Night fishing for Summer Smallmouth

[JakobodaFisher]

I'll be fishing Lake Champlain this June(13-21) and have a couple of days set apart where I'll have the opportunity to do some night fishing for Smallmouth, Largemouth, and possibly Bowfin. I haven't found a whole ton of information about how to night fish for Smallies, so I was hoping y'all could give me some pointers and lure advice as well. Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thank you!

[A-Jay]

I put this one together regarding Night Fishing a few years ago.

Still most applicable' especially for bassheads that haven't done

too much fishing after dark.

Good Luck & Stay Safe,

A-Jay

[OkobojiEagle]

Cliff notes: Use a spinning combo to fish the top 1/3 of the water column with noisy baits.  Chatterbait, single Colorado spinner bait, walking top-water bait, buzz bait, ect.  You might try a fluke through the top of weed beds.

 

oe

[T-Billy]

The chatterbait is hands down my #1 night bait for both LM and SM. Jig would be #2. Sometimes a toad or buzzbait if there's lots of surface activity. I mostly fish weed edges and rock structure.

[WRB]

Haven’t done a lot of Smallmouth night fishing but a good friend who targeted record size smallies using single spin spinnerbaits similar to the one A-Jay has on his article page.

For what it’s worth Skinny fished 8’ deep breaks with stumps or rock piles and was very successful.

Good fishing🚣

Tom

[softwateronly]

You could also drag a ned apparently...

 

https://www.wsiltv.com/news/illinois-state-record-smallmouth-bass-caught-in-lake-michigan/article_7adfddb0-df50-57e3-afcf-b3d6e06ae6be.html

 

In all seriousness, most of my night time fishing success for LM has come in waves.  Often I'll sit on the shelves between deep water and shallow flats and catch 3-4 then slow down for awhile till another group comes up to feed.  Every now and then I can get on a school/wolfpack working an area nonstop and that is some of the best fishing I've ever had.  Swimjigs, chatterbait, spinnerbait, jig, and worm are my best producers.  Dark nights are better than bright nights in my opinion.

 

 

scott