night fishing, any suggestions, never tried it.

[bass2187]

Well the name of the post pretty much says everything. Its something ive been wanted to try and i think im gonna try it this year being there will be a lake out side my dorm room. I will be fishing Southern illinois.

[Craw]

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1154255314

Here's a link from a few weeks ago. I'd suggest reading the old threads in "General Bass Fishing" and you should find everything you need. Good luck with your night fishing. There's nothing like it!

[bocabasser]

throw all of your normal baits, but black in color.  i just started night fishing this year, and i am hooked. it is amazing how well big bass hone in on dark colored baits. good luck.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

or any colored bait for that matter,...much like the daytime,when the bite is on,..it's on.

Use the "search" option and you'll find many great posts on this subject.

[Guest bigtex]

If you like spinnerbaits then get one that is dark in color, blk works best for "me", and one that has a double "or" a single colorado blade.  Make sure you get the biggest colorado blade there is.

This is just how I night fish but it isn't the only way you can catch fish at night.

If the topwater bite is on then use topwater baits.  Just be sure you pay attention to the moon.  If the moon is out then you will use a topwater bait that is dark in color.  For ex.- black, blue, brown.

Then there are nights that it really doesn't matter what color or bait you throw because the bass are really active.  When that happens use whatever you would if your were fishing in the daytime.

I hope this helps.

[BassProKevin]

the only downside to night fishing is that its a hastle if you dont have a good quality flashlight with you. if you get a tangle or get caught in the weeds, the last thing you want is to not be able to see what your doing, and end up having to cut the line and loose a lure. so my advice is bring the brightest light possible.

[MinnesotaAngler]

I'll go ahead and say the exact same thing I said in the last post since it seemed to be pretty helpful.  8-)

The thing I love about summertime night fishing in shallower water is a lot of the time, but not all the time, I've found that the bass that normally hang on deep structure come into the shallower weedbeds. I was reading the June Bassmaster when I came across the same kind of statement- "Deeper bass maybe drawn to them (weedbeds) during low-light hours." Also, Kevin VanDam stated in his book, "I prefer night fishing during the hottest weather on the clearest lakes. Fish are more agressive than they are during the day. They tend to roam farther from cover, which means my casts don't have to be as precise." He goes on to say that his favorite technique is slow-rolling a spinnerbait on slow tapering points that drop into deep water. Hope that helps.

[stratoscaster]

One more suggestion, bug spray.

[Shrike]

I used a white buzz bait and caught like 30+ bass in a couple hours.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

Due to too many sunburns between first cane pole fishing in 1956 and now, I do most of my fishing hours between 2 hours before sunset and about 9 AM. I have two 55 watt fog lights on the bow, two 332C GPS/sonar units with lake map cards, a headlamp with several beams including red, another headlamp for UV fishing, a yellow bottle that goes over the aft nav light, and a good flashlight plus 3 million candle spotlight. I take vitamins daily, but save a B-1 Thiamine capsule for just before going out. Instead of DEET I wipe down with a sheet of Bounce. Bugs don't come around. I've shared that on fishing forums for 20 years and not had one person report back those don't work. And NO, B-1 once a day is not poisonous.

When fishing days I mostly fish off shore. I hate fishing used water, not a bank pounder. Most fish are behind most anglers working the shoreline. I find plenty of humps with the same cover they take turns casting to. But come low light those bass join the resident shallow bass to feed shallow, as mentioned above. Bass time their habitual routes in deep water to arrive shallow at night. If it's a windy night they will arrive earlier downwind where plankton gets bunched up against weedlines, followed by baitfish for bass to eat.

I've had many days, and heard it from many others whole days go by with no takers on spinnerbaits. I think bass get very wise to those. But not at night. For those, use any color you wish as long as its black. The only changes I make are in blade sizes. However quickly you react to a bite on those by day, but at night I recommend giving some slack, count to 3 or 4, then cross their eyes, reel down, and set it again. Days I give them 2 seconds to eat it.

I have a nice assortment of Jitterbugs, a confidence bait that has rewarded untold numbers of fishermen for decades. I let my ears tell me when to tie one on. If I hear surface breaks, I use those, or a

Crazy Crawler, or a black buzzbait, whichever works best. If the surface is unbroken I use Zoom Monster worms a lot, putting only a split shot or two on the nose, swimming it like a real snake swims. They poke around with no noise, head swishing side to side at every frequent halt. When they stop their body folds tight like an accordian. If there's plenty of moonlight I go to topwater soft frogs or mice. All live mice have long tails, so add one, a worm trailer. Another good bait for strong moonlight is a white spinnerbait or buzzbait. I also drag white trailered jigs over rocky bottons in very shallow water. Take time to paint a few heavy jigs white. They are not often for sale anywhere, not a high seller here. A white weightless 10" worm can be deadly in moonlight. A word of caution about a high full moon. Bass take shelter from it like they do at noon, so fish the shade like in daylight. You can also cast a giveaway shadow in moonlight like you can with sun behind your back.

When the bite is super light and slow I break out the UV light and rod with 20# fluorescent Stren. I can see a bite way before feeling it. I use Slider worms, floating worms, white jigs with white pork trailers, and sometimes count-down Rapalas. Set the hook at first hint of a bite before the lure is spit out.  

I use heavier gear at night because more brute force is needed to horse a bass out of cover you can't know is there to tangle them. Get them into open water immediately, then play them down.

Jim

[George Welcome]

Something Glenn put up that I wrote 8 or 9 years ago - good read for you night fishermen.

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/night_fishing_preparation.html

[p-funk]

If fish are hitting topwater at night I honestly believe color doesn't matter unless you are fishing the bait extremely slow.  For example a buddy and I got on fish that were hitting a buzzbait the other night.  It was a full moon, I was throwing a white tru tungsten buzzbait, he was throwing a purple.  We both caught fish, several between 3-4lbs.  He snapped off his purple buzzbait on a cast, so I give him a firetiger color one.  He continued to catch bass.  On a moving bait, I don't think color matters.  Had the same thing happen with a jitterbug.  Yes black catches fish but I've also caught them on firetiger as well.  Don't limit yourself to just black or dark colors.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

I think black is so effective anytime bass are biting because the issue at night isn't really color so much as it is contrast. Most of the month the best light available is starlight, or backlighting from a city or dock. Even on cloudy nights there is some light, often the light from the aft nav light providing plenty to cover an acre of water. I know a bunch of folks turn it off to fish, but that's illegal and unsafe. You need something to let others know you are there. That little bit of light is enough for fish below water to look up and contrast an opaque worm against whatever light is past it. The more light, the more translucent the bait can be. I've wasted a lot of hours going on theories about "You gotta try a light green worm at night". I'll go no lighter than red on black until there's enough moonlight to be able to see my lure in the water. Then it can be interesting trying out several colors like in daylight until you find the best one. I carry a lot of black worms and spinnerbaits, more than I can use, because most folks fishing with me have none, and most go fishless until they go black or dark purple. They might catch some bass because a bass can locate any bait you could tie on a line and get to it through feeling and hearing, but giving them something that also appeals to sight increases accuracy of the strike. Scents add even more hookup success.

If you have GPS, set the map orientation to Track Up rather than North Up. On a foggy night you won't be finding North, so make the map display so whatever you see to the right of your boat track is actually on your right. If you don't have a GPS, practice using a compass in daylight. At night is no time to use one. If you begin a course from a mistaken location you can let it lead you into a mess. We've gone out on the patrol boat many times rescuing boaters who trusted the dash mounted compass, finding them aground on a hump in the middle of the lake. No more, though, due to budget reductions. You're on your own in Arkansas now unless you are on Coast Guard waters and have a VHF, or a good friend able to help.

Plan a night trip carefully and make a paper plan showing the route you will stick to, then leave the map for a friend to use to come find you if needed. It's called "File a Float Plan". Without GPS the safest route is to simply follow a shoreline right or left from a launch ramp. In the event of fog or bad weather you are not having to navigate against driving rain or hail to hopefully find shore without running aground on an island or smacking into a rock bluff on shore. To return just follow the shoreline back.

Usually there is little wind at night, so two batteries are not necessary for a 12v trolling motor. Save one as a backup in case the outboard fails. It wouldn't hurt to keep a spare deep cycle battery on the rear deck next to the outboard. I do that when crappie fishing, running extra float lights off it. The lights don't discharge it enough to notice that. My backup second trolling battery serves the electronics.

Be sure you are fueled and oiled up. Carry a cell phone. If you don't have a cell phone account at least carry a discarded one with a good battery and 12 VDC charger that can be used on the boat. Open account or not, if it works at all a call to 911 will go through. I keep one in a sandwich bag along with car charger, stored away as a backup to my regular phone.

I keep a shrunken bag with jacket, gloves, pants, shirt, plastic tarp, and a cheap sleeping bag in the boat in case I need to survive a night broken down or due to severe weather, or face a hard trip back to the ramp. I keep those in a heavy plastic bag compressed to about the size of a box of Kleenex by attaching a vacuum cleaner hose. Many times I've found myself outboarding in cold night air from a front slipping up on me even in hot summer, or a large storm cloud sending out straight line winds. From Fall through Spring I consider those required equipment. In the truck there is always a bag containing beach towel and a jumpsuit plus an emergency hand warming gel pack that helps until the truck heater warms up. You only need to be sprayed good once out there to end up in hypothermia in cool air at 50 mph outrunning a hail storm.

Jim

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

Darkness is a bad time to figure out hooks are in bad shape, line is twisted or worn, or not finding needlenose pliers. Check your gear more closely than you usually do for day fishing. Start the trip while there's some daylight left so you can fix potential problems. Use that time to determine things like water clarity and size/type of forage.

I keep all my night lures in one place so I don't have to bang around in storage spaces. Sinkers, hooks, swivels, etc are all put handy to find. I keep a plastic jar on deck to store any small tackle like that to keep it from getting scattered. It's a real bother to me getting a hook stuck in a shoe, or re-using a discarded hook that's set aside for resharpening.

While you can easily have a dozen rods on deck in daylight, more than a couple is definitely a target for a heavy foot in darkness.

Jim

[bass ackwards]

most of might bites are bats hitting my line