 minutes of it was fixing blown up spools.

 

I don't recommend the experience. Simply put, fixing backlashes at night can be a pain just due to lower visibility. They're also a bit more likely to happen at night. Bringing a spare rod and a good headlamp alleviates most of the issue. 

 

Good luck out there fellas. 

[king fisher]

[T-Billy]

On 6/21/2022 at 7:45 PM, king fisher said:

That's the kind of thing an unseen tree limb or wacky senko that flies off will do. 

[Munkin]

Had an owl grab a jitterbug which scared the crap out of me. 

 

Allen