Summertime Bassin
Ahh, summertime has arrived once again here in Florida! You remember last year, don’t you? The temperature was 110 degrees in the shade. Your boat seemed to be melting into a compact little pile of fiberglass, on a lake that looked like ice, with not even a hint of a breeze for the next fifty years. Walking from the bow to the stern was like the initiation into a hot coal walking club. Last but not least, was the jet skier doing circles around your boat, even though he had ten miles of open water to ride with no one around. Why is that anyway? Do bass boats attract the jet skis? Do jet skis really feed upon bass lures? Don’t get me wrong. I’m a proud owner of a jet ski. Now there’s a totally new concept. A bass tournament fisherman who owns a jet ski? It’s not the jet ski, it’s the blank of a blank operating it! OOPS, that’s another article. Are you starting to remember now? With having to fish with these scenarios what can we do during the summer to keep enjoying the great hobby of bass fishing? Your first answer might be to fish early mornings or the late evenings. That’s a viable option on some lakes but remember last year when it was 95 degrees at 9:00 A.M? You must also contend with our lakes getting more and more crowded because others prefer to enjoy the water during those times when the heat is somewhat bearable. So that brings us to the only time left in which to fish with some peace and comfort! NIGHTTIME!
I know, I know. Some of you who have tried night fishing a few times and have had bad experiences refuse to keep trying. It’s a different world out there at night and it takes time and some patience to get accustomed to nighttime bass fishing. The average bass fishermen who say they have tried night fishing and never had any success, are usually the ones who just stayed over a few hours into the darkness from an afternoon trip with those evening jet skiers. Night fishing doesn’t start at dusk. True night fishing, to me, starts around midnight and runs until dawn. That’s right, midnight! While all the other people are beating the lake into a froth, try taking a nice afternoon nap, relaxing around the pool or slip-n-slide, or enjoying your favorite adult beverage. What about that honey do list? Or just hold the couch down until they all decide it’s too dark and head for their own couches. Then you can slip quietly to the lake of your choice and feel somewhat at awe at how serene and peaceful a lake can really be.
I have been night fishing for bass for over thirty years and now I look forward to the summertime with anticipation and excitement. After some time on the water at night you will quickly see the attraction of night fishing. If you have never experienced a five pound bass exploding on a buzz bait right next to the boat with enough force to knock your hat off, spray you with the buzz bait churned water and literately scare you right out of your butt seat, you don’t know what your missing. I have learned through the years that not only will you catch more fish at night, but you will also catch much larger fish as they seem to be less fearful and feed with the aggression of a great white shark.
The lures and techniques of night fishing have come to me through years of experimentation. I use the lures that work for me and try not to get too caught up in the reasons why they work and who cares anyway? If a lure catches fish for you, use it. Why worry if the lure was intended for night fishing or not, or if the books tell you to use other lures. One thing I learned early on is to keep night fishing simple. I could write a thousand pages here for you to fall asleep with by getting into all the technicalities involved in why a bass feeds at night, the moon phases, water clarity, bass biology, etc. But instead, a simple approach to fishing at night seems to match the serenity of the night and the peacefulness of just being there. A few basic lures will keep you awake and the bass testing out your new rod and reel combo. Remember, the bass are not accustomed to you being there after dark and their guard is somewhat diminished. My first lure of choice is a plain old black worm. Nothing fancy, no special brand names, no top secret pokadots, just plain old black. The length of the worm seems to be of little importance. I’ve caught just as many fish on 7 inch worms as I’ve caught on 15 inch worms. In fact, we experimented several nights with monster worms thinking the bigger worms would attract only the largest bass in the pond, but after setting the hook on several 8 inch bass trying to eat the15 inch worms and catching several fish in the 6 pound range on the 7 inch worms, the length of the worms seemed to be of little importance to the bass. Remember, the bass are using mostly two out of three of their senses which enable them to feed at night. The first are the vibrations they sense through their lateral lines, and second is their sense of smell. Sight, their third sense, of coarse, is obstructed by the darkness and the color of the water, whatever that may be. So the worm moving slowly through the water is first picked up by the bass from the vibrations that it is producing. When the fish finds the slow moving lure, the sense of smell takes over and the decision is made rather to eat the critter or just watch it swim by. This is where the fish attractants come into play. Fish attractants will make a huge difference in your nighttime fishing. Never do the various fish perfumes come into play more for me than they do at night. We tried the attractants when they first came out. One of us using the attractants and one of us just using the same bait without the attractants. The numbers were always better while using them, but the most important aspect was the size difference in the catches. The one using the attractants always caught the larger fish. So a plain black worm with a good dose of perfume moving real slow is a great starting point of the night fishing game.
The second lure in the nighttime arsenal that I mentioned earlier is the buzz bait. Boy, talk about a heart stopper in the still of night! When the bass are on this bait you’re in for one of the wildest evenings possible in fishing. Never have I had bass hit a lure so hard than they do on a buzz bait at night. They seem to just hate it at times and eating it is just not enough. They try to destroy it and everything around it. There are thousands of buzz baits on the market and most will work. I tend to stick with a half ounce, gold blade or blades, black skirt. The key to buzzing at night is to move the bait as slow and as steady as possible. Pay close attention to the bait as it nears the boat and vary the speed of retrieve or just stop it four feet or so from the boat and then hang on! They will sometimes follow the bait and explode on it at the last second. I wonder sometimes if they do this just to wake us up or to stress test our hearts.
The last lure in a simple approach to night fishing is the spinner bait. Most night fishermen I talk to seldom use a spinner bait at night. The spinner bait has become my "go to" lure for nighttime bass tournaments. I’ve done well at night on Spinnerbaits for the same reasons that a spinner bait works in the daytime. A spinner bait has two things going for it at night. First, the vibrations will attract bass from long distances at night and, second, the spinner bait is a reaction bait in which the bass doesn’t have the time to consider whether or not to consume it. I use Spinnerbaits specially made for night fishing. They are 1/4 to 1/2 ounce models with black/blue skirts and a single number 5 to 7 Colorado blade in hammered copper or brass. I also incorporate a rattle to the hook to add a little more sound. The same retrieve seems to produce for me as with the buzz bait. Slow and steady, just fast enough to keep the blade turning.
Now that we have the basic lures we need, where do we throw them? I’ve found the weed lines that are relatively close to the shore are the best producers at night. The bass on these type banks are more apt to be on the outer edges feeding because they are limited to the distance in which they can move back deeper into the weeds. Look for weed lines that are adjacent to deep drops. The larger fish that have been out in the deeper water escaping from the daytime heat and pressure tend to move shallow to feed at night. Also try the banks you do well on in the daytime. If they feed there in the daytime you should be in for some great action at night. If you are not in a tournament situation and have a choice of location for night fishing remember my old night fishing saying, " Fish dark water on dark nights and clear water on bright nights."
Now that we have the basic lures and areas in which to fish, how do we approach the area? I will always start with the worm. The quiet entry and no noise retrieve will not spook any fish that you might catch later on the other lures. After I have thoroughly wormed the area I will move to the spinner bait and try to get some of the other fish that didn’t connect to the worm. Finally, go to the cleanup lure, as I call it, the buzz bait. This three stage attack process seems to work the best for me and at times I have caught bass on all three lures in the same areas. Throughout the night you might be able to direct your attention to only one lure if that’s what the bass seem to prefer. Let the bass direct you to the lure of their choice. This simple approach to night fishing will work all summer, but there are many other favorite lures and techniques which have caught bass for many years such as the Jitterbug. Just start out with the basics and work your way up from there. Gain the confidence in night fishing from the basics and then develop a game plan to better suit your style of fishing.
I can’t discuss night fishing without mentioning safety. We have lost many fine fishermen while night fishing just as we have during the daytime. Try to know the body of water you’ll be fishing on and even though your boat will do 80 M.P.H., nighttime is definitely not the time for boat racing. Believe it or not, a bass boat will go slow enough to move around at night safely. A few things to watch out for in particular are the air boats, which are out all night gigging frogs and such, and the docks. With our varying water levels in the natural lakes here in the south, the docks tend to be longer than in some other areas. With a simple approach, some patience, a few precautions, and a little common sense, night fishing hopefully will move you out of the summertime doldrums and into the night fishing bonanza.