Night Fishing For Summer Bass

Monday, August 12, 2013 , , 3 Comments


Night fishing for summer bass can be a highly productive, albeit underutilized tactic in an anglers belt. In fact, In-Fisherman's Critical Concepts Largemouth Bass, notes that upwards of 90% of all feeding takes place at night during the summer heat. However, most bass fisherman rarely fish at night. This is unfortunate, if you are not fishing for bass at night you are missing out on a lot of fish. Starting at dusk fish will often be in shallow water near cover, as the dusk turns to night fish tend to move deeper towards the edge of structures. I have noticed from personal experience that the dusk bite extends about 30 min after sunset then slows, at which point I tend to adjust towards deeper structure. In-Fisherman provides a great diagram of typical movements below: 






























The three most common dusk patterns for me are jigs, topwater, and finesse plastics. Again I notice
dusk patterns continue 30 min after sunset. As dusk moves to night, silence becomes my mantra, particularly if the water is flat and calm. Swimbaits are my go to lure. I impart little additional action and simply cast, reach the appropriate depth, and slowly retrieve. I may also use large texas rigged style worms. For color, darker is better. Black, dark blue, and dark purple all work great. If the water is choppy I may add a little vibration in my approach either with a crank bait (rattleless) or a spinnerbait. In fact a few years ago I had an awesome night fishing La Cygne in some fierce wind using spinnerbaits on deep fallen timber. 

Last week I went out about 45 minutes before sunset and stayed until midnight. I caught a few bass for sure, here are my results: 

Dusk:

 I started the evening throwing Texas Rigs. 


Another on the T-Rig Worm. 


As it got darker I moved to the Jitterbug, black of course for color. 


Few lures are as enjoyable to fish as the jitterbug, while I managed to catch two that night, I had an additional 3 strikes which failed to connect but resulted in the jitterbug being thrown violently into air. Tons of fun! 



Night: 

As dusk transitioned into night I switched entirely to swim baits, catching 4 more. 





Since it was particularly weedy at the lake I was fishing I texas rigged my swimbaits rather than the traditional method with the hook exposed. 






3 Comments:

Awesome catch---under the lights can be deadly also--thanks for sharing

Atlas said...

Thank you Bill and yes under the lights can make for an awesome night as well.

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