Plastics At Night

[BrianSnat]

Before I visited this forum I never would have thought of using plastics after dark. All my life I went with topwater lures after sunset.

Based on advice I received here I started trying Senkos, Rage Anacondas, Yum Dingers, Space Monkeys etc. in the dark and have been killing bass with them.

I just don't get it though. How do bass see these things? Am I dropping the bait right on their noses or do they sense them from a distance? I guess the Rage baits probably have some vibrating action the bass sense but Senkos and Yum Dingers? I'd think they'd be sight only. Or do bass have good eyesight in the dark?

Oddly enough it seems the darker colors the better at night. I started with white and chartreuse thinking that the bass would see them better. I've since found that dark colors like junebug, black, smoke and watermelon work best at night. Any insight as to why?

[Catt]

Any insight as to why?

Bass are predators, concealment is essential to a predator’s success and darkness is the ultimate concealment.

How do bass see these things? Am I dropping the bait right on their noses or do they sense them from a distance?

Again as predators the senses of the bass are highly in tune with its environment, bass can detect slight movements, subtle noises, otherwise they would starve.

[Mattlures]

+1 what Catt said.

They can sence you bait through feel, noise, smell,taiste, and they can see the bait some at night to.

Their sight is ther major sence in the daylight but at night its not as important. You will hear a bunch of guys telling you to use black but color doesnt matter. The good thing about night fishing is that just as the prey fish cant detect the bass as good, the bass cant detect us as good. All our faults are minimized. A plastic at night would have probably zero negative cues.

[Sam]

Fish see different in water than we do.

So what we cannot see they can, even it is the outline of the bait.

As stated above, bass will use all of their senses when feeding to lead them to the bait and then to strike at it.

So we cannot see a black plastic in the dark but a bass can not only see it but feel it.

The wonder of Mother Nature.

P.S. Don't tell Catt but if you want to read about a bass' eyesight please purchase Dr. Keith Jones book, Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish, The Lyons Press, and read Chapter 5, Vision. Page 154 starts the topic of Day Versus Night Vision.

[Catt]

Exactly Matt

Bass can see color but not at night, color it’s self is meaningless at night which is why a large variety of colors produce. Bass cannot see details at night, so don’t waste time with meticulously painted or patterned lures. Contrast is more important by far than color at night.

Darkness covers up an angler’s presence & most of all his mistakes.

[bigbassctchr101]

Bass can see color anytime there is enough light to be reflected to produce a color. Colors are made by the absorbtion and reflection of light off a surface. But, once it gets dark, light is still around but there is not as much of it to reflect certain wavelengths. So, thats when a silhouette comes into play. A black or dark bait will silhouette itself against the brighter (lighter) sky/water. The silhouette has nothing to do with color, it is not reflecting anything, but it is showing up as negative space against a lighter backdrop. That is why fish can "see" a darker lure better on dark nights.

The lateral lines, smell, and hearing all also play a huge part in a bass's ability to feed. Probably more so than sight when its dark.

Check out this site...

http://www.bassfishingandcatching.com/bass-fish.html

A lot of good info on there for a brief but thourough explanation. I graduated as a fisheries biologist in 09, knowing how a bass behaves and reacts and why it does the things they do have really helped my fishing.

[Avid Angler FL]

The big secret here lies in the lateral line. It's the line that runs up on both sides of the bass. It allows them to sense some of the slightest vibrations in the water. As mentioned, a lot of people don't think that senko-style baits produce much movement, but when it's "shimmying" towards the bottom, it's putting out a lot of small vibrations. The lateral line on a bass could be described as having eyes on the back of your head. It is their ultimate predatory tool!

[Catt]

The eyes of a bass go through a night adaptation cycle beginning at twilight and are usually adapted for black, white, and all shades of gray within an hour after darkness.

[Mattlures]

People talk about silhouette against they sky but that would apply when the fish is looking up at a bait. What about when its looking down? In theory that should make it harder to see a dark bait such as plastics. Years ago I snuck into a gold pond at night and collected golf balls. You could see the white balls on the bottom of the pond without a dive light. If they were black you wouldnt see them. So in theory a white bottom bait wout be better then a black bottom bait. However after many many night trips with a lot of experimentation, I have found that color means just about nothing at night. I did use glow and my hot bite died instantly and resumed as soon as I went back to a regular color a 1/2 hour later. Now if I ses a funky color of a bait I like in the bargin bin I will buy it for my night baits. Plastics(usualy a texas rigged worm) is my 3rd choice behind a buzzer and swimbait. If I cant get bit on one of those 3 then I will resort to a crawler. If I still cant get bit then there are no fish in that lake.

[K_Mac]

I remember way back in the day when I first heard of fishing for bass at night, I had the same reaction as you. Dark, slow moving, bottom bumping soft plastics at night?! Then my brother and I gave it try. Having a nice fish hammer a jig or worm at night is still one of the biggest thrills in bass fishing for me. How they see, feel, or hear at night is useful information, but knowing that they do is very cool. Enjoy!

[Catt]

Texas rigs is my goto for night fishing & has been for 40 years

One of my #1 worms for night fishing is a tiny 6” Wal/Mart Renegade hook tail worm, black with silver dust glitter, how the bass find it in 15’ plus I don’t know.

Another killer color is a Ringed Rascal in what is called Texas Smoke; it is dark smoke on top, light smoke in the bottom both of which can easily be seen through, with lots of silver glitter.

[Raul]

Bass have a reflective coat behind the retina called tapetum lucidum ( same coating found in most nocturnal animals and animals that have quite good sight in low light conditions, this reflective coating increases the amount of light inside the eye so bass have night vision.

Also, bass don´t need to see a bait in order to find it, their lateral line added to sound and smell allow him to detect prey/bait in poor visibility environments.

That´s why plastics work at night, the animal is able to hunt, they can see it, feel it, listen it and smell it.

[Avid Angler FL]

Texas rigs is my goto for night fishing & has been for 40 years

One of my #1 worms for night fishing is a tiny 6” Wal/Mart Renegade hook tail worm, black with silver dust glitter, how the bass find it in 15’ plus I don’t know.

Another killer color is a Ringed Rascal in what is called Texas Smoke; it is dark smoke on top, light smoke in the bottom both of which can easily be seen through, with lots of silver glitter.

I also use the Renegade worms! Except now they're made by Luck-E-Strike. They don't carry the black/silver glitter color at my local stores though. I find the best luck with them when using the Green Pumpkin, Electric Blue, and Tequila Sunrise. All three of those are great in the 6in size T-rigged.

[Catt]

The Wal/Marts here still carry em & they are still Renegade

[dink]

Underwater or in your back yard, if it crawls, slithers or wiggles, it comes out at night. I know this... and so do the fishies.