This is a true or false question. but i would kind of like a reason for your answer....

Only dark colors while fishing at night. true or false.

is black the color to fish at night???

The Radio Guy

:-/Well, black is a good colour to use at night, i wouldn't limit yourself to that one colour...but its good to start with. A lot of the fish you will catch at night found your bait through feel. They didn't necessarily see it. They used there lateral line, and even hearing to find it. Using live bait at night is what i use and i recommend it to. A leach at night will work well. But also if you go with a brighter colour at night, it might work well to. So its hard to say. I flashy spoon might work well, but theres no light to give it that "flash"........so whats the point. I would go live, or black if i were going fishing at night. If the fishing was slow with those colours i would use a bright green or bright orange bait. Its hard to say which one works better because the fish will hit different lures depending on ALL the conditions, not just because its dark out. So do whatever is working at the time, and record the weather conditions so you know next time what will probably work better, and you don't waste anytime fishing...... ::)speaking of night fishing, its a great 10 degrees here....see ya later!  

The theory behind dark colors at night as I understand it, is since the fish is underwater looking up toward the surface, the darker colors make a more definite silhouette against the surface. While I have no science to back it up, it makes sense to me, and I have always used darker colors in lower light conditions such as night.

In July and August I fish for big smallies a lot at night. Everyone around here does. There is a night tourney most every weekend at Deep Creek Lake here in MD at night. I tend to use darker for the topwaters as in, maroon or black for baits like spooks or jitterbugs. I also use a short armed spinnerbait that is black with a huge Colorado blade. As far as my gitzits, which seem to be the  best producers at night for smallies, I use black or junebug most of the time but, I have caught them on light colors as well, like smoke purple. I always insert a rattle in my tubes at night. I also usually move up to a big 4" Salty Tube. I think slowing way down and adding a little noise and thump is more important than color at night. JMO.  

I think conventional wisdom would say "yes" to dark colors especially black.

Yet as we all know bass will often change the rules.

One of most memorable nights of fishing was with a white swamp donkey (hollow body frog)

I forget the exact figures but I caught a pretty good number of bass all in the 2 to 7 lb range with most being in the 4-6 lb class.

I never fished a different bait the entire night.  the bite on the white frog was steady and the bigguns were lovin it.

Oh thats right, i also forgot to mention tubes at night work really well on smallie's and largie's. I use a white tube, and i break up alka seltzer tablets. I stick the chunks of anti acid into the front of the tube and close it with a piece of a cotton ball. The water hits the alka and the tube fizzes. It works best at night because like justfishin said, noise is what makes the difference at night.

Thanks for the info guys, I fish on rivers mostly at night, bit I think most of what you all told me will work well, I'll give them all a try, what else am Ii going to do at 12AM under the beautiful Missouri Ozarks Sky?

The Radio Guy

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. Bass can see color but not at night, color it's self is meaningless at night. 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. If you fish water where shad or minnows are the predominate prey species, then try white spinners with a white grub. The usual night time favorite black is the second choice in shad populated lakes. Black or dark hued lures give maximum contrast at night when run on or near the surface. Under water vision for the bass is reduced at night, so use lures that are a little larger. Slow retrieves work better because it lets the bass locate the lure easier and zero in on it.

I agree with Catt 100 %.

I use the same colors at night as during the day.  Even then, color isn't of much importance to me.  HUE is the main factor.  Light or dark but natural either way.

Everybody has got the right idea.  Go dark and get plenty of water displacement.

Thanks for the info guys, I fish on rivers mostly at night, bit I think most of what you all told me will work well, I'll give them all a try, what else am Ii going to do at 12AM under the beautiful Missouri Ozarks Sky?

The Radio Guy

Tend the sheep ?  :

Ok here is one I have thought about quite a bit the last year or so.

Contrast is the key as far as sight oriented feeding at night right? I understand water displacement, and noise/ vibration and all of that, but I want to talk about sight oriented feeding.

From a basses perspective looking up, a dark colored bait silhouettes very very well against whatever moon/star/artificial light there might be. Ok so topwaters, spinnerbaits, cranks, all of those surface to mid column baits seem perfect in black or junebug or whatever very dark color you so desire.

Now a bait presented along the bottom i.e. bass looking down from above. Without the ability to look towards whatever light source the fish has available, the ability to get a solid silhouette of the bait is almost wholly lost with a dark bait that blends into the bottom, assuming you are fishing a rock/silt/vegetation type bottom that is at least brown, gray, or even darker. This is where contrast comes back into play. In a bottom such as this, which is all that I really fish in, wouldn't something blazing white offer the fish the most contrast? It will reflect more of the available light back toward the fish. It seems to me, logically speaking, that with most bottom makeups around, white offers much better sight feeding appeal to fish.

That is why all my soft plastic night baits are black ;D

The lures I have found to be most productive:

Gene Larew 7 ½ ring worm black neon with a clear tail that has silver glitter in the tail.

Gene Larew 7 ½ ring worm camouflage,

Gene Larew 7 ½ ring worm Junebug/blue tail.

Gene Larew 7 ½ ring worm black/blue tail,

Gene Larew 7 ½ ring worm grape big red.

And Renegade 6 hook tail black/silver glitter.

I also use these colors in 10 worms, 4 craw worms, 6 craw worms & Baby Brush Hogs but I will use other colors if these don't produce. Never limit yourself when it comes to colors, sizes, or shapes, some nights I have had to change baits regularly to get bit

I've always heard bass feed more with their latteral line and 30x stronger sense of smell at night. Dark colors by far have been more productive for me and everyone I've fished with. black blades,black buzzbaits,black torpedo's,black poppers,and black jitterbugs would be the most productive in my time of fishing. The 10" worms gets alot of play out here in Cali but I've yet to put time in on it.

Fluke has a good tip. If he is torn between colors, simply hold them up using the dark sky as a backround and go with the one with a more defined sillouette.

The original question, however, is ONLY dasrk colors at night. Treu or false.

FALSE, they can all work

There are lots of variables, color is just one and to me, at night, it's the least important.  Which lure and how and where you are using it is much more important TO ME.

In other words, If you aren't sitting in 20 ft, throwing up onto the flat, color won't matter because you aren't where the fish are.  Much more importaqnt variables to work out before color comes into play.

PS- Night baits don't have to be loud or big.  "Subtle" also works at night.

Ring Rascal has a color called Starry Night; it is dark smoke on top, clear smoke on the bottom with lots of silver glitter in the clear. This goes against every thing you hear about night fishing, but it's a killer.

One of my largest (5-28.5 lbs) stringers was caught at night in 18' of water on a Wal-Mart Renegade 6 curl tail worm black with silver dust.

Darkness covers up an angler's presence and most of all his mistakes Doug Hannon

My experiences would have me disagreeing with Doug.  In our super clear lake, the larger class fish are very attentively weary.  They earned their size.  These fish are frequenting places at night that they know better than to go to during the day with birds of prey around and such.

When these fish get in areas like a flat, a place you won't find then during the daylight hours, they are very skittish.  They are feeding, granted, but they tend to be more aware, I would assume from years of knowing that the flat is a danger zone 50% of the time.

Stealth appraoches to key areas is a must on our lake at night.  This is where "subtle" baits, especially if you insist on a topwater, can really be the cats meow.