Night Bassing ~ A-Jay's Version

[WRB]

California you must have running lights on at sundown, the rear white light 6" above the OB and stays on until you are at the marina. We also have a 10 mph speed limit at night on most lakes, not everyone follows the rules and some idiots in a blacked out boats are on the pad at speed in the dark......scary if you are fishing off shore structure.

Tom

[00 mod]

47 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

Catt, What is WOT?

As for graphs, I turn down the brightness also, but I also tilt the displaly down. If I'm anchored, I'll turn it off.

WOT= Wide Open Throttle

Jeff

[A-Jay]

3 hours ago, 00 mod said:

Question for us humans who do not fish as much at night as some of you veterans-

What do you do about the light from your graphs?  They are a necessity to finding offshore structure or just waypoints, but emit a ton of light!

Jeff

Jeff I turn the "Brightness"  Off - and there is still plenty of back light to see the screen but not enough to light up the lake.

A-Jay

 

[Catt]

Shallow vs Deep

I've found shallow water offers more opportunities to use different techniques.

My love however lies offshore!

The one advantage deep has over shallow is the same as during the daylight; bigger bass. Well that & most anglers don't like fishing offshore during daylight let alone at night. I've spent all night on deep water structure without ever seeing a boat all night.

One piece of equipment you'll need on offshore structure is an anchor. I setup shallow & cast deep with Texas rigs, Jigs, Carolina rigs, or deep cranks.

[kickerfish1]

Great write up A-Jay! As I type this we are sitting at 95 degrees with  "Real Feel" of over 100. Night fishing sounds pretty cool right now

[Goose52]

11 minutes ago, kickerfish1 said:

Great write up A-Jay! As I type this we are sitting at 95 degrees with  "Real Feel" of over 100. Night fishing sounds pretty cool right now

You and me both. It's "only" 90 outside right now...but I knew it was going to be warm enough today that I blew off having a " boat day"...  Bank fished this morning, got a little bass, mission complete. A bass a day keeps the doctor away...

[slonezp]

5 hours ago, 00 mod said:

Question for us humans who do not fish as much at night as some of you veterans-

What do you do about the light from your graphs?  They are a necessity to finding offshore structure or just waypoints, but emit a ton of light!

Jeff

Dim the backlight or change background to blue

[F14A-B]

Excellent work..been awhile since i read anything pertaining to safety. Much appreciated.

Test those pfd's if your going to depend on them, what's the cost of a couple co2 cartridges compared to your life? 

Stay safe Y'all..

[Catt]

Something no one has mentioned & is one of the things I love about night fishing is the sights, sounds, & smells of night fishing.

I've seen meteor showers, a small meteor hit Toledo Bend, owls hunting, Bats by the dozens.

Sounds that'll make ya start the outboard & leave an area!

When ya dead tired & the smell of coffee & bacon fills the air ya get a second wind.

[buzzed bait]

i'm no expert with the thing, but if i'm not mistaken, my lowrance 4x HDI has a "night" operation that is not too very bright at all.  i've also adjusted the backlight brightness because it's nearly blinding in the pitch black when on normal mode.

[whitwolf]

I don't know how I missed this, great work AJ! I honestly have nothing to add as you covered It well. I will repeat what you said about safety. It's a must to know your water well as It's a different animal at night. 

This type of thread Is why Bassresource.com is by far the best bass site on the 'net. Thanks to all who participated!

[flyingmonkie]

Great writeup!

I'm a bit perplexed by the "less moonlight is better" philosophy.  Am I correct in that this is mainly a necessity for stealth, or do you think fish are hungrier when there is no moon?

I ONLY fish during a bright moon.  Most of the water I fish is stained, and I usually stay on shore so boat shadows aren't an issue.

[Bankbeater]

Some good info right here, thanks.

[A-Jay]

8 hours ago, flyingmonkie said:

Great writeup!

I'm a bit perplexed by the "less moonlight is better" philosophy.  Am I correct in that this is mainly a necessity for stealth, or do you think fish are hungrier when there is no moon?

I ONLY fish during a bright moon.  Most of the water I fish is stained, and I usually stay on shore so boat shadows aren't an issue.

I can not say for sure why I don't get nearly as many bites on a bright night as I do on a totally to near moonless night but I do.

My version of the reason is that many of the lakes here have very clear water, so with a big bright moon, the advantage of "Darkness" is all but gone for me.   I can see shallow water cover quite easily, so I can assume the bass can see equally as well also. 

I'd love to be able to catch on the brighter nights as opposed to the pitch black ones but my results make the choice easy for me. 

Moon = no bass.  No Moon = Bass.  So fishing on a full moon is certainly Night Bassing but for me there's less catching. 

Finally - there are still bass to be caught any night.  We catch them on cloudy days so a bright night may be no different.  But just like some days offer better / more favorable conditions than others; same can be true at night.  And a moonless night is one of those for me.

Your results may vary.

A-Jay

[Bluebasser86]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I can not say for sure why I don't get nearly as many bites on a bright night as I do on a totally to near moonless night but I do.

My version of the reason is that many of the lakes here have very clear water, so with a big bright moon, the advantage of "Darkness" is all but gone for me.   I can see shallow water cover quite easily, so I can assume the bass can see equally as well also. 

I'd love to be able to catch on the brighter nights as opposed to the pitch black ones but my results make the choice easy for me. 

Moon = no bass.  No Moon = Bass.  So fishing on a full moon is certainly Night Bassing but for me there's less catching. 

Finally - there are still bass to be caught any night.  We catch them on cloudy days so a bright night may be no different.  But just like some days offer better / more favorable conditions than others; same can be true at night.  And a moonless night is one of those for me.

Your results may vary.

A-Jay

I also prefer darker nights. Full moon nights are extremely difficult for me, but one thing I've noticed is I tend to get at least 1 big bite on bright nights. If I had the option, I'd mainly stick to around half moon to a new moon. 

[Catt]

Three days either side of the full moon I tend to fish deeper offshore structure. 

Around the new moon I'll tend to move shallow.

Unless there's cloud cover, then it's a coin flip!

[Bluebasser86]

17 hours ago, Catt said:

Three days either side of the full moon I tend to fish deeper offshore structure. 

Around the new moon I'll tend to move shallow.

Unless there's cloud cover, then it's a coin flip!

Maybe that's my issue. I tend to stay shallow at night regardless of moon phase. I'll have to try backing off the bank next time and seeing if that helps. I have started sticking to lighter colors during a bright moon and noticed an increase in productivity when I did that, but still way down from darker nights. 

[Catt]

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Maybe that's my issue. I tend to stay shallow at night regardless of moon phase. I'll have to try backing off the bank next time and seeing if that helps. I have started sticking to lighter colors during a bright moon and noticed an increase in productivity when I did that, but still way down from darker nights. 

Is your strengths to fish shallow?

Night is not a good time to experiment in areas ya ain't comfortable with?

Something else to consider is moon rise, right now the moon is up in the afternoon. But on nights when the moon rises after sunset I'll wait until a hour prior to moon rise to be on the water.

Moon set: right now the moon sets before sun up so for the last two nights I've left about an hour after moon set.

[WIGuide]

Very nice write up. I'd be tempted to do some night fishing, but I have to be to work close to the butt crack of dawn or at least it seems that way for me. Maybe I'll give it a shot some weekend that I don't have a tourney!

[A-Jay]

Cool looking Bait

A-Jay

[1simplemann]

AJ, I like the write up. As a kid and a young man I did a lot of LMB fishing at night in a canoe in the private lakes near my house. My absolute favorite way to fish. The fishing's good, the peace n' quiet is refreshing and  you have the whole place to yourself!. So let me ask you a dumb question that I think I already know the answer to. How bout the smallies? Didn't have them where I grew up but out here they are in the river and some of the reservoirs. I've never river bass fished before but may try it. Very challenging walking in the daylight so night fishing may be dangerous but it can be done in certain places.  Then you add the rattlesnake factor. Maybe not such a good idea. However, I recently bought a boat and have a world class SMB fishery 4 1/2  hrs away. I also have a week off in August so the conditions may be right for some night time smallie fishing! Also here is another question that I have no idea about. We didn't have many Pike back home but we had pickeral. I don't recall ever catching a single pickeral at night. Do Pike bite at night? The reservoir I'm going to has some MONSTER Pike. 40-50"s They are so aggressive during the day that can't imagine there isn't a night bite for pike but as I said before I spent a lot of nights on the water when I was younger and can't recall ever catching a pickeral. Pike and pickeral are related so I don't if the same is true for them. How awesome would it be to be walking the dog, listening for the explosion, setting the hook on a 20lb Pike although a 5-6lb smallie would just fine by me! Tight Lines!

[flyfisher]

tonight will be my first foray into night fishing in a few years and i am looking forward to it.  It is an electric only lake which is nice and usually doesn't have many people on it.  I am hoping the clear skies stay and i will be able to limit the use of external lighting.

I'll be sure to post up some pics of my hawgs that i hope to catch

[A-Jay]

On 6/18/2016 at 12:40 PM, 1simplemann said:

AJ, I like the write up. As a kid and a young man I did a lot of LMB fishing at night in a canoe in the private lakes near my house. My absolute favorite way to fish. The fishing's good, the peace n' quiet is refreshing and  you have the whole place to yourself!. So let me ask you a dumb question that I think I already know the answer to. How bout the smallies? Didn't have them where I grew up but out here they are in the river and some of the reservoirs. I've never river bass fished before but may try it. Very challenging walking in the daylight so night fishing may be dangerous but it can be done in certain places.  Then you add the rattlesnake factor. Maybe not such a good idea. However, I recently bought a boat and have a world class SMB fishery 4 1/2  hrs away. I also have a week off in August so the conditions may be right for some night time smallie fishing! Also here is another question that I have no idea about. We didn't have many Pike back home but we had pickeral. I don't recall ever catching a single pickeral at night. Do Pike bite at night? The reservoir I'm going to has some MONSTER Pike. 40-50"s They are so aggressive during the day that can't imagine there isn't a night bite for pike but as I said before I spent a lot of nights on the water when I was younger and can't recall ever catching a pickeral. Pike and pickeral are related so I don't if the same is true for them. How awesome would it be to be walking the dog, listening for the explosion, setting the hook on a 20lb Pike although a 5-6lb smallie would just fine by me! Tight Lines!

Thanks ~

Ok so to answer your questions; At least Half of my night operations are in search of Smallmouth - but never in a river.  Like I mentioned in the OP - "I do not recommend fishing at night on rivers, tidal water or any place with a moderate to heavy current.  It certainly can be done, but Is No Place for a beginner."   Walking the bank at night in & around venomous snakes is not an activity I'd participate in, but hey, that's just me.

Yes Pike bite at night - I've had many a spinner bait crushed & mangled beyond recognition at night.

Good Luck

A-Jay

 

On 6/18/2016 at 1:41 PM, flyfisher said:

tonight will be my first foray into night fishing in a few years and i am looking forward to it.  It is an electric only lake which is nice and usually doesn't have many people on it.  I am hoping the clear skies stay and i will be able to limit the use of external lighting.

I'll be sure to post up some pics of my hawgs that i hope to catch

Good Luck ~  crystal clear nights are often a great time to be out on the water.

And sometimes on the blackest of star lite and flat calm nights, one of my all time favorite scenario's plays out.  It's when the flat calm lake perfectly reflects the black but star light sky on the surface of the water.  When conditions are right it's hard to tell what's up & what's down - always makes me a little dizzy - (I mean more than usual.)

It's very cool.

A-Jay

[1simplemann]

I figured the smallies would bite at night. Just never tried. I'm not about to mess around on the river at night w/ my kayak and since i don't like snakes especially rattler's i don't think I'm gonna mess around w/ hiking down the river at night. That leaves Fort Peck! I just came from there and one morning had a good topwater bite going for northerns and smallies. In my experience the best nite bite has been when it's hot so i started thinking that maybe I should go back in August since i have a week off then. So back to my pike question. Is it a just after dark kinda bite or all through the night bite. I did some research and what i find is that the general consensus is that for the most part they are not night feeders since they feed mostly by sight. Spinnerbait makes sense. They can here it and feel it. Ever catch one on a topwater at night? Generally I throw 2 or 3  baits, a Colorado blade spinnerbait, a buzzbait and/or a walk the dog type bait. The fish are usually bigger and i just love the explosions. A lot of the times your fishing by sound so you really have to pay attention.

[A-Jay]

16 hours ago, 1simplemann said:

So back to my pike question. Is it a just after dark kinda bite or all through the night bite. I did some research and what i find is that the general consensus is that for the most part they are not night feeders since they feed mostly by sight. Spinnerbait makes sense. They can here it and feel it. Ever catch one on a topwater at night? Generally I throw 2 or 3  baits, a Colorado blade spinnerbait, a buzzbait and/or a walk the dog type bait. The fish are usually bigger and i just love the explosions. A lot of the times your fishing by sound so you really have to pay attention.

  Despite not having added any of my results here to The Research, I've caught pike at night. 

They've hit spinnerbaits, jigs and yes even some topwater.  

As sight feeders, night may not be the best time to target them but they are still predators & opportunists  - so strike they do. 

A-Jay