Night Fishing

[striker23]

I havent fished at night before but i tried it recently. I used a white colored bleeding jig and worked it in the weeds. I didnt have much success, could i get some tips for night time fishing; Which lures? colors? Any help would be appreciated.

[DaiN0]

DARK colored lures and lures that give off more vibration and displace more water. when its dark out bass cant see as well and use their lateral line to find your bait. Use like 10in worms, jigs with rattles, noisy topwater lures, black spinnerbait with BIG colorado blade

[JimSulli]

I just tried it as well. Beforehand I went to the local bait store. I asked the guy there, he said black, and only black. I bought a black jitterbug, black crippled killer, and black zara. They all worked...but I suggest the jitterbug. The crippled killer is a great morning topwater lure...caught alot the next day. Good luck

[BPoi523433]

when its dark out bass cant see as well and use their lateral line to find your bait

I agree a hundred percent...at night you have to appeal to a bass' other senses...dark topwater lures are a must if you don't want to use live bait...jitter bugs are great ..... i kind of get the impression that the next suggestion isn't very popular but i have caught many 5lb+ bass on Hula Poppers...mine is red & white but im sure a black one would work even better on a more fish populated lake

[dodgeguy]

black clacker buzbaits or jitterbugs work good.big dark 10 inch worms or big jigs work.strike king black rattlin midnight special spinnerbaits work great also.

[KenDammit]

just to be a devils advocate, white buzzbaits will work at night, too. I really crank them up around the edges of plantlife and they work well. Right now my favorite is a strike king junior buzz(I think thats the proper name for it). its white with a 3 blade aluminum prop. Not TOO squeaky, and I'll be getting a black booyah clacker soon to go for more sound, but the white one is my favorite when I need big appearance and not a whole lot of disturbance other than the usual. Caught a two pounder on it friday night on what I thought was a horrible cast. It slammed into the water, the area I was wanting to pull the fish out of wasn't too far in front of it, and low and behold, WHACK!, the fish hit it so hard it was hooked upside down.

[striker23]

ok thanks alot everyone, seems like black bait is the key so ill definetly try that out.

[WTL]

I'm not entirely certain that big and noisy is the key, or at least that the bait has to be big and noisy in order to catch fish at night. I nightfished wilson all saturday night and the only bait that produced (I admit it was nearly the only bait I used) was a 1/4 oz black and charturse hair jig with a very small junebug zoom chunk. Its not a particularly noisy bait, and it is also a little on the small side but it worked on the rock bluffs. Then again, this may just illustrate the contrarian taste of ye ole bass.

[bassthumb32]

Topwater. Be Noisy They Need To Find It. Work Strait Lines So They Dont Miss It As Much.

[PowerBass]

I like a BLACK buzzbait. I am going night fishing in 2 weeks or so, when I have nothing to do the next morn. I have a Lunker Lure 1/4 oz black buzzbait. Great lure, makes tons of noise!

[jordan09]

you should try towater baits at night, because bass are hunting by noise at night.

[KH.]

Keep In Mind They Use Theier Lateralline And Hearing Most At Night Your Not Going To Catch By Drop Shotting A Worm Just Think

ty everyone

[striker23]

oops, forgot to log in, that was me on the last post. Once again, thanks.

[Fish2win]

Guys I hate to disagree but black is absolutly not the only color and just like in the day time topwater has limited applications.

Bass have cones and rods in thier eyes that are capable of seeing both color and black and white. Thier eye's adjust to the dark just like yours only better. In fact if you take into account thier vision, The lateral line that they hear vibrations with and thier inner ear that they hear noise with it would appear that the bass evolved to feed at night.
On really dark nights or in stained water at night black does make a very definable silhouette. In really clear water or on moon lit nights they see colors or shades of gray that will key the strike just like in the day. Overall the best night time colors that I have used over the last 40 years that I have night fished are red or purple. Some of the most productive baits have been Texas rigged worms, short armed drop type spinnerbaits with really hard thumpin blades( the midnight special is one example, hoppys, Stan Sloan also make a good bait and Terminator recently came out with one also) These baits should be tipped with a pork or plastic chunk to slow the fall and add bulk, Rattlin Jerk Baits . Pig and jigs and even crankbaits.
I have seen bright nights when the fish would eat a watermelon red worm up.
Some full moon nights especially in Sept and Oct when you get that big ole harvest moon th fish will react to the moon like the sun. You may find times that the fish will only hit in areas where the trees are shading the moon off the water.
I have caught fish on Spooks, Jitterbugs and buzzbaits at night but only when the bite was inclined to topwater in the day time.
Two Saturday nights ago. Two other guys and myself caught 27 SM on a 5/8 oz short armed single spin with a no 11 uncle josh pork frog as a trailor. The color was black and pink with a black chunk. The blade was a 4,5 colorado with a gold finish. The fish were crushing the bait between 15 and 25 feet deep on main lake rock banks. We were lifting the bait up off the bottom and allowing it to flutter back down. Almost every hit came just as the bait started to fall back.
I dont want to sound like a know it all. In fact there is one absolute rule to fishing for bass. That is that there is no absolute rule. Always keep your mind open. Many nights a purple and chartreuse skirt or a red an purple skirt has turned them on.
Sorry too get so long winded. Night fishing is my passion. I fish at night almost exclusivly from post spawn until mid November. I fish Norris, Dale ,Cherokee or Laurel. Three are very clear lakes. Fish2win

[striker23]

Thanks. The place you fish in Cherokee, are you talking about the big stream that goes through the main part of town?

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by Fish2win

Guys I hate to disagree but black is absolutly not the only color and just like in the day time topwater has limited applications.

Bass have cones and rods in thier eyes that are capable of seeing both color and black and white. Thier eye's adjust to the dark just like yours only better. In fact if you take into account thier vision, The lateral line that they hear vibrations with and thier inner ear that they hear noise with it would appear that the bass evolved to feed at night.
On really dark nights or in stained water at night black does make a very definable silhouette. In really clear water or on moon lit nights they see colors or shades of gray that will key the strike just like in the day. Overall the best night time colors that I have used over the last 40 years that I have night fished are red or purple. Some of the most productive baits have been Texas rigged worms, short armed drop type spinnerbaits with really hard thumpin blades( the midnight special is one example, hoppys, Stan Sloan also make a good bait and Terminator recently came out with one also) These baits should be tipped with a pork or plastic chunk to slow the fall and add bulk, Rattlin Jerk Baits . Pig and jigs and even crankbaits.
I have seen bright nights when the fish would eat a watermelon red worm up.
Some full moon nights especially in Sept and Oct when you get that big ole harvest moon th fish will react to the moon like the sun. You may find times that the fish will only hit in areas where the trees are shading the moon off the water.
I have caught fish on Spooks, Jitterbugs and buzzbaits at night but only when the bite was inclined to topwater in the day time.
Two Saturday nights ago. Two other guys and myself caught 27 SM on a 5/8 oz short armed single spin with a no 11 uncle josh pork frog as a trailor. The color was black and pink with a black chunk. The blade was a 4,5 colorado with a gold finish. The fish were crushing the bait between 15 and 25 feet deep on main lake rock banks. We were lifting the bait up off the bottom and allowing it to flutter back down. Almost every hit came just as the bait started to fall back.
I dont want to sound like a know it all. In fact there is one absolute rule to fishing for bass. That is that there is no absolute rule. Always keep your mind open. Many nights a purple and chartreuse skirt or a red an purple skirt has turned them on.
Sorry too get so long winded. Night fishing is my passion. I fish at night almost exclusivly from post spawn until mid November. I fish Norris, Dale ,Cherokee or Laurel. Three are very clear lakes. Fish2win

Some good points Fish2Win. However it sounds like you were smallie fishing, and they do tend to work deeper, and do have different patterns then the LM's do. So depending on what you are targeting, that should affect more on your slections. Black is my go to color. Not sure that white or anything in between won't work, but Black has always done well for me on the LM's. I don't really fish for any smallies here at night, just not too many around. And the lakes I do fish, really don't have any smallie's in them. I do like the midnight special spinner, and a jitterbug. But realistically any topwater can work, and any other bait for that matter. To me there are lots of reasons to fish at night. First and formost during the smmer, I believe the bass feed more during the night than any other time(all conditions equal of course). There is also a lot lees pressure and traffic to deal with. Plus it's a great time to fish, anytime, and some folks can only fish at night, plus a gazillion others. Make sure to get some Black Lites, and Flourescent line. The bast part usually about topwater fishing at night is hearing the blowups Unless of course it's about 2-3 feet from the boat

Lizards

[PowerBass]

I love the noise of the blow ups!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fish2win]

Thanks. The place you fish in Cherokee, are you talking about the big stream that goes through the main part of town?Today 03:49 AM

Stryker, I was referring to Cherokee Lake in East Tennessee. It is between Knoxville and Kingsort. The dam is near Jefferson City. Sorry to confuse you. The indian reservation at Cherokee NC does have a good trout fishery.I do some troput fishing in the Clinch River but have never trout fished in NC.I live on Norris and the other lakes I mentioned are with in an hours drive of my home. Fish2win

[KH.]

What Works For Me Is A Bleeding Buzzbait From Strike King
The Thing Thats So Special About This Buzzbait Is
That On The Blades It Holes In This Makes Its Really Loud
I Also Like The Buzzbaits That Have Two Blades Thier Really
Loud Too

[striker23]

i love strike king's bleeding baits, so ill have to get that one and try it out at night. Fish2win i thought you meant Cherokee, NC, i dont think there are many bass there, but i do know as you said, that the trout fishing is great there.

[1FASTLASER]

When I lived in pa. I fished in a club that fished 75% of there touneys at night so I have had quite a bit experience fishin at night. When its dark (no moon) or very little light everyone would throw dark mainly black topwaters,spinnerbaits,jigs etc.. When the moon was up or very light we would throw white and have better results. It didnt matter what lake we fished we always followed the same color schemes. We would always use lures that gave off more vibes but always got better results following the dark night darke lure light night white lure technique.

On real bright night when the fish are fairly shallow(less than 10 feet) I have caught LM on a red and white spinnerbait with a red and white pork trailor. last night I was catching SM 15 to 20 feet with a red and black with a black pork trailor.The weirdest deal I have seen was once we caught a bunch of walleye at night cranking a shad colored shad rap on a dark moon.You would think that light gray would be impossible for a walleye to see in the dark.
The spinnerbaits that I use at night I make myself to get exactly what I want. The blade arm is very short( about 2 1/2 inches) and the blade is either a 4.5 or 5. The best blades I have found for night are Ultra Vibes, Pickens or the Terminator Tortise shell shaped blades. Some nights they want black blades some night gold or chrome. The whole key is the vibration 1st and then the color or visability.Since colors are the reflection of light I am sure that what we are seeing and what the bass are seeing are two different things. I believe it is actually shades if black, white of gray to the fish at night.
The type spinnerbait that I throw is very common in East Tennessee. East Kentucky and North Ala.There are dozens of variations and most everybody that I know that is a real hard core nocturnal fisherman makes there own.In real clear water on a full moon night I believe that the flash of the blade actually hurts your hook up percentage. The fish will hit the blade instead of the skirt. There is a guy in Dalton Ga that makes a drop bait that had the hook on the blade arm.If anybody is interested he makes them under the name Pro Lures.
The lakes here in the mountains are deep and clear. The night time topwater bite is short lived in the late sping and early summer. I night fish all the way up into December.The night bite for SM is great in Oct, Nov and Dec. They are shallow at night and will kill the blade baits.
Like I said before. The only absolute to bass fishing is that there is no absolute. Fish2win

[Fish2win]

Sorry guys I was not logged in. I am at work and was logged in at home. 1fastlaser. That pic sure does look like a Bullet. I take it buy your name that it is a Laser. Nice boat.

[shaft04092]

how well do you think a black and white torpedo lure worl at night on a small river that is known to have both small and large mouths in it