Night Fishing

[JShrock07]

Hey,

I went out Night Catfishing last Thurday with my fiance's little brother to get him into fishing to a lake that has a good amout of Channel Cats in it. Well later in the night I got bored from sitting and wanted to cast my strike king shad. After 2 casts I had a nice blow up, but no fish 3 cast later I slammed a good 3 lber, I was stoked!!!!!!!!!!!

I was also extremely mad at myself for leaving the boat at home. I figured I would be able to get a bunch of nice bass if I had my boat. Well tonight I took my boat and tried some more topwater, I fished from 930pm-12am and NO BITES at ALL!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't beleive it. I only covered a small portion of the lake but where I did cover it was a lot of flats with a grassy bottom. Well I went in search of deeper water and found a 20' drop-off and fished the hell out of that area, with a CR with a black worm, a black spinnerbait with dual willow blades and a red eye shad. I have read alot about night fishing but I'm still very confused. I want to have a good time and trust me I don't ask for much... I just want to catch 1 per hour and I really am not concerned about catching hawgs on my first few trips but eventually I'd like to slam some big ole pigs.

If anyone has anything to add to this to help me out please reply.

Thanks

Joe

[Irish_Bassman]

ive never done much night bassin'. a couple here or there by accident while realing in my chicken liver or dip bait worm while catfishin' lol. but from what im told the louder it is, or the harder it thumps the better. and if its a clear night ive been told to go dark to create a nice silouette. id like to know any info people have on the subject as well.

[dodgeguy]

night fishing can be as frustrating as day fishing.sometimes they don't turn on until 2 or 3 in the morning.it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

[bigbasser121]

I've always had pretty good luck fishing at night. I like to use black buzzbaits, torpedo's, or a black jitterbug.  But the more noise the better. Sometimes they won't hit the jitterbug or the torpedo so I throw the buzzbait in with a fast retrieve and they love it (or vice versa). I've also found a triple bladed buzz that works a ton better than the regular's.

[WRB]

Couple of basic facts about summer period bass.

1. The water is warmer, the weed growth is good, the available prey is abundant.

2. Bass are sight feeders, however also use thier lateral line and scent senses to help locate prey at night.

3. Summer period bass feed quickly and rest often because of the availabilty of easy meals.

4. Bass tend to locate out in deeper water cooler water during the hot day light periods and move into or up onto the shallower areas to feed at night.

There is a daily migration from deeper to shallower and returning to deeper water as the intensity light changes. The basses feeding activity can be more active with the low light condiditions.

It is very diffficult for bass catch prey in weeds at night, they can't see as well. This is why most baitfish hide in the weeds for sancturary at night. Bass roam the edges looking prey and stop at isolated ambush sites. At night it's usually a good tactic to work the enitre outside break line where isloted cover is available and shoreline brush, rock, sandy area's and boat docks. Use both reaction strike lures and slower bottom lures. Texas rigged plastic worms like 7" to 10" Berkely Back Power worms are very affective, Black/red DD15 crank baits and a buzzer should work nearly everywhere at night during the summer period.

WRB

[21farms]

when i lived in arizona, i nightfished 90 percent of the time because of the daytime heat. here's what i'd recommend.

there's basically two ways to go: try to get a reaction bite or go natural and try to imitate their favorite nighttime forage, crayfish. your single best bet is to imitate a crawdad.

for the reaction bite, instead of a tandem willow leaf spinnerbait, try slow-rolling a black, single-bladed colorado blade. single blades put out more vibration in the water.

to imitate a crawdad, slowly drag and hop a jig or plastic worm along the bottom.

nighttime fishing is awesome...that's when the really big girls come out to play and you don't have to be constantly battling the water skiiers and jet boats.

[Pigsticker]

nitro was that at lake curtis? sounds like it, if so i got some lake specific tips for ya

[JShrock07]

d**n Pigsticker.... You are good ;D, how the hell did you get that when I didn't once mention anything about the trees EVERYWHERE!!!  ;D ;D ;D LOL Hell yea I'd like any input you could give me about this lake!!! I have catfished it for years and I have caught big cats out of it but as ya'll know I'm really only big into bass fishing.

Hell if you wanna go one night just let me know PM me.